At the initiative of the AIR Initiative, the team led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Mauerer—Chair and Director of the Regensburg Center for Artificial Intelligence (RCAI) and Head of the Laboratory for Digitalization at OTH Regensburg—together with numerous small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), secured a flagship project for the regional AI ecosystem:
Accelerating AI-based Innovations in SMEs (AIM-SMEs) – the project, supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts (StMWK) and funded by the European Regional Development Fund in Bavaria (ERDF), launched on October 1, 2025, with a three-year duration.
The overarching goal is to strengthen the innovative capacity and competitiveness of regional SMEs, the European economic area, and Bavaria in particular, with regard to their technological sovereignty and influence. AI-based innovations are intended to help increase the region’s sustainability by reducing resource and energy consumption as well as CO2 emissions.
Since SMEs typically lack both sufficient resources and in-depth knowledge of methodologies and algorithms, the barrier to entry for AI-based innovations is particularly high. Relying on commercial solutions and external service providers from non-European countries is often an obvious choice, but it entails the disclosure of sensitive company data and creates dependencies.
To set a positive trend in motion, the AIM-SMEs project team is applying the key technology of AI to specific use cases at a total of 18 participating companies in the region.
The AI-based innovations to be developed as part of the project were prioritized in advance with the companies, taking into account the greatest expected added value and their anticipated feasibility. The OTH team is working closely with the companies to develop the use cases and is ensuring that the knowledge remains within the companies.
Since October, the team has been working on implementing the first use cases with the companies alki Technik GmbH, Gefasoft Automatisierung und Software GmbH, Fr. Ant. Niedermayr GmbH & Co KG, R-KOM GmbH, and Steinhofer Ingenieure GmbH. The first success stories are thus already taking shape.
The AIM-SMEs team would like to extend its sincere thanks to all participating companies as well as the network partners AIR Initiative, the District of Upper Palatinate, the Regensburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Upper Palatinate/Kelheim, IT-Sicherheitscluster e.V., TechBase GmbH, Value Hub GmbH, the Friends of OTH Regensburg Association, vhs Neustadt-Weiden, and the Neustadt a.d. Waldnaab Economic Development Agency for their excellent collaboration!
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Mauerer
Project Manager
OTH Regensburg
Galgenbergstr. 32
93053 Regensburg
Tel. +49 941 943 9702
E-Mail: wolfgang.mauerer@oth-regensburg.de
Nicole Höß
Coordination
OTH Regensburg
Galgenbergstr. 32
93053 Regensburg
Tel. +49 941 943 1333
E-Mail: nicole.hoess@oth-regensburg.de