Munich Urban Colab

Platform for the City of the Future

The Munich Urban Colab is an internationally unique platform for smart city solutions. Start-ups, companies, voices from science and the creative industries all work together in the heart of the city alongside the city government and with the involvement of the general public.

The Munich Urban Colab also fosters dialog with experts in architecture, urban planning, public administration, technology and business.

Key sectors

• Mobility
• ICT, IoT
• Energy and environmental technology
• Health and medical technology

Events (>> running slower due to the pandemic)

Conferences, symposiums, lectures and exhibitions covering all aspects of the city of the future are being planned and are an essential part of active dialog with citizens and the media.

Infrastructure

Spread over 11,000 square meters, the Munich Urban Colab provides

• office space
• co-working areas
• event and seminar rooms ( >> see Event brochure for more details)
• living labs
• the high-tech prototype workshop Makerspace
• a café, two sunrooms and a fitness room

Services

• Center for innovation and start-ups with consulting and other services
• Joint project development, active involvement in specialist networks
• Event, trade fair and visitor service

Public private partnership with city participation

The Munich Urban Colab is a joint project with the City of Munich and UnternehmerTUM. The project was approved in 2014 by the City Council. An associate company, the Munich Urban Colab GmbH, was founded in 2018. The City of Munich holds 17 percent and UnternehmerTUM gGmbH 83 percent shares in the company.

Managing Director is Claudia Frey. All city innovation projects in the Munich Urban Colab are coordinated by the Munich Economic Development Unit in the Department of Labor and Economic Development, which itself is part of the Colab with the Munich City Lab.

Science and research

At the Munich Urban Colab the City of Munich and UnternehmerTUM, the innovation institute and start-up center of the Technical University of Munich, are joining forces. Europe’s most successful academic start-up center incubates around 50 technology start-ups every year. It provides support at every stage of a company’s founding – from the initial idea to stock market launch – and now, alongside its headquarters in Garching, it has a second, central, and high-profile new site here.

The Munich Urban Colab is situated within the vibrant Kreativquartier. The Technical University of Munich, the Munich University of Applied Sciences, the Faculty of Design at the University of Applied Sciences, the University of Film and Television (HFF Munich), the Goethe Institute, the Dok. Fest München documentary film festival and many other potential cooperation partners are all located nearby.

Projects and services

Alongside start-ups and companies, the following ventures from and with the UnternehmerTUM and the City of Munich are starting in the Munich Urban Colab

• Business Creators
• Digital Hub Mobility
• Makerspace
• Tech Founders
• Xpreneurs Incubator
• appliedAI– Initiative for applied artificial intelligence
• RESPOND in cooperation with the BMW Foundation
• CIVITAS ECCENTRIC
• eit Urban Mobility
• ReDi School of Digital Integration
• Innovation Lab (IT Department)
• WerkSTADT (IT Department)
• Munich City Lab (Department of Labor and Economic Development)
• Mobility lab from SWM/MVG
• Blockchain Bayern e.V.
• Digital twin  (Department of Communal Service)
• Virtual Skills Lab – Healthcare (Department of Labor and Economic Development)

Other city participation projects are currently being planned/discussed, such as
 

• City innovation challenge
• Cooperation with representatives from the creative industry
• Real labs for smart city projects (Department of Urban Planning and Building Regulation)
• Cooperation for environment and climate protection program ECOPROFIT (Department for Climate and Environmental Protection/Department of Labor and Economic Development)
• Circular economy projects with the Munich Waste Management Corporation (AVM München)
• Cooperation projects with the Department of Mobility, the MVG Mobility lab and Digital Hub Mobility