For years, the Axel Springer Academy has been training its employees in workshops on how to handle with AI. But at some point, Ekaterina Schneider asked herself a question: What actually happens next? The answer is a new certificate course that the School of Journalism developed in collaboration with the Humboldt Innovation Academy. We spoke with Katrin Schütz, director of the Humboldt Innovation Academy, and Ekaterina Schneider, Chief Learning Officer at the Axel Springer Academy, about how the program came to be.

Over the past few years, Schneider has built up a broad range of AI training programs, covering everything from the basics to the automation of entire work processes. She was constantly guided by this fundamental question: “We can get people excited about AI in workshops, show them new tools, and empower them to work more productively. But what happens after that? Who translates this knowledge into strategic decisions? Who recognizes which processes we should not only optimize but fundamentally rethink?”

For her, one thing was certain: “At some point, it became clear to me that we had to build on this—with a program that goes beyond mere application […].“ (translated)

A program like this requires resources that a media company alone does not have. “With Humboldt University, we have gained a strong academic partner for this,” says Schneider. Specifically, it is Humboldt-Innovation that is responsible for continuing education on the university’s side. Katrin Schütz describes the division of roles in no uncertain terms: “As a subsidiary of Humboldt University of Berlin, Humboldt-Innovation provides the academic expertise. For this course, we were able to recruit outstanding experts from Humboldt University in the field of artificial intelligence as instructors and academic directors. The Axel Springer Academy does not have this kind of access.”

Specifically, this means that three professors are taking on teaching and academic leadership roles. Prof. Niels Pinkwart, Prof. Alan Akbik, and Prof. Herbert Zech cover computer science, machine learning, and IT law.

The course “AI Manager: AI Competence for Media and Publishing Professionals” lasts 17 weeks. It does not conclude with an exam, but rather with a project in which participants develop their own use case, complete with a target scenario and KPIs. Schütz explains why this practical component is so crucial: “The added value for participants lies particularly in the practical application of their knowledge. This gives them the opportunity to gain insights for their own work from their colleagues’ use cases and also allows them to directly test whether that knowledge is applicable to their specific day-to-day work.”

Those who complete the course receive a joint certificate from Humboldt University and the Axel Springer Academy worth five ECTS credits.

For Schütz, the program is also an example of what collaborations between academia and industry can achieve: “The greatest value for companies in a collaboration with the Humboldt Innovation Academy lies in direct access to subject matter experts and, consequently, to the latest research in these fields.”

Ekaterina Schneider summarizes what she believes is most important: “The real challenge today is no longer access to the technology. What matters is whether people understand the possibilities and limitations of AI, make informed decisions, and apply it meaningfully in their day-to-day work.”

Der Beitrag “And what happens next?” – How Axel Springer and the Humboldt Innovation Academy are training AI managers for the media industry erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

Weekly Wrap-up: Our Topics in week 39

Prof. Dr Christian Hackenberger of Humboldt University of Berlin and the Leibniz-FMP is one of this year’s twenty winners of the prestigious UNIPRENEURS initiative, which recognises outstanding achievements in spin-offs. His research focuses on the development of new chemical methods for biomolecule modification, as well as P5 labelling technology for innovative antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). Together with partners, he founded the biotech company Tubulis in 2019; its P5-ADCs are currently being tested in clinical trials for the treatment of ovarian and lung cancer. The acquisition of Tubulis by the US pharmaceutical company Gilead in April 2026 for up to 5 billion US dollars ranks among the largest transactions in the European biotech sector in recent years. HU President Prof. Dr Julia von Blumenthal congratulated him on this honour and emphasised the great importance of spin-offs in addressing pressing societal problems, such as novel cancer therapies. Read more in our Newscorner: HU professor is one of the 20 UNIPRENEURS 2026 | Humboldt Innovation

The start-up mika has raised 6 million euros in a seed funding round led by Smedvig Ventures, marking another milestone following its participation in the AI NATION Accelerator. Using proprietary AI models trained on German tax and accounting law, the company automates bookkeeping, VAT returns and annual accounts, thereby significantly easing the burden on founders. The AI automation is complemented by a team of in-house accountants who step in whenever human expertise is required. Since the start of the year, mika has expanded its customer base from 400 to over 750 companies, surpassed the one million euro mark in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and achieved monthly growth rates of over 20 per cent. In doing so, the start-up is lowering the bureaucratic hurdles involved in setting up limited liability companies (GmbHs) in Germany and making entrepreneurship accessible to even more people.

