Christoph Gerling

Christoph Gerling is a Research Fellow at the Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) since 2019, where he works in the research group "Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Society". He co-designs a learning quarter within the Digital Urban Center for Health & Aging (DUCAH) initiative to develop and test health solutions, while pursuing doctoral research on intelligent data use in digital health applications focused on young companies, funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.

His educational background includes a Master of Science in Aerospace and Bachelor of Science in Technology and Management from the Technical University of Munich. During studies, he founded seminar formats for the Entrepreneurship Initiative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation to inform and network aspiring entrepreneurs.

Gerling's research spans digital health, SME digital transformation, and entrepreneurship, investigating data-driven innovation and SME-startup partnerships to address digitalization challenges. His work explores boundary objects in multi-stakeholder design projects and AI applications in digital business contexts, emphasizing practical solutions for real-world adoption.

His publication trends reveal concentrated expertise in accelerating SME digital transformation through collaborative frameworks and design patterns, critical analysis of AI in entrepreneurship, and boundary object theory in innovation ecosystems, primarily targeting German digitalization initiatives and health sector applications.

Scientific recognition includes:

• Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom Fellowship (PhD funding)

He led the "Learn. Match. Partner." project under Germany's _Gemeinsam Digital initiative (funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy), analyzing SME-startup partnerships for digitalization challenges. Gerling actively organizes public discourse through HIIG's Digitaler Salon events on topics like "Digital Hell's Care?" and "Rausreguliert?", and conducts innovation workshops.

As core member of HIIG's DUCAH team, he develops urban health innovation frameworks integrating aging populations' needs with digital solutions through co-creation methodologies and cross-sector partnerships.