FH Competence

Increasing digitalization is fundamentally changing the way we produce, consume, work and live. This change in living and working environments offers many opportunities, but also risks in the social, economic and political spheres. The Institute for the Digital Transformation of Application and Living Domains (IDiAL) develops scientific findings and solutions to turn these opportunities into benefits for the economy and society and to address the challenges that arise in the interests of people and Business Studies.

Under the leadership of the Process Improvement for Mechatronic and Embedded Systems (PIMES) research focus area funded by FH STRUKTUR and in cooperation with the Mobile Business - Mobile Systems (MBMS), Intelligent Business Information Systems (iBIS) and BioMedical Technology (BMT, both funded by FH STRUKTUR) research focus areas, 11 professors from four faculties have founded the Institute for the Digital Transformation of Application and Living Domains (IDiAL) as a logical next step. This institute forms an accumulation point in the Dortmund Technology Park for transdisciplinary and participatory research on the challenge of digitizing important areas of life and work. The success of this institute will be measured by the extent to which implementation-oriented cooperation between stakeholders from science, Business Studies and society succeeds in finding solutions that make the technical trend towards digitalization genuinely and tangibly useful to people.

The Institute for the Digitalization of Living and Working Environments is to become a beacon for Fachhochschule Dortmund in the Technology Park, in Dortmund, in the Ruhr region, nationally and internationally. This will be achieved by creating joint work and research spaces and formats, initially in the fields of automotive software, cyber-physical systems and social platforms. In addition, professional engineering projects will be developed, especially in cooperation with SMEs, by addressing tasks at technology readiness level TRL 7-9, i.e. close to the actual product. Accompanying research into the design of the socio-economic change process and the participatory innovation process completes the portfolio. In the domains, docking to the scientific community is achieved through doctoral cooperation, primarily with TU Dortmund University, Bielefeld University and the University of Duisburg-Essen. With the help of the Masters in Embedded Systems for Mechatronics (ESM) and integration into the Ruhr Master School, the close connection between research and teaching typical of universities of applied sciences is achieved. The resulting visibility and ability to cooperate makes a decisive and sustainable contribution to redefining the role of the UAS in structural change.

Fachhochschule Dortmund is one of seven universities that have been awarded funding as part of the "FH Kompetenz" program of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. A total of 33 applications were submitted by 20 universities, with 15 applications reaching the final round. The funding program is primarily aimed at the establishment of new research institutes at universities of applied sciences. At Fachhochschule Dortmund, the establishment of an "Institute for the Digital Transformation of Application and Living Domains" (IDiAL) is being funded with 1 million euros over five years. The aim is to bundle research on digitalization under one roof.