Our services

We take companies to the next level and make them fit for the future. Discover our programmes and formats.

Growth through innovation and transformation

We teach innovation skills, develop prototypes and thus strengthen companies and the economy - together with visionary players in Hamburg's creative industries. Our programmes create new ideas, products, processes, business models and work cultures. Here you will find an overview of our services for companies from the economy.

Innovative Produkte, Prozesse & Services

Produkte, Prozesse und Dienstleistungen, die Märkte erobern: Wir helfen Unternehmen dabei, ihre Angebote auf den Prüfstand zu stellen und neue Ideen zu entwickeln, zu testen und zu validieren.

Strategy & business model development

Standing still is not an option. We help companies to develop sustainable strategies and transform business models.

Work & innovation culture

Innovation is a mindset: We help companies to establish agile, creative ways of working and a culture of innovation that are the basis for long-term success.

Contact persons

Bruno Marks
Partner Manager Cross Innovation Hub
040 2372435-85

Kurzbiografie

Nicole Wittek is responsible for cooperation and partner management at the Cross Innovation Hub and is the point of contact for all companies and organisations that want to find out more about the potential of cross innovation with creative experts and are interested in working together.

She studied Cultural Studies, Media Studies and Business Administration at the University of Regensburg. There she played a key role in the development and management of the inner-city creative centre and helped to establish the area of cultural and creative industries promotion. Most recently, she worked in an interdisciplinary office for urban development, where she designed co-creative formats and implemented them in projects for city centre development and mobility.

Nicole has been voluntarily organising projects at the interface of culture, (creative) economy and urban development for over ten years and is a founding and board member of the association obenstadt e.V., which promotes multifunctional roof uses, and is co-initiator of the Hamburg Roof Days.

Sebastian Metcalfe
Partner and programme manager Cross Innovation Hub
040 2372435-98

Kurzbiografie

Sebastian works in both partner and programme management at the Cross Innovation Hub. He is the point of contact for companies that want to turn their challenges into creative innovation projects (partner management), while at the same time actively helping to shape the content and methodology of the programmes (programme management). Through this dual function, he ensures that the needs of the companies flow directly into the creative processes - a win-win situation for everyone involved.

After training as a media designer for image & sound, Sebastian completed his degree in Media & Information (Dipl.) at HAW Hamburg. His professional experience includes working as a software trainer at Apple and as a senior producer at a digital agency for YouTube formats.

From our practice

Spiegelberg: Cost-efficient medical device with brand language

In the Cross Innovation Lab, Spiegelberg utilised creative collaboration to redesign and innovate a standard product in the regulated medical technology market.

Hamburg Aviation: FAIRcraft - the recyclable aircraft cabin

The cluster organisation Hamburg Aviation sent an interdisciplinary team to the Cross Innovation Lab to develop a research concept for the production of recyclable aircraft cabins.

GEA: Digitalisation through a smart valve

As the world's leading system provider, GEA developed an AR prototype in the Cross Innovation Lab to facilitate the maintenance of its products.

BWI: Design manual for better construction sites

Retailers bring a neighbourhood to life - but their brick-and-mortar business model is susceptible to change. In three Hamburg neighbourhoods, the Cross Innovation Hub has brought together local communities of interest with creatives to find solutions to individual challenges - including in Osterstraße.

KLIMAready: Rethinking the business park

How does a business park become climate-ready? The Cross Innovation Lab x KLIMAready uses the example of Allermöhe to show how CO₂-neutral solutions are created across sectors.

PALETTEN-SERVICE Hamburg: Making logistics more sustainable

In the Cross Innovation Class, interdisciplinary student teams developed solutions on the topic of circular cities. The company PALETTEN-SERVICE Hamburg developed a wooden pallet that is truly recyclable.

BKK VBU/Carlsen Verlag/Maiborn Wolff: The future of health

As part of Content Foresight, BKK VBU, Carlsen Verlag and MaibornWolff developed an animal avatar that playfully motivates children to exercise more.

Hamburg-Nord District Office: Cultural change in the authority

The digital transformation goes hand in hand with a change in working culture: a new vision and over 140 measures for future collaboration have been developed in a cross-innovation process lasting several months that was developed specifically for the Hamburg-Nord district office.

ACO Group: Making rainwater clean and usable

In the Cross Innovation Class, interdisciplinary student teams developed solutions for circular cities.

DESY: Charge for Change

In the Cross Innovation Lab 2024, researchers from the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY and HAW Hamburg joined forces with creative experts to combine basic research with creative approaches for the first time. The result: an oasis that combines research, education and spending time in public spaces.