Der Beitrag Week 39: HU Professor is an UNIPRENEUR, AI NATION Team secures €6 Million in Funding Round erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

Alan Akbik, Professor of Machine Learning at HU, was a guest speaker at the Humboldt-Universitäts-Gesellschaft event “Quo Vadis German AI: How Machines Learn Language Efficiently?”, which took place on May 11, 2026, in the Emil Fischer Lecture Hall. In his presentation, Akbik focused on how language models work and the reasons behind their massive resource intensity. Consequently, developing such systems has so far been feasible mainly for large tech companies from the US and China. With “BOLDT”, a language model developed at HU, Akbik presented an alternative that requires significantly fewer model parameters. He demonstrated live that it nevertheless remains highly capable. After the talk, guests had the opportunity to ask questions and concluded the evening networking over finger food and drinks.

In mid-May 2026, a delegation consisting of representatives from German innovation hubs, including Katharina Heinrich from Science & Startups, visited the most important research and innovation institutes in São Paulo. They also participated as panelists in the talk “From Science to Startup: Ecosystem Perspectives from Brazil and Germany,” which took place as part of São Paulo Innovation Week. Their discussion revolved around what is institutionally and culturally required to transform scientific research into a successful business. From various perspectives, the panelists shed light on the topic and compared the ecosystems in Germany and Brazil. The discussion showed that cooperation between the two countries in the field of science-based innovation is a high priority. The meeting of German and Brazilian stakeholders was made possible by the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH) São Paulo, which had organized the trip. The Federal Foreign Office founded the DWIH in 2012. It is now part of the network of German Science and Innovation Houses, which is coordinated by the DAAD.

Der Beitrag Week 20: Prof. Akbik as a Speaker at HUG, German Delegation at DWIH São Paulo erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

The HU startup Kopfsachen, which promotes the mental health of young people through analog and digital educational formats, is among the top 5 in the “Berlin’s Social Enterprises 2026” competition and has also been nominated in the “People” (Mensch) category. The Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises honors Berlin-based companies that tackle social or ecological challenges and contribute to a fair and sustainable economy. Founders Leonie Müller and Mirko von Bargen will attend the award ceremony at re:publica on May 19 and, with a little luck, will receive the award.

Barbara Bachus, co-founder of ExoMatter, is among the Top 5 of the Top 30 for the VivaTech Female Founder Awards 2026. ExoMatter enables accelerated research and discovery of materials using Artificial Intelligence.

Hello Tomorrow has listed PULSETRAIN as one of the “Top 100 Deep Tech Startups to Watch 2026.” The startup stood out among 4,800 applications and now has a chance to win the €100,000 grand prize, which will be awarded at the Hello Tomorrow Summit in Amsterdam. PULSETRAIN develops AI-powered integrated battery and propulsion systems that make electric vehicles lighter, more affordable, and more efficient.

Vladimir Keil, CEO and founder of Lio (formerly askLio), has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe 2026 list. His company has developed the world’s first multi-agent system for procurement.

Der Beitrag Week 19: Nomination of Kopfsachen, News from AI NATION Alumni erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

As a joint venture between two AI incubators, AI NATION brings together the Munich and Berlin startup ecosystems, providing AI startups across Germany with comprehensive support for their ventures. In this context, the current stage of the startup is irrelevant: AI NATION accompanies companies from their very first steps through to complex scale-up processes. Last week, AI NATION hosted the Welcome Days, where startups at various stages of development—including AI NATION GRANT and AI NATION ACCELERATOR teams—gathered from all over Germany.

Over the coming months, the teams will undergo an intensive program: The GRANT teams will focus on validating ideas, developing prototypes, achieving product-market fit, and recruiting their first test consumers. Meanwhile, the ACCELERATOR Teams will engage in a period defined by growth initiatives, optimizing efficiency and quality, increasing revenue, and strategic development.

AI NATION’s Welcome Week marked the official start of the upcoming development period. The event featured team gatherings, insightful Fireside Chats, and the ACCELERATOR Demo Night, where the Autumn 2025 batch presented the results of their hard work from the past few months.

This year, the regular networking event BarBQ, hosted by leap.berlin and OpTecBB e.V., coincided exactly with World Quantum Day. Every few weeks, this event brings together students, founders, scientists, and enthusiasts to exchange ideas on topics within the field of quantum science and industry.

As the innovation hub of BERLIN QUANTUM, leap.berlin—together with the Berlin University Alliance, Humboldt-Innovation GmbH, OpTecBB, and Berlin Partner for Business and Technology—is dedicated to promoting Berlin as a globally recognized, collaborative research community that drives innovation in quantum science and technology.

To achieve this, it is crucial that researchers and quantum entrepreneurs experience Berlin as a hub for an interactive and diverse scientific community with excellent talent development so that events like BarBQ are a vital cornerstone of this mission.

Der Beitrag Week 16: AI NATION Welcome Week, Quantum Hotspot Berlin erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

Last week, Science & Startups hosted the kickoff event for Batch I of the Berlin Startup Fellowship, where the startups got to know each other, Science & Startups and BSS were introduced, and a workshop titled “Entrepreneur Starter Lab” took place. Over the next few weeks, the teams will be featured on social media. Stay tuned!

