In May 2016, the travelling exhibition “Research for You!” will be stopping off at Volksbank Kleverland (customer centre). The “Smart Villages” project from Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences will also be featured.
The title of the exhibition, ‘Research for You!’, says it all, as it is all about research for the benefit of people: all the research projects are directly linked to our everyday lives and offer sustainable solutions to the challenges we face on a daily basis. As a public space, the Volksbank is an ideal venue for bringing society into contact with research.
A visual approach was chosen for the exhibition: each of the 21 research projects has been captured in a life-size image by the photographer Holger Lietfien. Members of the public acted as models for the resulting photographic series.
In addition, a large-format multi-touch table offers a playful, interactive way to engage with the exhibition’s content: the images are pieced together like jigsaw puzzle pieces to access further information. The digital application was developed specifically for the travelling exhibition by Professor Dr Christian Kohls and his four-person team from the Master’s programme in Computer Science and Software Engineering at the Technical University of Cologne.
In May, the spotlight will be on the ‘Smart Villages’ research project at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences. Using the village of Grieth on the Lower Rhine – with a population of 800 – as a case study, researchers from various disciplines have worked together with local residents to develop ideas for improved infrastructure, with the aim of making rural life more attractive and counteracting the increasing exodus from the countryside. At the heart of the initiative is the newly established co-operative village shop, which now meets Grieth’s local supply needs whilst also serving as a social meeting place. Project leader Professor Dr Rolf Becker from Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences lived in Grieth himself for several years and knows that forward-looking solutions to support a village community are only successful if they meet actual needs and the local population identifies with the activities.
‘Research for You!’ will be officially launched on 3 May 2016 at 2.00 pm in the customer centre of Volksbank Kleverland by Chairman of the Board Frank Ruffing, Professor Dr habil Jens Gebauer (Vice-President for Research and Knowledge Transfer at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences), Professor Dr.-Ing. Rolf Becker (Head of the ‘Smart Villages’ project) and Stephanie Wojtaszek from the ‘Sustainable Research at Universities of Applied Sciences in NRW’ network.
The travelling exhibition began in Düsseldorf in March 2015 and will conclude in Mülheim an der Ruhr in June 2016. It is touring a total of 15 towns and cities in North Rhine-Westphalia. The exhibition is organised by the project office ‘Sustainable Research at Universities of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia’ with the support of the Ministry for Innovation, Science and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In addition to the project’s 21 member universities, various financial institutions and the East Westphalia Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Bielefeld are partners in the exhibition. Further information on the research projects on display is provided in the publication ‘Menschen & Fortschritt’, available online at: http://emagkoeln.de/fh_koeln/Mensch_und_Fortschritt/#/
‘Sustainable Research’ – A network for North Rhine-Westphalia for over 10 years
Since 2004, a total of 21 universities of applied sciences from North Rhine-Westphalia have joined forces in the project “Sustainable Research at Universities of Applied Sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia” to achieve greater recognition of universities of applied sciences as research institutions.
Evangelical University of Applied Sciences Rhineland-Westphalia-Lippe, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences, Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, North Rhine-Westphalia University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Münster University of Applied Sciences, South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Bochum University of Applied Sciences, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, Bochum University of Health Sciences, Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Lower Rhine University of Applied Sciences, East Westphalia-Lippe University of Applied Sciences, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences, Catholic University of Applied Sciences of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Georg Agricola Technical University of Applied Sciences, Bochum, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences.
