From left to right: Prof. Dr. Arjan Kuijper (Research Coach at Fraunhofer IGD), Ayse Asar (State Secretary at the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts), Dr. Michael Meister (Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research), Prof. Dr. Bodo Igler (Vice President for Research and Development at Hochschule RheinMain), and Prof. Dr. Eva Waller (President of Hochschule RheinMain).

“The project REQUAS is an excellent example of innovation in the recruitment of top-tier professorial staff. Through the intended cooperative training of specialists, Hochschule RheinMain will benefit by increasing its attractiveness, as will the participating Fraunhofer institutes and the region as a whole,” says Dr. Michael Meister, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Ayse Asar, State Secretary at the Hessian Ministry of Science and the Arts, emphasizes: “The successful participation of Hochschule RheinMain in this federal–state program—like that of Hessian universities in general—demonstrates the high quality of its work. Recruiting new, innovative professors, the state-funded establishment of a mid-level academic staff, and the right to award doctorates in research-strong areas are the central, interlinked elements for strengthening application-oriented research at universities of applied sciences and thus knowledge transfer to industry and society as a whole.”

“We are very pleased about this funding decision. All those involved in the departments, administration, executive board, and Fraunhofer institutes have worked intensively on this topic. With the approved funding, Hochschule RheinMain will create an offer that systematically links qualification and career development toward a professorship at HSRM,” says University President Prof. Dr. Eva Waller.

Cooperation with Fraunhofer Institutes

As a pilot project, structures for recruiting and developing early-career professorial staff will be established in cooperation with three Fraunhofer institutes in Darmstadt and Mainz. These include the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability (LBF) in Darmstadt, as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems (IMM) in Mainz.

“For the Fraunhofer institutes, close cooperation with local universities is a matter of course. Thanks to close personal ties at all levels, results of joint research can be efficiently transferred into application, and the joint portfolio in the field of knowledge and technology transfer can be strategically expanded. The numerous industrial contacts of the Fraunhofer institutes enable broad networking as well as the transfer and opening of research to society,” explains Prof. Dr. Arjan Kuijper, Research Coach at Fraunhofer IGD.

“This cooperation with the Fraunhofer institutes was already a unique feature of our university at the application stage. With the implementation of the project, Hochschule RheinMain is breaking new ground: for the first time, the systematic development and recruitment of professorial staff will be carried out in cooperation with institutes from a non-university research organization,” says Prof. Dr. Bodo Igler, Vice President for Research and Development at Hochschule RheinMain.

Through the planned qualification measures, the university aims to develop staff with a qualification profile for future professorial roles that is difficult to recruit on the labor market. There is a need for highly qualified professors with experience in both academia and practice. Academic staff coming from Fraunhofer institutes bring experience in applied industrial research as well as in acquiring third-party funding.

Significantly Increasing the Attractiveness of the University

In addition, cooperation with the Fraunhofer institutes and the associated employment opportunities is intended to significantly strengthen the university’s attractiveness as an employer. “In general, we want to deepen the existing subject-specific cooperation and extend it to the area of personnel development, enabling more intensive regional networking,” says Prof. Dr. Bodo Igler. The measures are also intended to contribute to a sustainable improvement in gender equality among the professorial staff at HSRM.

About the Federal–State Program

Universities selected under the federal–state program “FH-Personal” receive support, among other things, for establishing cooperation platforms, endowed professorships, tandem programs, and cooperative and structured doctoral programs. The implementation of additional innovative ideas to improve personnel recruitment and qualification is also funded. The program has a total budget of more than EUR 430 million and runs until 2028. It is jointly funded by the federal and state governments.