In late October, a consortium of academic and private organizations from across Germany met in Stuttgart to begin planning activities that will promote scientific research, technology development, and multidisciplinary collaboration across the culture and creative industries. Called Innovation by Creative Economy (ICE), the consortium is one of 50 partners that were selected to join EIT Culture & Creativity, an EU-wide Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) announced by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) in late June.
Nov 10, 2022
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EIT Culture & Creativity is the newest of nine European KIC’s, which work strategically to promote the development of new products and services, new companies, and training opportunities in domains that are important for European economic development. Other KIC’s are active, for example, in fields such as digital, energy, mobility, or food.
ICE was founded through the collaboration of arts, culture, and business organizations across Germany, including the Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg (MSC). Launched in 2018 by the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) together with the Hochschule der Medien and Center for Art and Media (ZKM), the MSC facilitates collaboration among artists, cultural organizations, scientists, technologists, and industry in order to open new creative synergies.
The acceptance of ICE into the EIT Culture & Creativity general assembly means that the Media Solution Center, including HLRS, will contribute to the development of this exciting new initiative at the national and EU levels. Matthias Hauser, General Manager of the Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg (MSC), is a co-chair within ICE, serving as chairman of a European platform called The Next Renaissance.
As a founding partner of the Media Solution Center, the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart is the only European supercomputing center participating in EIT Culture & Creativity.
As Hauser explained, the adoption of the ICE consortium into the EIT Culture & Creativity is an affirmation of the Media Solution Center’s mission. “Our position has been that facilitating dialogue among artists and scientists — particularly in fields such as high-performance computing, data analytics, and visualization — holds great untapped potential for creativity and cultural development,” he said. “As co-chair of ICE, we look forward to bringing this perspective to a wider discussion of the evolution of European culture and creative industries in the coming decades.”
EIT Culture & Creativity aims to support companies and organizations within the cultural and creative sectors and industries (CCSI), and to enable them to develop innovative solutions to complex problems. By bringing together leading cultural organizations, universities, and private companies, the KIC will close regional innovation gaps and promote the ability of these sectors to contribute to economic prosperity, create jobs, and support the development of Europe’s cultural leadership.
In addition, the KIC will make systematic investments in CCSI in order to expand innovation networks on the local, regional, national, and EU levels; remove barriers facing certain sectors and disciplines; and cultivate entrepreneurial capabilities in the next generation of innovators.
Within this framework, the consortium Innovation by Creative Economy will serve as a national platform for the integration of education, research, and business for the creative industries in Germany.
Other members of ICE include the Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH (WRS GmbH), Hamburg Kreativ Gesellschaft, Bayern Innovativ, TU Dresden, RWTH Aachen, b-tu Technische Universität Brandenburg, and Angel Engine.
Membership in EIT Culture & Creativity not only gives the ICE consortium members, including the Media Solution Center, a voice in the strategic vision of the new Knowledge and Innovation Community, but also makes them eligible for grant funding that will be made available to promote the KIC’s goals.
In addition, the participation of the Media Solution Center and the WRS GmbH in ICE will ensure that creative communities and developers of technical products for the cultural and creative industries in Baden-Württemberg can be represented in discussions about the creative sector at the European level.
The Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg is a membership organization funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and Art. Membership is open to any organization engaged at the intersection of the arts, culture, and science.
— Christopher Williams
