IT & Digital Economy
The steadily growing importance of information technology for economic and everyday life is also clearly noticeable in the Lower Rhine region. Mönchengladbach is already home to numerous companies and startups in the sector whose creative ideas are shaping the location of tomorrow, and the trend is on the rise, as evidenced by developments in the Nordpark business park, for example.
Against this backdrop, WFMG is involved in numerous projects and initiatives, such as the rollout of broadband internet, in order to prepare Mönchengladbach and the companies based here for the issues of the future, such as Industry 4.0.
Another driving force since 2020 has been the development of the Cyber Management Campus of the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in the Monforts Quarter. The background to this is the joint Cyber Campus NRW project of HSNR and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, which is funded by the state of NRW. In Mönchengladbach, the content focus is on management topics related to IT security. The bachelor’s degree program Cyber Security Management, which started in September 2020, is located in the Department of Business and Economics. The master’s program of the same name followed in the winter semester of 2021/22. And in the winter semester of 2022/23, the bachelor’s degree program in Digital Forensics is to be launched.
Against this backdrop, WFMG is also stepping up its activities in this area and, for example, has joined forces for the first time with selected Mönchengladbach companies from the IT security sector at Europe’s largest IT security trade show, it-sa in Nuremberg, in 2021.
Together with digihub Düsseldorf/Rheinland, the workshop program “Mittelstand digital – Wie gelingt die Transformation?” was launched in spring 2022.
next-mg e.V.
The association next-mg e.V. has set itself the task of accelerating digitisation at the Mönchengladbach business location and promoting activities related to digital transformation. The members of the association pursue three main objectives: To increase the number of start-ups and promote start-ups, to advance digitisation in business and the associated transformation processes in industry, and to expand educational offerings, especially with a focus on IT/digital.
To actively support the transformation processes in the local economy, the leading industries of Mönchengladbach, e.g. the production and IT industries, are to be brought closer together so that they can tackle issues relating to industry 4.0 jointly. The Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences is also a founding member of the association and will contribute to strengthening the educational offerings at local and regional level.
Digital Innovation Hub Düsseldorf/Rheinland GmbH
As part of the Digital Innovation Hub Düsseldorf/Rheinland, Mönchengladbach is working on building the future of its digital economy. The digihub Düsseldorf / Rheinland is a match-making and innovation platform for medium-sized businesses, start-ups, universities and corporations. The aim of the digihub is to come up with and develop new digital business models & products. To this end, the digihub hosts a variety of regular innovation events such as challenges, hackathons, boot camps, startup sprints, accelerator programmes and much more. These innovation events bring together company founders, experts, scientists and employees of medium-sized businesses and industrial companies to jointly design and discuss new business models, solutions and products on selected digital topics. Several of these focus events, organized jointly with WFMG, have already taken place in Mönchengladbach. Together with WFMG, digihub also launched the workshop program “Mittelstand digital – Wie gelingt die Transformation?” in spring 2022.
Digitale Stadt Düsseldorf
In addition to the local links within the IT industry created by the nextMG association, regional links are another focus. The WFMG has been a member of Digitale Stadt Düsseldorf e.v., the network of the ICT sector for the economic region of Düsseldorf, since 2010.