Biography

Eduard Brüll is a Research Manager at ZEW Mannheim. He holds a doctorate in economics from Heidelberg University (summa cum laude) and previously served as Interim Professor at the University of Mannheim. His research spans labour economics, digitalisation, and the application of machine learning and NLP methods to large-scale administrative and text data. Eduard is the author of tidyllm, an R package for integrating LLM APIs into data workflows, and of a semantic paper search engine for economic research used by researchers at over 60 institutions worldwide. He is part of the ZEW GenAI Team working on the integration of large language models into research and analytical processes.

Abstract

In this talk, I present ZEW’s rollout of our internal AI frontend based on OpenWebUI, which integrates local and cloud LLMs into researchers’ daily workflows. I will give an overview of our technical setup, including the use of MCP-tools to provide models with useful context and research utilities. The talk also highlights our first generation of domain-specific agentic tools, such as an automated public tender screening assistant. I will conclude with early lessons from deployment and researcher adoption.

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