Press release: University of Göttingen und HAWK recruit eleven digitisation professorships
No. 237 - 11.11.2019
State promotes joint application „Data science region Southern Lower Saxony“
(pug/hawk) Eleven of the total of forty digitisation professorships funded by the State of Lower Saxony will go to the University of Göttingen and the HAWK. The joint application "Data Science Region Southern Lower Saxony" will be funded.
In this competition for professorships, the University of Göttingen and the HAWK placed their thematic focus on Data Science. In applied research, the priority is on imaging and image diagnostics in medicine and health as well as sensor and measurement techniques in physics and engineering sciences. The focus is on the production, networking and analysis of data for these areas.
"We are delighted with the success of our joint proposal," says Dr Valérie Schüller, acting president of the University of Göttingen. Professor Norbert Lossau, Vice President for Infrastructure, adds, "The Data Science strategy of the University and the recently founded Campus Institute Data Science will receive excellent and sustainable support for research, teaching and collaboration with companies. Together with the HAWK in Göttingen and Holzminden, the long-standing association will now be concentrated even more in the field of digitization. At the same time, it will add to the cooperation at the state level in the future laboratories for digitisation".
HAWK President Dr Marc Hudy confirms that the joint projects will not only have a scientifically innovative effect, but will also reach out into the region: "One of the existing characteristics of our application-oriented research is the intensive networking in the region. Now we can bring something else to this specific university profile by strengthening associations with Göttingen-based and regional companies such as Sartorius, Otto Bock, PHYWE and many others.”
The University of Göttingen and HAWK will now receive almost two million euros per year on an on-going basis. In addition, there is start-up financing of more than nine million euros for six years. The applications of the universities were reviewed by the Scientific Commission of Niedersachsen (WKN). Vice President Professor Wolfgang Viöl, responsible for the research projects on behalf of the HAWK, illustrates the special nature of the relationship: "There will be professorships in the field of medical technology at both the University Medical Centre Göttingen and the HAWK, who will work closely together with their respective expertise and develop innovative solutions. Thus, the University Medical Centre Göttingen is also involved, which, together with the HAWK, is advancing the Health Campus Göttingen.
In other areas, research into the social effects of digitisation will be intensified in a similar way. In addition, comprehensive data competence training and, at the same time, research into methods, applications and digitisation in selected areas are envisaged. The two universities benefit from their many years of experience in digitisation as well as from the established cooperation. The HAWK contributes in particular the technical disciplines missing at the university and the university its internationally renowned basic research to the cooperation. The Campus Institute Data Science (CIDAS) was founded in order to ensure the sustainable and long-term establishment of the Data Science focus. Within the framework of the joint concept, the development of a master's programme "Data Science" at the University of Göttingen is also being considered.
The Entrepreneurship Department of the HAWK in Hildesheim will also profit from the establishment of the Chair for Entrepreneurship and Regional Innovation Systems in the Digital Economy at the HAWK in Holzminden through cross-faculty know-how, especially in the areas of development, conditions and success factors of digital start-ups.
The professorships will cover the following topics: software engineering for data science, data security, analysis of scientific information resources, spatial data analysis and statistical learning procedures, technical computer science with a focus on sensor technology, computer-aided photonics, biological data science, data analysis and fusion for new image diagnostic procedures, development of data-driven imaging in medicine, sociology with a focus on digitisation in the world of work, entrepreneurship and regional innovation systems in the digital economy, data science and image analysis for infrastructure development in the region.
Contact:
Professor Norbert Lossau
University of Göttingen
Vice President for Infrastructure Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen
Phone: +49 551 39-21020
Email: norbert.lossau@zvw.uni-goettingen.de
Professor Wolfgang Viöl
HAWK Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen
Vice President Von-Ossietzky-Str. 100, 37085 Göttingen
Phone: +49 551 3705-218
Email: wolfgang.vioel@hawk.de