The network

In the year 2001, companies of Hamburg’s aviation industry, industry associations and institutions, universities and public authorities founded the industry initiative “Hamburg – The place for aviation“. With its strategy to take aviation to a new level of efficiency, comfort, reliability and flexibility, the Aviation Cluster of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region was named winner the federal government’s excellence cluster competition 2008. Its pioneering projects are supported by 40 million euros of federal funds.

Main activities

Their mutual goal is to develop and present Hamburg on a national and international scale as one of the world's leading locations for civil aviation with bright prospects for both companies and employees. As the place for aviation, Hamburg bundles the entire added-value-chain in aircraft construction with currently employing a staff of 36,000 in the booming industry. Its integrated strategy to make aviation more economical, ecologically sound, comfortable, reliable and flexible made the Aviation Cluster of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region a winner of the Federal Government’s cross-sector competition of industry clusters in September 2008. The Federal Government will provide long-term support for the development of the competence centre, “A New Kind of Aviation”. Hamburg - The place for aviation is a member of Kompetenznetze Deutschland, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

The technological focus

Hamburg as the place for aviation is Germany's number one, Europe's number two and the world's number three location of the civil aviation industry. Shaped by a 100-year history, it provides employment for 36,000 people. Airbus, Lufthansa Technik, Hamburg Airport and 300 suppliers cover the entire life cycle of civil aircraft and the aviation value-added chain. Their successful participation in the 2008 excellence cluster competition encouraged all the network protagonists to move even closer together. Their integrated strategy to promote "A New Kind of Aviation" is centred on the fields of competence aircraft/aircraft systems, cabins/cabin systems, aviation services and air transport systems. These are supported by a growing scientific landscape researching both basics and applications. Another pioneer is the Centre for Applied Aviation Research (ZAL). Founded in 2009, it offers, inter alia, test infrastructures for cabin technologies. Hamburg is regarded as Europe's leading training centre for aeronautical engineering. A key element in the efforts to secure skilled workers is the Hamburg Centre of Aviation Training (HCAT), a training facility of corporate partners, universities and vocational schools.

Highlights

Hamburg as the place for aviation boasts excellent experiences in the development of cluster strategies. The excellence cluster competition won in 2008 is evidence of this. Beside the innovation landscape, the tightly-woven network contributed significantly to this success. Within the context of the EU's CLUNET project, Hamburg, backed by its wealth of experience, initiated the European Aerospace Cluster Partnership (EACP), which it will continue to coordinate in the future. Europe's aviation clusters were thus given their first permanent platform for intensive knowledge transfer and joint projects. To stand its ground in the face of global competition, it is increasingly important for the European aviation industry to utilise its own innovation potential to the fullest and to cooperate with suitable European partners. The EU supports transnational cooperation between clusters.

In May 2009, EACP's 24 founding members signed a letter of intent in Hamburg. Initial projects will cover the fields of internationalisation, qualification and financing.