Lower Saxony supports “Data Science Region South Lower Saxony”

In the competition for these professorships, the University of Göttingen and the HAWK put their thematic focus on the field of Data Science. When it comes to applied research, imaging and image diagnostics in medicine and health, as well as sensor and measurement techniques in physics and in the engineering sciences take center stage. It’s a question of producing, networking and analyzing data for these areas.

Dr. Valérie Schüller, acting President of the University of Göttingen, revealed her "delight at the success of the joint proposal". Prof. Norbert Lossau, Vice President for for Digital Transformation and Infrastructure adds that: "The go-ahead for the university's Data Science strategy and the recently founded Campus Institute Data Science will lead to a major – and sustainable – boost for research, teaching, and collaboration with companies. Together with the HAWK in Göttingen and Holzminden, the long-standing collaboration will now also be deepened in the area of digitization. Cooperation at the state level in the so-called Zukunftslaboren für Digitalisierung (Future Laboratory for Digitization)  will be extended at the same time".

HAWK President Dr. Marc Hudy confirms that the joint projects will not only drive scientific innovation, but the impact will also radiate out into the region: "In any case, our application-oriented research is characterized by close networking relationships that we maintain in the region. We can now bring our specific profil  – of a university of applied sciences – into the cooperation with the university. And we can jointly intensify our collaborations with Göttingen-based and other regional companies such as Sartorius, Otto Bock, PHYWE among many others".

The University of Göttingen and the HAWK will permanently receive almost two million euro per year. Moreover, start-up financing of over nine million euro will be made available over six years. The universities’ proposals were reviewed by the Scientific Commission of Lower Saxony (WKN). Vice President Prof. Wolfgang Viöl, who is in charge of the research projects for the HAWK, illustrates the special nature of the cooperation using the following example: "Among other things, there will be one professorship each in the field of medical technology – at both the University Medical Faculty in Göttingen (Universitätsmedizin Göttingen) and the HAWK. Within their respective fields, they will work closely together to develop innovations". The University Medical Faculty in Göttingen is thus also involved in pressing ahead with the Health Campus Göttingen (Gesundheitscampus Göttingen) together with the HAWK.
To cap off these efforts, research into the social effects of digitization will be stepped up in other areas. It is envisaged, moreover, that comprehensive data literacy education will take place and that methodology, application and digitalization research will be conducted in selected areas at the same time. Both universities benefit from their many years of experience with digitization as well as from their established system for cooperation. In particular, the HAWK will contribute technical disciplines that the university lacks.  The university, on the other hand, will contribute its basic research –conducted at the highest international standard – to the cooperative effort. The Campus Institute Data Science (CIDAS) was founded to ensure a long-term and sustainable focus on data science; it provides a structural framework for the large number of actors that are brought together here. Within the context of the joint concept, the development of an M.A. in Data Science at the University of Göttingen is also being considered.

HAWK’s Department of Entrepreneurship in Hildesheim also stands to benefit from the establishment of a professorship for Entrepreneurship and Regional Innovation Systems in the Digital Economy at the HAWK in Holzminden. It will bring cross-faculty know-how, especially with regard to digital start-ups and their development, business conditions and success factors.  

The professorships will cover a wide range of expertise including the following: Software engineering for data science, data security, analysis of scientific information resources, spatial data analysis and statistical learning techniques, computer engineering  with a focus on sensor technology, computer-aided photonics, biological data science, data analysis and fusion for new image diagnostic methods,   data-driven imaging in medicine, sociology with a focus on workplace digitization, entrepreneurship and regional innovation systems in the digital economy, data science and image analysis for infrastructural development in the region.