“HHIS goes virtual” was the motto of the Hamburg Innovation Summit 2020. Every year, the summit brings together visionaries, entrepreneurs, and those who shape the future to strengthen Hamburg as a location for innovation.  Over 800 attendees from all over Germany, Austria, and Switzerland met here for the first time digitally and not personally. ZAL GmbH was also present and delivered two exciting online presentations on innovation and scientific diversity.

Niels Hennemann, Innovation Manager at ZAL GmbH, presented the in-house innovation service in his session. This service supports partner companies in developing products: The whole service ranges from structured needs analysis, to brainstorming, to the creation of a “prototype”.  The methods are supported by the benefits offered by the ZAL environment, such as technical expertise, specialist laboratories, and an industrial network.

Dr. Thorsten Scharowsky, head of the Technical Domain “Advanced Materials”, talked in the second session about the question of how to create multidisciplinary synergies: an exciting topic that is becoming increasingly relevant due to more and more complex products and needs. When applied correctly, cross-disciplinary networking can save valuable resources such as time, work, or material. A best practice example directly from ZAL: the combination of additive manufacturing with robotics and artificial intelligence.