Research Projects

Find the projects you are interested in by using the filter (or search field) to select them by subject or person (or status).

Research Projects

Find the projects you are interested in by using the filter (or search field) to select them by subject or person (or status).

DISCO - Data-driven, Integrated, Syncromodal, Collaborative and Optimized urban freight meta model for new generation of urban logistics and planning with data sharing at European Living Labs


Prof. Rod Franklin

The DISCO projects, funded by Horizon Europe (European Union) aims to test and adopt a new generation of urban logistics and smart planning services with the aim to reduce emissions and better manage urban infrastructures. It involves a federated community of logistics service providers, mobility and technology providers, real estate and infrastructure owners and cities supported by specialized consulting, EU associations and academics. The partners and stakeholders will co-design, deploy, demonstrate, evaluate, and replicate innovative urban logistics and planning solutions.

Digital Transformation, Infrastructure, Sustainability, Transport Logistics

Innovative Waterway Transportation 2.0.


Prof. Dr. Gordon Wilmsmeier (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

The project contributes to understanding of different aspects, e. g., drivers, challenges, gains, and business requirements and perspectives of key stakeholders in the supply chain of waterway transportation (e. g., ship operators, shippers, operators, ports) and the implications of technologies and solutions adopted by the project’s freight flow coalitions (FFC) towards achieving green inland waterway FFC solutions. Funded by the EU.

Creating Value, Sustainability, Maritime Logistics

URBANE - Upscaling innovative green urban logistics solutions through multi-actor collaboration and physical internet-inspired last mile deliveries


Prof. Rod Franklin, PhD (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

Co-funded by the new Horizon Europe Programme (HEU) the project focuses on developing flexible urban last mile delivery approaches based on the Physical Internet that lower emissions, congestion, and cost, by combining green automated vehicles and shared space utilisation models.

Digital Transformation, Environment, Sustainability, Transport Logistics

Effects of monetary and non-monetary incentives on strategic behavior of customers and companies


Prof. Dr. Jan Becker (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

Companies use monetary and non-monetary incentives to manage customers The objective of the project is to gain insights that will help to make customer management more efficient for the benefit of both consumers and companies, and to find solutions to reduce the negative consequences of strategic customer behavior for the economy as a whole. It is funded by the German Research Association (DFG).

Creating Value, Marketing

Semantic Process Discovery from User Interaction Logs (UserLogs)


Prof. Dr. Henrik Leopold (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

Process mining is widely used to discover, analyze, and improve business processes based on event data extracted from IT systems, stored in so-called event logs. This has an important limitation, however; It limits the scope of analysis to back-end events. To avoid this problem the goal of this project, supported by the DFG (German Science Council), is to enable process discovery based on user interaction (UI) logs, rather than on traditional event logs. The project aims to develop  approaches that address the challenges in an automated manner. It will advance state-of-the-art research in process mining, particularly for situations involving raw, low-level event data.

Digital Transformation

SCO - African Center of Excellence for Sustainable Operations for Ressource Management and Food Supply


Prof. Dr. Maria Besiou (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

The project in cooperation with the Kühne Foundation is to establish the African Center of Excellence for Sustainable Operations for Resource Management and Food Supply (SCO) jointly with the University of Nairobi (UoN) in Kenya and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDS) in Tanzania with funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It aims to empower all who engage with it to organize in a sustainable fashion all kinds of operations, i.e. the production, movement, and processing of food and other natural resources. The Center will address issues of crucial importance to Africa with respect to, for example, sustainable value-adding in transportation, logistics, and warehousing.

Creating Value, Sustainability, Transport Logistics, Food Logistics

Brand strength information during corporate conference calls with investors and analystsand its impact on company value - MarkS


Prof. Dr. Alexander Himme (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

This project will analyze the role that brand equity information plays on earnings calls. Previous research has demonstrated that earnings calls are an important tool to disclose information to investors and financial analysts that enable them to better judge the future financial development of firms. The DFG-funded project aims at generating a better understanding of which brand equity information is discussed on earnings calls and to what extent it provides valuable information to the financial community.

Creating Value

ULePro (Urban food production) - Development and coordination of local food production and distribution networks (FabCIty)


Prof. Dr. Sandra Transchel (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

The ULePro project aims to strengthen the medium-sized agricultural sector, which is essentially responsible for the regional food supply, in the long term. It is to investigate the potential of regional and local food production and supply networks, considering all actors and decision-makers involved, i.e. agribusinesses, logistics service providers, and others engaged in local food production, storage and distribution. It should serve as an interface with final customers and buyers of the products, as well as with local authorities, policymakers, and others responsible for setting local framework conditions.

Food Logistics, Sustainability, Supply Chains

Fab City: Decentralized, Digital Production for Urban Value Creation - Subproject on "Supply Chain and Operations Management"


Prof. Dr. Kai Hoberg (Kühne Logistics University - KLU), Robin Kabelitz-Bock (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

This subproject focuses on the impact of 3D printing on the Circular Economy and regionalization of supply chains. It aims to implement a living lab ("Reallabor") in Hamburg to research the business, supply chain, technical, legal, as well as social effects of decentralized, open, and digital production sites.

Creating Value, Infrastructure, Sustainability

Hypernetwork of German Logistics (HeGeL) - Exploiting the Potential of Hypernetworks in Freight Transport and Logistics


Prof. Dr. Hanno Friedrich (Kühne Logistics University - KLU)

Although the global transport volume is constantly increasing, and international logistics is often carried out across several networks or even intermodally, there is still a lack of transparency in the transport market. A structured procedure for the representation of logistical hypernetworks is developed for a large dataset by means of supplementary scientific methods. The resulting transparency of the transport market enables better efficiency planning and more effective optimization of transport in terms of costs, sustainability and resilience. The new data offers opportunities for new services in the transport sector.

Transport Logistics, Sustainability