This year’s symposium of the “ Initiative of Science and the Automotive Industry” (IWA e.V.) took place on 13 June 2025 with the slogan “Theory meets Practice” — an event that ORISA, as a long-standing member of the association, once again followed with great interest.
As a software provider specialising in CPQ solutions for complex product and sales processes, we see ourselves as a central interface between technological development and industrial application. This is precisely why the exchange with scientific institutions such as the Friedrich Schiller University Jena is particularly valuable to us.
ORISA has been part of the IWA for many years and is therefore an active part of a network that specifically promotes the transfer of knowledge between science and practice. The association aims to promote application-oriented research — particularly in the automotive and high-tech industries. Topics such as process optimisation in production and logistics, decision support systems and data-driven planning approaches are also highly relevant to our day-to-day work. In addition, such cooperation brings together personalities from business and research, including long-standing partners such as Prof. Dr Armin Scholl, Prof. Dr Nils Boysen and Prof. Dr Johannes Ruhland, with whom we have a close and ongoing collaborative relationship. The other corporate members, Siemens, Airbus Operations and Optware, also make a significant contribution to creating a valuable, hands-on dialogue within the IWA that provides inspiration beyond industry boundaries.
A particular highlight of the symposium was the awarding of the 9th IWA prize for application-oriented scientific achievements. The winners included Dr Thorben Krüger (Volkswagen AG) and Dr Stefan Fedtke (FSU Jena), whose work impressively demonstrated the innovative potential of the interplay between university research and industrial application.
For us at ORISA, the close dialogue with the scientific community confirms time and again that it brings new perspectives to our projects and helps us to continuously develop our CPQ solutions further — in a practical, profound and future-oriented manner. We would like to thank the IWA e.V. for the successful event and are already looking forward to the next dialogue as part of the association, with the University of Jena and with all those involved in shaping the future together at the point where theory and practice meet.