Why ePIcenter? – Logistics Initiative Hamburg

As an innovation cluster organisation, the Logistics Initiative Hamburg thinks and acts in networks. The ever-increasing and irreversible complexity of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous future world makes it impossible to tackle future challenges alone.

Collaboration is key. This is what drives us and what we stand for with our network. With more than 500 member companies and institutions from the Hamburg metropolitan region and beyond, the Logistics Initiative Hamburg public-private partnership is the largest location network in the logistics industry in Europe.

ePIcenter – Connecting the dots on a strategic and holistic level

The Logistics Initiative Hamburg represents the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg as one of Europe’s major port and logistics hub within the ePIcenter project. With our network partners in the region, we are active in numerous innovation projects covering topics from Blockchain in supply chains (like in our HANSEBLOC project) over autonomous shipping (like in our AVATAR project), drones (like in our Medifly project) to intelligent transport systems and services, by running Hamburg’s ITS Network-Management-Office.

The ePIcenter project offers us the opportunity to transfer our know-how and experience from such projects, as well as from the innovation activities of our network of over 550 members, into a global and strategic context. EPIcenter, with its 36 partners from 18 countries, is itself a powerful network of key players and port locations and allows us to collaborate at a strategic level on innovation solutions beyond our own region, learning from international good practices.

Building bridges

The ePIcenter project also fosters connecting and aligning the port innovation activities between the ports of Antwerp, Hamburg, Duisburg, Algeciras and Montreal, which are all part of the project. One specific goal of the Logistics Initiative Hamburg is to better link the regional innovation ecosystems, such as our Digital Hub Logistics Hamburg, with each other and thus build innovation bridges between the port regions and their start-ups.

Relevance of resilience and sustainability for futureproof global supply chains

Last but not least, last year's covid 19 pandemic outbreak painfully demonstrated and continues to demonstrate the importance of resilience and flexibility in global transport and supply chains. It is also undisputed that we need to make them much more sustainable at the same time and quickly. Individual events such as the recent blockade of the Suez Canal also show how quickly global supply chains can become unbalanced and have a global impact.

The ePIcenter project is trying to improve all of this and show ways in which the future of global supply chains and ports can be made future-proof. We at Logistics Initiative Hamburg are happy to play a role in that!

The Logistics Initiative Hamburg plays a supporting role in the project by involving external stakeholders, critically examining developed toolsets with regard to their applicability and market acceptance, supporting the dissemination of project results and sharing its experience and knowledge from current and completed innovation projects with the project partners.

Thomas Brauner, Project Manager Innovation at Logistics Initiative Hamburg