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State Secretary Prof. Dr Sabine Döring visits the TH Ingolstadt : Date:

On 16 January 2024, Prof. Dr Sabine Döring, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), visited the TH Ingolstadt (THI). The university had invited Prof Döring to gain an insight into the research projects and the large research networks that the THI has established.  

On the left of the picture is a small car. To the right, a group of people are looking at the car. There is a large screen in the background.
State Secretary Professor Sabine Döring (3rd from left) with THI President Professor Walter Schober (4th from left) in the CARISSMA hall. © Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt / Severin Mantel-Lehrer

The THI is a University of Applied Sciences (UAS) with research foci in mobility and artificial intelligence (AI), among others. At the invitation of THI President Prof. Dr Werner Schober, BMBF State Secretary Prof. Dr Sabine Döring, visited the university in mid-January to gain an impression of the research activities and to talk about future topics relevant to UAS, such as the recruitment of young talent, innovative and application-oriented research, and the right to award doctorates at UAS.

With regard to its focus on mobility topics, the THI has established the SAFIR network: one of ten partnerships funded via FH-Impuls in the “Research at Universities of Applied Sciences” programme. The SAFIR projects deal with vehicle and road safety as well as topics relating to autonomous driving and electromobility. During her visit to Ingolstadt, State Secretary Döring therefore also visited the CARISSMA research and test centre (Center of Automotive Research on Integrated Safety Systems and Measurement Area), in which the research of the SAFIR partners is embedded.

The visit also focussed on other lighthouse projects at the THI: For instance, the university is represented in the Bund-Länder initiative “Innovative University” with its transfer project “menschINbewegung_II”. The project, conducted in collaboration with the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, is one of only six projects to take part in both funding rounds of the programme. Moreover, the THI was also successful in the BMBF programme “FH-Personal”.

In recent years, the BMBF has steadily expanded its funding for UAS, thus taking account of recent developments in the research landscape. UAS with a strong focus on research, such as the THI, particularly show how powerful and valuable the UAS are for Germany's innovation ecosystem – not only in research, but also when it comes to transferring knowledge from the university to industry and society.