Transfernale 2023 celebrates successful conclusion

Braunschweig, May 05, 2023.
Over eight days and at eight locations, Innovationsgesellschaft Technische Universität Braunschweig mbH (iTUBS) and Allianz für die Region GmbH celebrated the debut of the Transfernale – the largest innovation festival in south-eastern Lower Saxony.
From April 24 to May 4, 2023, the focus was on knowledge and technology transfer in the context of the automotive and supplier industry in order to enable players from science and industry to engage in a practice-oriented exchange and promote cooperation potential.
The highlight of the eight-day event was the Transfinale with around 140 guests – including representatives from politics, science and business – at the Lilienthalhaus at Braunschweig Research Airport.

From the transformation of the automotive industry at the Open Hybrid LabFactory (OHLF) in Wolfsburg, to digital agriculture and agricultural technology in Königslutter and an impressive visit to the steelworks of Peiner Träger GmbH – the start of the Transfernale had a lot to offer the 600 participants at the various stages.
Initiator and co-organizer Eduard Klein, Managing Director of iTUBS, sums up: “With the Transfinale here at the research airport, which is emblematic of our Braunschweig-Wolfsburg research region, we have achieved our goal of creating new synergies between science and the specialist departments and the operational level. I am delighted with the popularity of this innovative event format. In order to meet the transformation of the automotive industry in a forward-looking way, it is highly relevant to strengthen cooperation between research institutes and regional companies. I am convinced that, together with Allianz für die Region GmbH, we have succeeded in doing this with this innovative format. I would like to thank all the speakers, organizers and partners who made the Transfernale possible in the first place.”

During the finale on May 4, 2023, the participants came together in a festive atmosphere in the Lilienthalhaus to review the individual stages and gain insights into the world of transformation through the presentations by Prof. Dr. Helena Wisbert (Director CAR Center Automotive Research) and Michael Gensicke (Managing Director Robert Bosch Elektronik GmbH).
Lower Saxony’s Minister for Science and Culture, Falko Mohrs, addressed the audience in a video message and praised the Transfernale as a successful example of the networking of innovation locations in Lower Saxony: “In the end, it’s about how we manage to bring together the universities, as one place of innovation, with the companies, as a second place of innovation, with all other partners, and that we manage to ensure that what is created in people’s minds also ends up as innovations in reality. And you have once again demonstrated this wonderfully with the Transfernale, and really across the board […].”

Braunschweig’s Lord Mayor, Dr. Thorsten Kornblum, did not miss out on the spectacle either: “It was a fantastic event, a truly unique format that is unparalleled – even nationwide. It shows what innovative strength and power we have for this really tough and challenging transformation process in this region and what good ideas and opportunities are available to bring them directly to the streets. And the whole thing culminated today in the grand finale and I think everyone sensed the momentum that is being developed here and now things are really taking off,” he commented afterwards.

The series of events combined the various specialist disciplines, ranging from the vehicle industry, digitalization & robotics, digital agriculture & agricultural engineering, intelligent logistics, systems engineering, hydrogen & batteries, software & AI and intelligent and connected driving. The individual stages, which were opened in the Open Hybrid LabFactory and with welcoming words from Wolfsburg’s Lord Mayor Dennis Weilmann, were always linked to specialist presentations by high-ranking speakers and practical tours of institutes, (real) laboratories and highly innovative technology facilities. The transfers at the institutes of TU Braunschweig, TU Clausthal, Ostfalia University and at Peiner Träger GmbH, ASAP Engineering GmbH or the Wasserstoff Campus Salzgitter, among others, clearly exceeded the organizers’ expectations: “The Transfernale confirmed our assumption that specialists, managers and scientists must increasingly pull together against the background of the fundamental change in the mobility industry. There is a great need for such interdisciplinary exchange formats that focus on the key technologies of the coming years,” said Thomas Ahlswede-Brech, Program Manager Economy and Mobility at Allianz für die Region GmbH. Overall, the organizers can look back on two great weeks with exciting impulses, so that the format definitely has the potential for a second edition in the future due to the strong popularity in the region.

Press contacts
Innovationsgesellschaft Technische Universität Braunschweig mbH
Marketing & Communication | presse@itubs.de

Allianz für die Region GmbH | Press Officer | Sibille Rosinski
Tel.: 0531 1218-154 | Fax: 0531 1218-124
Mobile: 0173 5406110 | E-Mail: sibille.rosinski@allianz-fuer-die-region.de