Millions in funding for digitisation at BTU

25.10.2024

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The funding is part of a state-wide initiative by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg, which is providing around 13.2 million euros this year to support the nine state universities in Brandenburg. The funds are intended to sustainably strengthen the innovative strength, future viability and competitiveness of the universities.

"The digitalisation of teaching is a central building block for the future viability of our university. With the funding, we can develop innovative teaching formats that strengthen the digital skills of our students and optimally prepare them for the demands of an increasingly digitalised working world. Strengthening hybrid and mobile learning formats in particular opens up new opportunities for flexible and practical training at BTU ," explains Prof. Dr Peer Schmidt, Vice-President for Academic Affairs at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg.

The BTU submitted projects from faculties, administrative departments and central institutions to be realised as part of this funding programme. There were five different funding priorities to choose from, with the greatest interest and the highest funding volume for the BTU falling on the areas of "Strengthening digitally supported teaching and digital skills" and "Use of artificial intelligence". In addition to strengthening teaching, the funding also supports projects in the areas of administrative digitalisation, open access and digital infrastructures, which aim to make processes at BTU more efficient and transparent.

Funding priorities of the"Digitising higher education: seizing opportunities, shaping the future" programme, which were available to BTU and other universities in Brandenburg:

Digital teaching and skills: The digital transformation of teaching is being intensified. New teaching formats and the strengthening of digital skills for students optimally prepare them for an increasingly digitalised working world. In the funding priority of digital teaching, the support is intended to sustainably anchor innovative teaching and learning scenarios and create a flexible learning environment at BTU. A particular focus here is on mobile and hybrid learning. For example, the collaborative learning environments now established at the BTU's IKMZ and enhanced by digital infrastructure elements are to be further expanded. Among other things, seminar rooms in Cottbus and Senftenberg are to be modernised in the Chair of Thermal Energy Technology and in the Faculty of Human Sciences in order to fund innovative working methods and digital skills for teachers and learners. In the Institutes of Biotechnology and Materials Chemistry, research data is to be digitalised and collected and documented using electronic laboratory notebooks in future.

Use of artificial intelligence: In the area of "Using AI", the funding will in particular promote the provision of digital infrastructures that are necessary for the realisation of AI-supported research and teaching projects. This includes the use of artificial intelligence to investigate convection and heat transport in spherical shells and in turbulent boundary layer flows. The BTU's AI teaching laboratory will also be further optimised as part of the initiative.

Cyber Security and digital infrastructure: Securing university IT and expanding network capacities are essential in order to meet the increased demands in research and teaching. For example, the funding will be used to replace outdated components of electronic locking systems to reduce IT security risks in infrastructural building management.

Expansion of open access and open data for open science: The universities and universities of applied sciences in Brandenburg are increasingly focussing on open access publications in order to make their research results more widely accessible. With this in mind, the Institute of History of Art and Architecture, in cooperation with the university library at the IKMZ, is founding a Diamond Open Access journal. In the Chair of Technoscience Studies, a research platform is being modernised and a scientific blog founded. The funds will also be used to provide researchers and students with permanent access to important scientific resources in the field of Economic Sciences by licensing larger eBook packages.

Modernisation of administration: The use of suitable, specific digital tools is intended to streamline bureaucratic processes and simplify the design and administration of university teaching. In the area of human resources, for example, digital travel management software is to be introduced and in the area of studies and teaching, the infrastructure and administrative processes will be created to enable students to submit their Bachelor's and Master's theses digitally.

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