Research Shapes the Future

[1]

© TU Berlin/Pressestelle/Dahl

The Technische Universiät Berlin with its seven faculties [2] is an internationally renowned research university with a rich tradition. We conduct basic and applied research at the highest international level. Our researchers regularly receive prestigious science awards and are highly successful in the acquisition of third-party funding. In the context of Excellence Initiative [3] projects, other national and international funding programs and collaborations with industrial partners, funds amounting to almost 160 million Euro were spent in the year 2011.

Als Teil der hochkarätigen Wissenschaftslandschaft in Berlin und Brandenburg haben wir innerhalb der TU Berlin sechs Forschungsschwerpunkte und Kompetenzen [4] definiert, die sowohl unsere Innovationsstärke aufzeigen als auch die gesellschaftliche Verpflichtung der TU Berlin widerspiegeln.

As a part of the outstanding research environment in Berlin and Brandenburg we have defined six key application areas and competencies for the TU Berlin. They reflect our innovative strength as well as our societal responsibility.

Remarkable synergy effects have been achieved through strategic collaboration with non-university research institutes within the Fraunhofer Society and Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association and the Leibniz Association. Currently, approximately 60 outstanding researchers hold joint professorships combining their research in their respective disciplines at the TU Berlin with the work at external research institutes.

Utilizing synergy and promoting the transfer of knowledge and technology – this is the motto behind our successful strategic collaboration with international enterprises. At the so-called “An-Institute” (or on location institutes) such as the Telekom Research Laboratories or the Daimler Center for Automotive Information Technology Innovations (DCAITI), academic and industrial research are combined in an intelligent manner. Furthermore, the TU Berlin has currently established 21 endowed professorships (as of January 2011) with international commercial enterprises such as Siemens AG, or through cooperative associations with small and medium-sized enterprises. At the regional level as well, the TU Berlin intensifies the transfer of expertise and technology through the consistent support of start-ups, thereby contributing to cooperation beyond disciplinary and institutional boundaries as part of the brand “Campus Charlottenburg- the art of ideas [5]”.

The “Hybrid Plattform [6]” is the joint teaching platform and project laboratory on Campus Charlottenburg. It offers space for experiments in inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration and invites researchers to explore new perspectives on their work. Such cooperation allows for finding new solutions by thinking “outside the box”. It has the potential to better meet the challenges facing our societies and is often highly attractive for business and industry.

Research for Innovation is a trademark for the TU Berlin which is tested in the most convincing fashion through the participation in two of the three European Knowledge and Innovation Communities [7] (KICs). As part of the network of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology [8] our researchers work towards innovations in the clusters “Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaption [9]” as well as “Future Information and Communication Society [10]” to ensure a sustainable development.

Academia needs fresh ideas [11] and the TU Berlin supports successful academic careers from its early studies program for inquisitive schoolchildren through their studies and doctoral work to the postdoctoral-phase. In this context, we place greatest possible significance on diversity. As regards doctoral studies, this ranges from being employed as research fellow at a Chair to the cooperative supervision in doctoral programs to external doctoral projects in cooperation with industry. At the postdoctoral stage, independent research projects, research groups of junior researchers and junior professorships are the main focus. In this way, a leading position is ensured for the TU Berlin within the national and international research community.