Great news! Two AI NATION startup alumni have made it to the finals of the prestigious German Startup Awards and are competing for the title of “Newcomer.” One is Sitegeist, led by Dr. Lena-Marie Pätzmann, Julian Hoffmann, Claus Carste, and Nicola Kolb, which offers autonomous and modular construction robots designed to address the shortage of skilled workers. The other contender is the startup nextract, founded by Maurits Zevering, Daniel Benkoff, and Mariia Semenenko. Their business model is designed to help renewable energy producers reach their full production potential.

Der Beitrag Week 14: Kick-Off BSS Startups, AI NATION Alumni in Finals of German Startup Awards erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

Weekly Wrap-up: Our topics of week 13

Last week brought some big news: Dr. Tina Klüwer, co-founder of K.I.E.Z., is the new Executive Director of AI NATION, Germany’s nationwide ecosystem and platform for AI startups! With K.I.E.Z., she was a true pioneer in the field of AI hubs, setting new standards and playing a decisive role in the program’s high visibility throughout Germany. Now, AI NATION stands to benefit from her extensive experience in AI research, startups, and industry.

She is widely regarded as a key figure in the scene, uniquely combining entrepreneurial, scientific, and political expertise. In the coming years, she will be responsible for the strategic development of AI NATION and will play a major role in shaping the next growth phase of Germany’s AI ecosystem.

The travel group that spent nine days in Shanghai and the Yangtze Delta has returned, bringing back their key takeaways. Dr. Isabelle Harbrecht from the China Competence Center, who played a leading role in organizing the trip, summarized those:

• German companies in China are increasing their investments locally and view China as a model to learn from.
• 73 percent of German companies operating on the ground want the German government to treat China more strongly as a partner again.
• Transfer and matchmaking between researchers and companies are prioritized in the Yangtze Delta.
• China’s new five-year plan focuses on AI, quantum computing, humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, deep-sea and polar technologies, and 6G.
• China’s relevance in international legal affairs has grown. For instance, China acts as a key player in the international development of legislation regarding anti-money laundering, the taxation of global income, and e-Apostilles.

Der Beitrag Week 13: New Executive Director of AI NATION, Key Takeaways from the Trip to China erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

Renowned corporations such as EDEKA and TIER are among the clients of the company that was supported by the startup service of Humboldt University in Berlin and funded by the EXIST scholarship upon its spin-off: key2contract GmbH INHUBBER, founded in 2019 by Dr. Elena Mechik, a PhD holder in geosciences and economics, along with her husband and brother. The company offers its clients a digital contract management and e-signature solution that ensures improved contract overview, increased transparency, and deadline compliance.

Learn about how their contract management software is connected to rainforest protection, what makes it unique globally, and what experiences Elena has had as a woman with a migration background in the startup scene.

My story begins with a trip to Brazil, a newfound love for the tropical forest, and a commitment to combat illegal logging. After my trip, we stumbled upon statistics linking paper consumption to deforestation, showing that paper products are responsible for 16% of deforestation. This sparked the idea of fighting this issue from Germany by founding an economic yet sustainable company.

We then considered how to save paper and set the goal of paperless offices. This led to the idea of digital contract management and signatures. We wanted to give companies the ability to operate completely paperless while working more effectively and efficiently.

When talking to companies, paper savings are a secondary concern. Primarily, they are interested in increasing efficiency. Clients often come to us with the problem that they cannot immediately find certain contracts. There is a lack of centralized oversight of all contracts, and especially in today’s financial crisis, every company wants to save. Without a central overview of all contracts, it is very difficult to decide where savings can be made.

But this is exactly what we offer our clients: a central overview. Additionally, we provide the ability to never miss a termination deadline with automatic reminders. This is immensely important, as I often see with our clients. Recently, I spoke with a company that had booked VIP tickets for Hertha. However, Hertha played at a different venue than expected, and they missed the cancellation deadline for the very expensive tickets, resulting in a loss of 20,000 euros for a year. They then approached us to ensure such a mistake would never happen again.

We started in the startup incubator of Humboldt University. They believed in us and we were intensively advised by Professor Lessmann, which was very important for the EXIST scholarship. During the year we were funded by the scholarship, we worked in the Humboldt Innovation founder’s house, developing our idea to combine blockchain and AI technologies for a secure contract management and e-signature solution. We also had our first office there and maintained close communication with the HI startup service. Today, we continue to engage with HI, using, for example, the startup alumni network offerings and benefiting from contact with other startups.

Moreover, I tell the story of our roots at Humboldt University to clients almost every day. I find it a beautiful story. We started as students, as researchers, received support from Humboldt University, and have now grown into a stable company with major clients.

