At a time when five professors at the young Johannes Kepler University in Linz created the Software Competence Center Hagenberg in 1999, a computer named Deep Blue had just beaten the reigning world chess champion. The topic of artificial intelligence was beginning to emerge in society, finding its way into living rooms as a topic of conversation. Since then, topics about the ‘digital age’ confront us daily.

The SCCH has been a pioneer in the field, serving as a research center shaping these developments. For the past 20 years as part of the COMET excellence center program and with the support of the federal government (Austrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology/BMVIT and Federal Ministry for Digitization and Economic Location/BMDW), the SCCH has been conducting base-knowledge research to support efficient data analysis and the development of high-quality software. Founded in 1999, the Kplus Competence Center became the successful COMET K1 Research Center in 2008, passing valuable findings about digital transformation on to industry and supporting partner companies such as start-ups, technology leaders in SMEs, and market leaders in industry.

One of the SCCH’s founding fathers is Professor Bruno Buchberger. Prof. Buchberger is a visionary, laying the cornerstone for the Hagenberg Software Park in support of the JKU's non-university research activities. Today, the SCCH in Hagenberg conducts cutting-edge research, is international, and is involved with the LIT Open Innovation Center and the LIT Pilot Factory at JKU in Linz. JKU Vice-Rector Stefan Koch remarked: "We consider the SCCH to be a strong research partner in computer science as pooling expertise at a competence center also strengthens the JKU’s international visibility and profile."