The quality of the concept for the joint research training group "Digital Innovations for the Changing Society" (DIWAG) was convincing: In an external scientific review process, the StMWK confirmed that the HNU, the OTH Amberg-Weiden and the HaW Landshut had the necessary research strength to be able to conduct independent doctoral procedures in this area in the future.
The application for a doctoral right for particularly strong research areas had been possible on the basis of the Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act from February 2023; the three universities had worked out and submitted a corresponding plan in the association. The DIWAG Research Training Group is one of eleven doctoral centres in the Free State that were approved in the first round.
Doctoral law raises university development and research activities to a new level
"The award of the doctoral degree is a recognition of our previous research quality and a strong signal for the future strengthening of our applied research," said HNU President Prof. Dr. Uta M. Feser. "Both for HNU itself and for the entire science and innovation system in the region, this great success represents a significant development step."
With the independent right to award doctorates, universities in the Free State will be given fertile ground to exploit their potential in applied research and innovative transfer and to expand their opportunities in the global competition for the best minds. "Our universities of applied sciences and technical universities have established themselves as outstanding research institutions," explained Science Minister Markus Blume at the announcement in Munich. It was a logical consequence that they now also received the right to award doctorates.
Verbundkolleg: bundled competences for excellent scientific education
"We have been working for a long time towards the goal of being able to independently award doctoral degrees in our research-intensive field," explained Vice-President Prof. Dr. Elmar Steurer, who together with Priv.-Doz. Dr. Elmar Buchner, was responsible for the application on the part of HNU. "This has resulted in the DIWAG joint college, which addresses social change as social, economic and ecological structural change in the sense of sustainability and deals with challenges in Bavaria's rural areas. In terms of training as well as attracting excellent researchers, the joint doctoral centre now heralds a new era at HNU."
The joint research centre is dedicated to research on digital systems that support the management of social change - for example, by prolonging the self-determined lives of senior citizens in their own homes, through innovative measures for inclusion or the education of educationally disadvantaged classes. The focus is on interdisciplinary collaboration and cooperative research: with health sciences, engineering and social sciences as well as business informatics and technical informatics, the three partner universities bring a broad variety of disciplines to the Kolleg, so that research silos can be broken down and synergies created.
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Prof. Dr. Elmar Steurer
Press release of Hochschule Bayern
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