There are many different solutions for contract management, hence a lot of competitors. What makes us unique is our encryption. We offer a highly secure solution that we initially researched at Humboldt University. Security was very important to us because we knew from the start that no one would entrust us with their contracts if we couldn’t manage them securely.

Once the software was fully developed, we realized that we were unique in the market with our continuous encryption. Our digital signature is based on blockchain technology, providing a unique capability to sign any file format, such as an Excel spreadsheet. Normally, it would have to be converted to a PDF first. With us, it’s possible to sign the Excel spreadsheet directly. Additionally, we use artificial intelligence, which sets us apart from other competitors. AI allows us to quickly read specific contents from contracts, enabling faster contract processing.

Before my time at INHUBBER, I had never really learned how sales work. This was something I had to learn from scratch. I think it’s incredibly important for founders to get involved in sales as well. It was the same with marketing. I never had to engage in marketing before. These were areas I wanted to improve in and now I have. I sought support from various consultants and watched numerous videos.

The advantage of founding a company is that you can apply what you learn the same day. This still happens often today. Another important topic I delved into was investments and investor search. I learned about all the termsheets, investment rounds, and relevant terminology. It’s a science in itself. You need to know this well, otherwise, you can’t negotiate effectively and it can be dangerous for the company.

I’ve had the drive to change and improve the world for as long as I can remember. For instance, I participated in “Youth Researches” several times.

During university, we also started an initiative with students to create a sustainable company. “Arboreal” was about the sustainable processing of non-timber products related to tropical forests. We didn’t pursue this further. Later, I founded an association, also with the aim of looking at ways to mitigate climate change and protect tropical forests. Then I pursued my doctorate. At the end of my doctorate, I spoke with my supervisor and he said, you are an entrepreneur, you belong in business, not purely in research. It’s probably in my nature that I’ve been seeking ways to make the world a little better throughout my life.

It’s difficult to say because I can’t easily compare myself to a German man. But I do think that because all three of us founders are not of German origin, we faced some hurdles. We also didn’t have a large network to rely on initially. We had to build that from scratch. I believe some potential investors withdrew because of our migration background and having a woman as their primary contact, which was me.

Recently, we were selected by AWS for the Female Founders program and participated in it for three months. There was a lecture on how to communicate with investors as a woman. It’s a science in itself, with several articles and papers published on the topic. A researcher compared the questions investors ask men and women.

Women are often asked questions that inherently have a slightly negative connotation. I could recall similar situations from my work life. You can ask about potentials or obstacles, and investors may not even realize they’re treating men and women differently. Studies also show that investors prefer to invest in projects by people similar to themselves. Given that 80-90% of all investors are male, the chances for women or people with migration backgrounds are naturally more challenging.

But despite these obstacles, we managed to convince investors with our technology, an excellent team, and major clients like EDEKA, OECD, etc. There are exceptions to every rule.

There are pros and cons, as with everything. The advantages are that we can completely trust each other. We know each person’s motivation and always stand together. Additionally, there is always open communication without barriers.

There are also disadvantages: Many investors view a family business as a risk and thus a threat. Some see potential issues in a possible divorce, for instance. Moreover, our company includes a married couple, my husband and I, and a sibling pair, my brother and I. Some investors see this as another risk. On the other hand, major successful companies in Germany, like Otto or Aldi, are family businesses. In my experience, family businesses operate differently from other corporations, with more concern for employees and the future.

But these are the challenges. We now speak completely openly about this and do not hide it. For us, it is very advantageous to work this way and we can’t change it.

I believe that the more diverse the team is, the more innovative ideas can emerge because everyone brings a completely different knowledge base and thought structures due to various cultures and educations. This can only benefit a company.

Thank you for the interview, Elena!

Der Beitrag Interview with INHUBBER founder Elena Mechik erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.

Aaron is the medical assistant of the future. With the help of artificial intelligence, our technology bridges the gap between the growing shortage of medical professionals and an aging society. As the first point of contact for patients, Aaron makes every doctor’s office available around the clock—even on weekends.

With just a few clicks, the telephone assistant can be used to book appointments online and find simple solutions. Medical professionals are relieved of organizational tasks and can be deployed more efficiently. We use artificial intelligence to adapt human-machine communication to people’s needs, rather than the other way around.

Our vision is accessible, effective and sustainable healthcare for people of all ages. Despite technological change and the growing shortage of medical professionals across Europe, medical care will not be automated in the near future for regulatory reasons. However, healthcare, i.e. care provided by practice staff and consultations with doctors, can be supported and asynchronised by AI in the future. Aaron can be the conversation partner of the future for this purpose.

Excerpts from Aaron.ai software

Der Beitrag Aaron in healthcare: AI that answers instead of putting you on hold erschien zuerst auf Humboldt-Innovation Insights.