Promotion prize

Have you completed your doctorate at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts with above-average results? Or have you supervised an above-average doctorate at Fachhochschule Dortmund and would like to nominate your candidate? Then apply now for the Fachhochschule Dortmund's doctoral award!

In order to promote young academics, recognize excellent research achievements of young scientists and increase the visibility of research results beyond the university, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts has been awarding the annual doctoral prize of 1,000 euros from the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts' funding association(Opens in a new tab) for an outstanding cooperative doctorate from the various faculties of Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts since 2022.

You can find the announcement for the 2026 doctoral award here PDF-File 75,96 kB .

Qualification for the award

The current call for applications is aimed at researchers with an excellent cooperative doctorate or doctorate according to the PK NRW's own doctoral law in German or English under the proven supervision of a professor at Fachhochschule Dortmund. The doctoral award 2026 refers to doctorates that were successfully defended in 2025.

Doctoral candidates are nominated by the Vice-Rector for Research and Transfer or can apply for the prize independently. The completed doctorates must have been graded at least "magna cum laude".

Registration at the Graduate Center(Opens in a new tab) of Fachhochschule Dortmund is a prerequisite for application, but can also be done during the application process. The registration serves to record all ongoing and completed doctorates. Click here(Opens in a new tab) to register directly.

The primary criterion for the award is the final grade.

Application

The application for the doctoral prize ends on 17.04.2026.

Applicants are requested to send their documents in electronic form in German or English to promotionskollegfh-dortmundde.

Documents to be submitted

Your contact person

Award winner 2025: Dr. Jonas Sorgalla

Award winner 2024: Dr. Sven Becker

Sven Becker began his academic career at Fachhochschule Dortmund, where he successfully completed his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in computer science. His talent and enthusiasm for mathematics and artificial intelligence (AI) became apparent early on. His second supervisor Prof. Dr. Christoph Friedrich(Opens in a new tab) recalls: "I got to know Sven in his first semester and later taught him machine learning in his Master's degree. His enthusiasm for complex problems and his ability to develop innovative approaches were impressive right from the start".

Becker successfully participated in international AI competitions during his studies and his projects laid the foundation for his doctorate on the topic of "Fully automated bone age determination on pediatric X-ray images based on the radiological approach".

An innovative idea with practical relevance

Becker's dissertation deals with an everyday problem in medical practice: the time-consuming and complex determination of bone age in children. This is usually carried out by pediatric radiologists who evaluate X-ray images in order to detect growth disorders. The two-stage deep learning system developed by Becker automates this process and mimics the way a radiologist works, making the results easier for medical professionals to interpret.

"The special thing about Sven's approach is that it respects and emulates the radiologist's approach. This is not only technically sophisticated, but also creates trust among users," explains his first supervisor Prof. Dr. Felix Nensa.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Friedrich also emphasizes the practical relevance of the research: "Bone age determination is essential for the diagnosis of growth disorders, but it is also laborious and time-consuming. Sven's instrument could provide real relief here."

An interdisciplinary path to success

Sven Becker's cooperative doctorate was characterized by intensive collaboration between the Fachhochschule Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen. In addition to Prof. Dr. Felix Nensa as first supervisor, Prof. Dr. Christoph Friedrich played an important role as second supervisor. Both emphasize the synergies that resulted from their cooperation.

"Sven had access to a comprehensive range of knowledge through both of us. I think that was one of the reasons why his work was not only scientifically excellent, but also practical and interdisciplinary," emphasizes Nensa. He also describes the collaboration as inspiring: "I noticed that he put his heart and soul into his topics. I was particularly impressed by his drive to create something new and to always maintain an overview of the complex interrelationships."

The winner of the 2024 doctoral prize with his certificate

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A sign of appreciation

The doctorate award is a special recognition for Sven Becker. "You invest a lot of time in your work, and receiving the award was a nice surprise," he says. The prize is also a success for his supervisors. Friedrich emphasizes: "Sven's achievement is an outstanding example of how successful cooperative doctorates can be."

A promising outlook

Dr. Sven Becker now works in industry, where he contributes his expertise to new projects. Nensa takes a positive view of Becker's career path: "Sven has shown that he is not only scientifically excellent, but also has the ability to tackle complex problems with practical relevance. I am sure that he will continue to achieve great things."

Becker's work shows how AI can help to make medical procedures more efficient and trustworthy. The 2024 PhD Award highlights the importance of his research and underlines the value of interdisciplinary collaboration between science and practice.

Prize winner 2023: Dr. Nadine Richter

Dr. Nadine Richter began her academic career in 2011 at the Fachhochschule Dortmund with a Bachelor's degree in Social Work, followed by a Master's degree in Social Sustainability and Demographic Change. She began working at Fachhochschule Dortmund during her bachelor's degree - first as a tutor and later as a research assistant. Since 2017, she has been a research assistant in the Faculty of Applied Social Studies, where she worked on the PsyKo-Mobil project until 2021. She is currently working on the GenoMobil(Opens in a new tab) research project, where she can also integrate the content of her dissertation.

Her dissertation "Being mindful, living sustainable: Relationships between mindfulness, well-being and pro-environmental behavior" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Marcel Hunecke(Opens in a new tab) from the Fachhochschule Dortmund and Prof. Dr. Maike Luhmann (Ruhr University Bochum) and completed with magna cum laude at the Ruhr University Bochum in 2022.

Dr. Nadine Richter on the doctoral prize: "The prize means a lot to me. Especially in the last few years, when the pandemic was going on, I really had a hard time [...] working on my doctoral thesis.
And I think everyone who is working on something like this now also knows how difficult it is in between, and on the one hand it's an honor to receive such an award and on the other hand I also think it's an appreciation of this topic. My work was about sustainability and it means something to me when work on this topic, which I find very important, is recognized."

Interview with the award winner

Portrait of Nadine Richter__Portrait of Nadine Richter

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Prof. Dr. Marcel Hunecke comments on the prizewinner's work as her supervisor:

"Through the integrated analysis of the three topics of mindfulness, environmental behavior and psychological well-being, Dr. Richter's dissertation makes a current and independent contribution to environmental psychology and sustainability psychology, in which aspects of emotion regulation in environmental behavior are linked in an innovative way with aspects of psychological well-being.
The dissertation is based on three independent empirical studies, the scientific excellence of which is documented by the publication in three different peer-reviewed international journals."

The university's supervisor, Prof. Dr. Meike Luhmann, is also positive:

"The dissertation addresses a highly topical issue: Which individual factors contribute to people behaving in a climate-friendly way?
One of these relevant individual factors could be mindfulness. The basic thesis of this dissertation is that mindfulness is positively related to both climate-friendly behaviors and various facets of well-being. The theoretical model on which this thesis is based has been neatly translated into empirically testable questions in this dissertation and the studies follow a clear common thread.
Highly sophisticated statistical methods were used in all studies, e.g. complex structural equation modeling and longitudinal data methods. This is a sophisticated piece of work that has been well implemented and makes an important contribution to research on the relevance of mindfulness."