05 June 2023 - it's OWL signs MOU with Canadian supercluster NGen

A building block of the OWL-Canada cooperation

At this year's Hannover Messe, it's OWL and the Canadian supercluster NGen signed a Memory of Understanding (MOU), sealing on paper what has long been a reality in practice: cooperation between the players on a variety of levels - from exchanges of experience to mutual delegation visits.

An MOU, short for Memory of Understanding, describes an official declaration of intent between two or more parties. Companies and organisations can enter into official partnerships with the help of MOUs.

Logical next step

"For us, this MOU is not a jump into cold water, but a logical next step in our cooperation," explains Günter Korder, Managing Director of it's OWL Cluster Management. "We have already been in contact with NGen's partners since 2019 to learn from each other and exchange ideas on strategic topics and common challenges."

NGen is one of five industry clusters funded by the Canadian government with 950 million CAD (608.8 million EUR). The same amount is provided by industry players. The goal is to strengthen innovative industries and position them internationally. In this way, 50,000 so-called 'middle-class jobs' are to be created over a period of ten years and additional economic growth of 50 billion CAD is to be achieved.

A building block of the OWL-Canada cooperation

For it's OWL, this is not the first cooperation with Canada: Already in spring 2018, a delegation of high-ranking Canadian companies visited the technology network with the aim of exploring cooperation opportunities. With success: contacts made two years ago resulted in a cooperation with the innovation region of British Columbia. The cooperation dealt with the question of how technology networks can cooperate in a more targeted and stronger way to achieve global top positions. Joint meetings between it's OWL and the University of British Columbia (UBC) resulted in three projects, ARISE, EASY and its-3DL, with German and Canadian industrial and scientific partners working together to develop innovative solutions in the field of AI.

New goal: further cooperation projects

Now it is a matter of filling the agreement with NGen with life and putting words into action. "Although we are already well positioned in OWL when it comes to the digital and sustainable transformation of companies, we still need input from outside. Relationships with complementary partners like the Supercluster NGen can give us access to international knowledge. That is why we are already in talks with the Canadian partners to develop joint project ideas," says Korder. The partners' goal is to establish transatlantic research and industry cooperation.