MANN+HUMMEL GmbHSteinbeis Europa Zentrum supported MANN+HUMMEL GmbH in its innovation and transformation projects

MANN+HUMMEL - Shaping the transformation

How can this transformation succeed as an automotive supplier? EU-funded projects offer a great opportunity to bring technologies into the market. Steinbeis Europa Zentrum supported MANN+HUMMEL GmbH in its innovation and transformation projects.

MANN+HUMMEL GmbH from Ludwigsburg is a global leader in the field of filtration and offers solutions for clean mobility, clean air, clean water and clean industry. Originally a classic supplier to the automotive industry with over 80 locations worldwide, the company is successfully expanding its portfolio of solutions - both with a view to alternative engines and new forms of mobility as well as in the Life Sciences & Environment sector.

Two million euros for MANN+HUMMEL

Since 2018, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has been advising MANN+HUMMEL on obtaining European funding for its innovation and transformation projects. This collaboration led to the approval of three innovation projects in 2022, for which MANN+HUMMEL will receive a total of around two million euros in EU funding over the duration of the projects.

Reducing fine dust in traffic - EU project AeroSolfd

As coordinator of the EU project AeroSolfd, MANN+HUMMEL can advance its technologies for the filtration of brake dust and for improving air quality in underground railway stations from pilot status to market readiness. In several workshops, together with the core partners of the consortium, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum tailored MANN+HUMMEL's viable concept to the EU call for proposals The proposal preparation support from Steinbeis led to success. The three-year project has been funded by the EU with a total of five million euros since May 2022. Sixteen project partners from eight countries will benefit from this.

In AeroSolfd, the project partners are developing cost-effective, scalable and environmentally friendly retrofit solutions to reduce exhaust and brake emissions as well as pollution in (semi-) enclosed environments. Thereby, the partners are making an important contribution towards cleaner mobility and cleaner air.

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum is part of the consortium and supports MANN+HUMMEL in management activities, especially in financial matters. As the responsible partner for the work packages communication, dissemination and exploitation of the project results, it ensures the implementation of a communication and exploitation strategy to bring the innovative filtration products to the market.

Access to new markets in the Life Science & Environment sector

By participating in two other EU projects, MANN+HUMMEL is able to expand its expertise and filtration technologies in indoor environments and thus contribute to improving air quality. Steinbeis Europa Zentrum helped the company to enter the applicant consortia through a partner search. MANN+HUMMEL will receive over 1.3 million euros in these two projects. Both projects are funded through the Health Programme in Horizon Europe with around eight million euros each.

The K-HEALTHinAIR project is about indoor air quality and its effect on health. Based on a comprehensive measurement campaign for chemical and biological pollutants, an assessment of indoor air is carried out and eventually, a cost-effective and simple way of monitoring and improving indoor air quality will be developed. The LEARN project is dedicated to improving indoor air quality in schools. In particular, the concentration of volatile organic compounds and ultrafine particles will be analysed and their impact on children's cognitive performance assessed.

Role model for open innovation

MANN+HUMMEL has been opening up its innovation processes for several years now, developing its processes and products with the help of external partnerships. The company uses open innovation to meet rapidly changing customer needs.

Additional networking opportunities were offered by Steinbeis Europa Zentrum at the Open Innovation Congress Baden-Württemberg 2023, where MANN+HUMMEL participated as a speaker. The company also contributed to an Open Innovation Challenge as part of the EU project PITCCH. Here, as an internationally active company, it offered cooperation opportunities for SMEs and start-ups. With the PITCCH project, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum established an EU-funded open innovation network that brought together technology centres, large companies and SMEs as well as start-ups in different sectors.

Read more about AeroSolfd: Towards cleaner mobility through quick deployment of low-cost retrofit solutions (AeroSolfd) - Steinbeis EN (steinbeis-europa.de)

Project Website AeroSolfd:  https://aerosolfd-project.eu/