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Innovative products, processes…

Innovative products, processes & services

Products, processes and services that conquer markets: We help companies put their offerings to the test and develop, test and validate new ideas.

Innovation is the key to success - especially when it comes to developing new products and services. In our formats for innovative products and services, we support companies in scrutinising outdated offerings and developing, testing and validating new ideas. By collaborating with experts from various disciplines and using the latest technologies, we create prototypes that set new standards and fulfil market requirements at the same time. We guide companies through a structured innovation process that delivers fast, tangible results - from the idea to the market launch.

Suitable formats

Cross Innovation Lab

Current challenges and trends require entrepreneurial transformations. In the Cross Innovation Lab, new processes, services or product innovations for your company are initiated at an early stage.

Foresight formats

The future doesn't just happen - it can be systematically developed. With our foresight formats, we support companies in recognising relevant trends and uncertainties at an early stage, developing future scenarios and deriving…

Cross Innovation Class

In the Cross Innovation Class, students from various disciplines design innovative prototypes for your company. The focus: sustainable innovations.

Attack Your Product

We scrutinise products and services that have become outdated and radically rethink them.

Not the right one?

As a pioneer in the field of cross innovation with creatives, we offer standardised formats as well as individually tailored offers. Depending on your objectives and challenges, we will design a tailor-made programme or package for you.

Talk to us!

Contact persons

Nicole Wittek
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 the practice

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.

tesa: Modular rail system for drill-free fastening

With "ModRail", the student team in the Cross Innovation Class developed an intelligent, drill-free solution for the company tesa for the flexible and wall-friendly attachment of shelves and hooks.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ACO: How a smart water storage tank defies Hamburg's extreme weather

In the Cross Innovation Class, a team of students developed a smart water storage tank together with ACO.

Remondis: automatic waste separation through artificial intelligence

In the Cross Innovation Class, interdisciplinary teams of students developed solutions for the Smart City.

Innovative products, processes & services - Photo by cottonbro studio from Pexels

Kuehne + Nagel: Service innovation for general cargo shipments

In the Cross Innovation Class, a team of students worked with Kühne + Nagel to develop a service portal for general cargo deliveries.

Becken Holding: Sustainable usage behaviour in offices

In the Cross Innovation Class, a team of students worked with Becken Holding to develop a solution to promote sustainable usage behaviour in office buildings.

Jungheinrich: A new prototyping culture

In the Cross Innovation Lab, Jungheinrich promoted its culture of innovation with interdisciplinary teams and optimised collaboration.

Albis & Drägerwerk: The hospital room of the future

In the Cross Innovation Lab, plastics manufacturer Albis Plastic and medical technology manufacturer Drägerwerk utilised open-ended processes to develop the hospital room of the future.

NDR: Get out of your own silo

Employees took away the idea for a "New Work Day" from the pop-up office.

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.