H-BRS supports newly appointed researchers and postdocs in their research

Startförderung Gruppe H-BRS 2024-10-28_Foto Martin Schulz_Zuschnitt

It is an established internal research funding programme at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS) for postdocs and newly appointed researchers: ‘Start-up funding’. With this programme, the university supports scientists at an early career stage in realising their research ideas.

Postdocs and newly appointed researchers are supported in their research by H-BRS with a special funding programme. The funding comes from the budget of Professor Remi Maier-Rigaud (right) and Professor Jürgen Bode (3rd from right). Photo: Martin Schulz

From compressed air generation for energy storage to learning-based robot capabilities and artificial intelligence in the media: the projects included in the current start-up funding programme represent the wide range of research interests at H-BRS. Seven scientists working at H-BRS will receive funding from the ‘Startförderung’ programme in 2024. Among them is Dr Alex Mitrevski, the second academic after 2023 to receive funding from the budget of Vice President Internationalisation and Diversity, Professor Jürgen Bode. All other research projects receive their funding from the budget of the Vice President Research and Early Career Researchers, Professor Remi Maier-Rigaud.

‘The start-up funding is an important instrument for supporting researchers in the early stages of their careers at H-BRS. This phase is characterised by the development of a teaching portfolio and a high teaching load. Start-up funding helps to ensure that researchers do not neglect their own research activities during this critical phase,’ says Professor Remi Maier-Rigaud.

H-BRS supports academics with up to 20,000 euros each through the university's own ‘Start-up Funding’ programme. The programme is aimed at newly appointed professors and postdocs who do not already have a successful third-party funding application. In this way, H-BRS aims to help create a solid basis for researchers to successfully apply for funding from a research funding organisation, such as the state or federal government or the EU. It is also the university's wish that the results of the start-up funding will benefit teaching.

‘Start-up funding is an excellent instrument for introducing researchers to collaboration with international partners at an early stage of their careers,’ says Vice President Internationalisation and Diversity, Professor Jürgen Bode. ‘It is a mandatory prerequisite for applying for EU funding, for example.’

Start-up funding is awarded in a two-stage process, for which an interdisciplinary selection committee made up of members of the Research and Transfer Commission is responsible.

Funding will be provided in the period 2024-2026:

- Professor Sebastian Drumm (Department of Engineering and Communication): ‘Isothermal compressed air generation for energy storage with combined heat storage’

- Professor Robert Grüter (Department of Economics): ‘Development of a framework model for supply chain simulation’

- Professor Derya Gür-Şeker (Department of Social Policy and Social Security): ‘Artificial intelligence in media representation - A cross-national media analysis with a focus on the future of work from 1997 to 2024’

- Professor Petra Haferkorn (Department of Computer Science/ISCP): ‘Theory for the management of information security’

- Dr Rebecca Lück (Department of Applied Natural Sciences/ISF): ‘Establishing methods for the analytical measurement of microbial VOCs’

- Dr Alex Mitrevski (Department of Computer Science/A2S): ‘Ecosystem for the development of robust learning-based robotic capabilities for complex tasks (KEROL)’

- Professor Marc Williams (Department of Applied Natural Sciences/TREE): ‘Technical Chemistry & Catalysis at H-BRS’