With the ceremonial opening of the multimedia exhibition “Is digital the solution? – Innovations for our future” last Friday, the House of Digitization in Tulln started its fourth year. It again offers a wide range of mediation, educational and support measures for companies and population at the Tulln location as well as road shows and workshops across the country. It is confirmed as a motor of digitization, but also as a driver of regional development in Lower Austria. As a strategic regional project, the house has been supported for its program work with a total of 4.8 million euros from the European Regional Fund (ERDRE) since the beginning.
„Lower Austria wants to be at the forefront of digitization and artificial intelligence
“, Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner explains.”The House of Digitization is the perfect turntable. It is a central point of contact for companies and the population to get to know the potential of digital applications and to try it out practically. However, it also carries its support offers with road shows, especially on SMEs, and promotes synergies between educational institutions, economy and administration in the regions – and thus regional added value. This also makes the house and its work an outstanding regional project. It was also recognized by the EU Commission as part of the Registars Awards 2020 as one of the top 5 projects in the ‘Industrial Transition for A Smart Europe’ category.
“
Nicolas Gibert-Morin from the Directorate General Regional Policy and Urban Development of the European Commission also emphasizes the importance of the House of Digitization for Regional Development in Lower Austria: “”It improves the cooperation between business, science and education in the field of digitization and strengthens regional value chains. This consolidates the position of Lower Austria as an innovative research and technology location in Europe. I am pleased that the European Regional Development Fund has been able to contribute to 4.8 million euros so far since 2018.
“
After preparatory work from 2018 as a network and virtual platform, the physical house of digitization has been forming the hub for everything that the state of Lower Austria has implemented as part of its digitization strategy under the motto “Use digital change” for land and people. As an open house, it invites you to 4200 m2 for exchange and education with a wide mix of multimedia exhibitions, practical workshops or network offers, and addresses companies as well as school classes, families and interested citizens. Digitization can be experienced practically here.
Free workshops and advanced training events take place here regularly, such as artificial intelligence (prompt engineering, hands-on with chatt), 3D printing, virtual and augmented reality or cyber security.
From here, however, diverse activities are also organized that work out into the country. In road shows, offers are mainly carried out in the regions geared towards SMEs, for example at the “Digitalks on Tour”, which demonstrate the integration of generative AI applications in everyday work. A district tour is about sensitization to cyber security. A workshop series through tourism destinations, in turn, focuses on AI for tourism.
In total, 144 workshops were organized in 2023/2024. The digitalks reached 483 companies during this period. The events on cyber security recorded 2568 participants.
The House of Digitization thus distinguishes itself as the core of a dynamic ecosystem that makes the company and the population accessible to the potential of digitization in all regions of Lower Austria.
Notes:
Dossier to the House of Digitization: https://www.efre.gv.at/fileadmin/user_upload/2021-2027/presse/PRESSEDOSSIER_EFRE-Projekt_Haus-der-Digitalsierung.pdf
Case-Study on the House of Digitization Research: https://www.efre.gv.at/projekte/strategische-eu-projekte/haus-der-digitalisierung