Extension of Research Activity
Extension of research activity
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences – Baden Wuerttemberg’s university of applied sciences with the strongest focus on research
New innovation center planned
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences is Baden-Wuerttemberg’s best-performing university of applied sciences in research: its turnover in research projects increased from just over 3 million € in 2009 to a total of approx. 4.8 million € in 2010, which represents an increase of 35%. When it comes to the acquisition of third-party funds, the university again occupies the top position in Baden-Wuerttemberg: broken down to each of the 176 professorships of the university, 26.587 € could be raised per professorship. In addition, Prof. Dr. Norbert Link, from the Faculty of Computer Science and Business Information Systems, is the university’s top performer in research, with the largest budget for a professorship at a university of applied sciences. In parallel to the development in turnover, the number of academic staff has reached 150 today.
In 1998, the university’s first central research institute, the Institute for Innovation and Transfer, was founded, which later became today’s Institute of Applied Research (IAF). In 2000, the turnover in research projects was slightly above 665.000 €. Within ten years this amount has increased by more than factor seven.
The university’s research sector received another boost in 2009 when the Institute of Materials and Processes, its second central research institute, was founded. It focuses on the development of new, computer-based modelling and simulation techniques for materials development, aimed at optimizing manufacturing and production processes. The institute thus represents a unique connection between virtual and applied materials research.
“Our activities in applied research are extremely important for our profile, so President Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Meisel, “The results and methodology skills obtained there can be integrated into the lectures, allowing us to offer master degree programs on a high scientific level. We consider research and technology transfer an important or even central component of our profile.”
The extent to which teaching and research are interwoven and benefit from each other is underlined by the fact that Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, in conjunction with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, provides two research training groups that allow students to do a PhD. One of them is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with approx. 7 million € and when established was the first cooperation of its kind between a university of applied sciences and a general university. Today this group has 30 PhD candidates that are pursuing a doctoral program and are involved in research projects.
“It is one of our strategic goals”, emphasizes Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Meisel, “to further extend our activities in applied research and technology transfer.” In order to explicitly improve services for medium-sized companies, an innovation center for small and medium-sized companies (KMU Innovation Center) will be established on the campus, providing contact between researchers at the university and small and medium-sized companies. The center is supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and Art of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, and with the help of an experienced technology transfer partner financing is secured.
The university’s research report gives insight into its research activities. You can download it on the university’s German-language pages. For the report magazine, contact the Public Relations and Marketing Office of Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Moltkestr. 30, 76133 Karlsruhe, phone: +49(0)721/925-1008, fax: +49(0)721/925-1005, e-mail: gerlinde.schuller[at]hs-karlsruhe.de .