Vice President Research and Young Academics

At Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, an establishment with a strong research profile, research already has a long tradition; many of our colleagues are already incorporated within strong institutional structures. The university considers that its particular responsibility for research lies in the major challenges facing our society.

The research groups and especially the institutes at H-BRS have developed independent profiles that enable them to successfully acquire third-party funding, both from the public sector and private donors. The university's researchers are supported and assisted in their research applications by the Centre for Science and Technology Transfer (ZWT).

Research and teaching

The key areas of research at the university - safety and security research, visual computing and sustainability, as well as the other research topics pursued, are embedded in the teaching in the respective departments. These activities enrich the teaching, especially on the Master's degree courses. After completing their Master's degrees, the Graduate Institute of the university offers the next generation of academics the opportunity to further develop their skills by undertaking a cooperative doctorate. In 2016 H-BRS is involved in setting up the new NRW Graduate Institute, which facilitates cooperative doctorates in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia through an integrated structure incorporating university professors from the state.

Research funding instruments

As Vice President for Research and Young Academics it is my task to stimulate and promote research at the university. To this end, as part of the H-BRS University Development Plan III (HEP III), a number of research funding instruments have been developed under the following three headings:

• structures for research
• space for research
• visibility for research

These are now being implemented step by step in cooperation with the departments.

Increasing the visibility of research is a focal point of the work of the Vice President for Research and Young Academics. One measure contained in HEP II is the development of a research database, which has already been implemented on the research website. The Research Day at H-BRS, which takes place every other year, offers all members of the university the chance to find out more about the research being undertaken at their university. At the same time it is a platform for meetings between the researchers at the university and companies in the region, at which joint projects are discussed and agreed. These range from providing topics for Bachelor's and Master's theses and contract research to joint research applications at national and EU level.

Membership of the Rhineland Research Dialogue group of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) and the cooperation with the Centre for Research Communication (Zefo) increases the visibility of the research at H-BRS and offers opportunities for networking. The same is true of our work in the NRW Vice Presidents Conference for Research and the European University Association (EUA), to which Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University is one of the few universities of applied sciences to have been admitted, on the basis of its strength in research.