Success in the competition: Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg selected for new research colleges

Professor Margit Schulze and Professor Marc Williams from Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg bring their expertise to the programme. At H-BRS, they hold a chair specialising in technical sustainability within the Department of Natural Sciences. Together with partners from Aachen University of Applied Sciences, the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and industrial companies, they are working on innovative processes for a resource-efficient chemical industry.&

The ‘Anfassen/Aushandeln’ Research College is dedicated to exploring how people not only use digital technologies, but also understand how they work, reflect critically on them and actively help shape them. The focus is on the concept of digital sovereignty – that is, the ability to use digital media in an informed and self-determined manner. This interdisciplinary research group combines media aesthetics, interaction design, human-computer interaction and media education. Particular emphasis is placed on children and young people, for whom new approaches to promoting digital literacy are to be developed. 

Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg plays a central role in this: Professor Oliver Ruf, Research Professor of Media Aesthetics at the Institute for Media Research and Development (IMEA), is part of the four-member application team and, together with the Technical University of Cologne, is involved in the scientific leadership of the project. Among other things, he is responsible for a sub-project on the media aesthetics of digital sovereignty and, together with the Technical University of Cologne, is the supervisor of doctoral research projects within the research training group. 

The decision by the NRW Doctoral College was made following a peer review process and a digital presentation of the requests to an independent jury. A total of three research colleges were selected for funding. With the PK Research Colleges, the Doctoral College is systematically expanding its funding structures. By 2035, a total of eight research colleges are to be established to ensure the sustainability of doctoral research and research excellence at universities of applied sciences (HAW). PK Research Colleges are time-limited research groups in which professors with a particularly strong research profile work intensively with PhD students on specific topics over a four-year period to find solutions to socially relevant issues.