“The liaison officers’ visit is an opportunity to show why Heilbronn is an excellent location for TUM to combine management and digital technologies in a region that is home to many global market leaders,” explains Prof Dr Helmut Krcmar, Founding Dean and Delegate Officer of the President for the Overall Development of the TUM Campus Heilbronn. “We are very international. We have the Global Technology Forum, in which we pool research areas with other leading universities such as Oxford University, Stanford University and HEC in Paris. This provides us with a rich intellectual environment for interaction, not only within the entire TUM family, but also worldwide.” Daniel Gottschald, Managing Director of TUM Campus Heilbronn gGmbH, is also convinced: “Passing on the symbolic calling card of the TUM Campus Heilbronn to the liaison officers has a catalyzing effect for our global collaborations. They should learn about the lighthouse projects that we are setting up here. Be it Erasmus Cafés or our Europe Week in June – but above all the cooperation with the region’s global hidden champions, who also benefit from TUM’s international network. This allows us to utilize synergies on all sides.”

As an outstanding center for the interlinking of management, digital technologies, family businesses and sustainability, the TUM Campus Heilbronn has been setting standards in the academic world for five years. The development of a future-oriented ‘design mindset’, i.e. a way of thinking that aims to solve problems creatively and with a focus on user-centered and iterative development, is essential for this.

Building bridges on all continents

Unlike TUM’s global branches, the Liaison Officers are networkers and make a decisive contribution to the visibility of TUM worldwide. In this role, they strengthen partnerships, build networks and promote exchange between TUM and academic and institutional partners. They create the basis for sustainable, cross-border cooperation. As the example of Liaison Officer Tim Brombosch from San Francisco shows, this also includes contacts with bilateral chambers of commerce, the German Consulate General, the German-American Academic Exchange Service and the German House of Science and Innovation in San Francisco.

Sören Metz, Liaison Officer for Latin America, appreciates the insights into the development of regional ecosystems at the TUM Campus Heilbronn: “Ecosystems like the one in Heilbronn are unique in relation to the size of the city and the district. How educational institutions, companies, civil society, organizations and administrations work together here is interesting for us in Latin America. Both sides benefit from cooperation.”

Next stop: Mumbai

In Mumbai, India, Senior Regional Manager and Liaison Officer Mohaa Vyas is active on behalf of TUM. She brings together experienced TUM researchers for professional exchange and places them at international events in India. She supports Indo-German projects and initiatives with specific organizational questions and in the search for suitable contact persons. Last but not least, she builds a network for TUM and helps to disseminate scientific findings to Indian society. “It is advantageous to know that the TUM Campus Heilbronn has special expertise in topics such as digital transformation, family businesses and artificial intelligence, which are very relevant in India. The Heilbronn region is an attractive place for students to gain a foothold in the SME sector after graduation,” she explains. 

“Globally networked – rooted in the region, a real laboratory and pilot campus for numerous bold projects relating to the relevant focal points of the local TUM location.” The liaison officers will take these impressions back to their home countries: “We will visit them there and soon start networking with concrete ideas for cooperation,” Daniel Gottschald is certain.