Smart assistants and automated solutions will make everyday work easier, take over routine tasks, and create competitive advantages. They rely on artificial intelligence (AI) with its various facets as a key enabling technology. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and IBM are expanding their long-standing collaboration with the aim to jointly develop and strengthen digital innovations and support young talents in science and industry. The official launch of this new strategic cooperation was on January 09, 2025.
The organizations have set the focus on the promotion of joint research in fields such as “Digital Innovations for Services and Platforms,” “Artificial Intelligence (AI),” and “Human-Machine Collaboration.” To this effect, a tenure-track professorship supported by IBM will be established at KIT’s recently founded Institute for Information Systems, helping KIT and IBM encourage the active dialog between science, business, and society about developments in technology and their impact. This will further strengthen the close cooperation in terms of recruiting and university marketing.
“The strategic cooperation between KIT and IBM enables us to work more intensively on the opportunities and challenges of both digitalization and artificial intelligence, and to find solutions together,” says Professor Jan S. Hesthaven, President of KIT. “With digital innovations, we will not only win an international competitive edge, but also greatly contribute to the benefit of society.” KIT students will benefit directly: It is planned to establish additional joint teaching formats in study programs such as Business Engineering, Information Systems, and Informatics.
“KIT and its excellence in research, teaching, and transfer have been an important pillar of our close and actively embraced cooperation for years. We see a great potential for a significant extension of this collaboration, in particular jointly with IBM Research and the global development centers,” says David Faller, Vice President IBM Development, and Dr. Juan Bernabé-Moreno, Director IBM Research Europe, UK & Ireland.
Expanding the Long-standing Cooperation
Since 2008, KIT and IBM have been offering the KSRI – Karlsruhe Digital Service Research & Innovation Hub – a platform for collaborative innovations in the field of digitalization with contributions from scientists, companies, students, and industrial partners. “This agreement, which marks the continuation of a success story of cooperation, allows us to further raise the awareness of society for the central topics of innovation and transfer,” says Professor Thomas Hirth, Vice President Transfer and International Affairs at KIT. “This is outstanding because it shows how much we can benefit from existing relationships to generate new impetus and continue the development of important areas.”
“Collaborative innovations are the order of the day if we want to strengthen the location with tangible contributions to key technologies such as (generative) AI, and thus promote application-oriented research,” says Dr. Carsten Holtmann, Director of IBM Customer Success Management, who is responsible for AI innovations and the relationship with KIT. “In addition, scientific excellence is a key anchor point for getting students, researchers, and experts from industry together – KIT, and especially the KSRI, provide excellent options for this.”
More information
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.