“We at HSRW still can’t quite believe it and are delighted that our application to the federal-state ‘Innovative University’ programme has been successful. This recognition from such an important programme – effectively the ‘small Excellence Initiative’ for universities of applied sciences (HAW) – is a tremendous honour, particularly for us as a relatively new university,” says University President Dr Oliver Locker-Grütjen, delighted with the positive funding decision. The current approval for the TransRegINT project, which is due to start in January 2023 and run until the end of 2027, will enable the HSRW to expand knowledge transfer to and with the region. The project will receive funding of up to just under ten million euros. The exact amount of funding has not yet been finalised and will be negotiated with the project sponsor over the coming months.
“I would like to express my sincere thanks for the support from the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as to all other partners in this highly collaborative project, and I look forward to the potential developments in the coming years,” said the university president.
TransRegINT: Three sub-projects
The Interaction Hub plans to organise public engagement events in the spirit of scientific dialogue. These may include panel discussions, science slams, citizen science projects, Festivals of Transformation or conferences on the future. There are also plans to develop a digital collaboration tool for use by business and society. In the medium term, a physical venue for interdisciplinary collaboration is planned near the university, in the towns of Kleve and Kamp-Lintfort. This could take the form of innovation spaces, open spaces or co-working spaces.
Solutions to pressing, socially relevant issues are explored at the Transformation Hub: ‘Through laboratory networks, we are opening up the university to stakeholders in the region. We offer access to state-of-the-art laboratory equipment. This enables us, for example, to address environmental issues raised by members of the public, analyse them together and develop solutions. In collaboration with companies, initial prototypes can be developed and tested quickly, thereby accelerating design processes. Real-world laboratories are intended as the next step to make approaches and solutions tangible and scalable, thereby overcoming both social and economic barriers. “In our real-world laboratories, we conduct transdisciplinary research in collaboration with our external partners, experiment and develop solutions iteratively, always with the aim of deriving sustainable and economically viable solutions,” explains Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Kisters, Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Knowledge Transfer, outlining the project.
In cooperation with partners, the ‘Competence Hub’ sub-project aims to establish the European Centre for Sustainability Research. “The aim of this focus area is to investigate processes of social change, such as the emergence of a transnational labour market and transnational social fields in the German-Dutch Rhine-Waal border region, and other developments resulting from Europeanisation that have an impact on people’s everyday lives. A further aim is to communicate current social issues from the worlds of politics, society and the economy in a manner tailored to specific target groups, through lecture series, training sessions and workshops, as well as interactive formats such as simulation exercises,” says Prof. Dr Tatiana Zimenkova, Vice-President for International Affairs and Diversity, introducing the third sub-project of TransRegINT.
About the federal-state funding programme ‘Innovative University’ ‘Innovative
University’ is a federal-state initiative to promote the research-based transfer of ideas, knowledge and technology. It was agreed upon by the heads of government at federal and state level in 2016. It is designed in particular to support universities of applied sciences as well as small and medium-sized universities in distinguishing themselves in the area of transfer and innovation and in strengthening their strategic role within the regional and supra-regional innovation system. In total, the federal and state governments are making up to 285 million euros available for the second funding round. Ninety per cent of the funding is provided by the federal government and ten per cent by the federal state in which the respective higher education institution is located.
A decision has now been reached on all newly submitted applications through a joint, science-led competitive selection process. Among the 165 higher education institutions that applied were 110 universities of applied sciences, 42 universities and teacher training colleges, and 13 colleges of art and music. The funding initiative is being carried out in two selection rounds. In the second selection round (2023 to 2027), both higher education institutions that had already received funding in the first selection round and those that had not yet received funding were eligible to participate. A total of 55 higher education institutions were awarded funding, nine of which are in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences, these are Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Bochum University of Applied Sciences, the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences and the University of Siegen.
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