The Heidelberg Collaboratory for Image Processing (HCI) is an "Industry on Campus" project and is run jointly by the Heidelberg University and the companies: Bosch, Heidelberg Engineering, Volume Graphics and Bayer. The HCI is part of the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR).

Established in 2007, the HCI is built on the fact that basic problems in image processing, computer vision, and machine learning are largely application-independent. The approximately 80 scientists working in HCI conduct basic research with the aim of providing cutting-edge solutions to image analysis and machine learning problems for applications in industry. The HCI is formed of four Labs run by Fred Hamprecht, Björn Ommer, Carsten Rother and Christoph Schnörr, with Carsten Rother as coordinating director. In each lab, some of the lab members are funded directly by HCI Cooperation Agreement. These lab members work on topics that are defined in mutual agreement with the industrial partners and the HCI directors. The HCI hosts also the retired founding director of the HCI, senior professor Bernd Jähne. The outcome of the HCI can best be seen in the publication, benchmark and software sections on this webpage.

The HCI is part of the institutional strategy of the Heidelberg University within the German Universities Excellence Strategy, and also part of the excellence cluster “Structures”. At present, the HCI has a yearly funding volume of 750TE. It is also an important driver for technology transfer at Heidelberg University, and has generated three start-ups in the past.

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