HOCHSCHULE DER MEDIEN

Their core work

Hochschule der Medien (HdM) is Stuttgart Media University, a German university of applied sciences whose core identity sits at the intersection of media technology, information design, and digital communication. In H2020, they contributed applied research expertise in two distinct directions: educational game-making tools aimed at non-programmers and underrepresented learners, and wearable sensor systems for monitoring physical and emotional wellbeing. Their applied-science profile means they translate research outputs into practical, user-facing applications rather than purely theoretical frameworks. They are a credible bridge between media design thinking and real-world digital technology deployment.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (2015–2017), HdM's work was squarely focused on game technology: how to make game creation accessible to non-programmers, how to transfer gaming mechanics to educational and professional settings, and how to design inclusively for underserved digital users. By their second project (2019–2022), the keyword trail disappears but the project title tells a clear story — they moved into wearable sensors and emotional wellbeing monitoring, a field with no apparent overlap with game-making. This suggests HdM is expanding its digital portfolio beyond media and games into health-adjacent technology, possibly following faculty research interests or partner-driven opportunities rather than a single coherent institutional strategy.

HdM appears to be broadening from game-based media applications toward digital health and wearable technology, making them a potential partner for projects combining user experience design with sensor-driven personal health systems.

How they like to work

HdM has never coordinated an H2020 project — in both cases they joined as a participant, indicating a preference or institutional habit of contributing specialist expertise within consortia led by others. With 13 unique partners across just 2 projects, their consortia are moderately sized (roughly 6–7 partners per project), suggesting structured partnerships rather than large open networks. This profile fits an organization that enters collaborations to contribute a defined capability — media design, game technology, or UX — rather than to drive the overall research agenda.

HdM has collaborated with 13 unique partners across 7 countries, giving them a genuinely pan-European footprint for an organization with only two projects. Their network appears broad relative to their project volume, which may reflect diverse consortium compositions rather than a recurring cluster of preferred partners.

What sets them apart

HdM is one of very few German universities of applied sciences dedicated specifically to media — covering media technology, information design, publishing, and digital communication — which gives them a rare combination of technical and design-facing expertise within a single institution. Where a technical university might bring engineering depth and a design school might bring user research, HdM brings both in a professionally oriented package. For consortium builders, this means they can contribute to both the technical implementation and the communication, dissemination, or user-facing layer of a project, reducing the number of partners needed for those roles.

Highlights from their portfolio

• No One Left Behind
  This project tackled digital inclusion through game-making tools, specifically Pocket Code, aiming to bring programming and game creation to groups typically excluded from the digital economy — an ambitious mix of education, inclusion, and technology transfer.
• BEWELL
  BEWELL represents HdM's pivot toward digital health, combining wearable sensor hardware with emotional wellbeing monitoring — a significant thematic departure from their game-technology roots and their largest single EC grant at €251,250.