THI convinces with concept for young professorships

Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI) has convinced the competition "FH Personal" with its concept for junior professorships. The application for 7.9 million euros for the period from 2021 to 2026 is now being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.   
Over the next eight years, the Federal Government and the Länder will provide a total of approx. 430 million euros to support universities of applied sciences in recruiting and developing their professorial staff. The programme provides for various funding instruments for this purpose, such as priority professorships, cooperative doctoral programmes, tandem programmes or cooperation platforms.
With the concept for junior professorships, the THI is expanding its existing professorial career system. In addition to the classic regular professorships and the research professorships established at the THI since 2013, the university is one of the first universities in Germany to be able to establish a new career path for young researchers.
THI President Prof. Dr. Walter Schober is delighted with the funding: "With the junior professorship, we are creating a new career path that was previously only possible at universities. We are thus strengthening the THI as an employer brand and creating attractive career prospects for outstanding young scientists".
The programme for junior professorships is aimed both at highly qualified post-docs who lack the necessary professional experience for a professorship at a university of applied sciences and at highly qualified professional practitioners who lack the necessary doctorate. Both development paths lead to a standard professorship upon successful completion of the five-year qualification phase. The paths are implemented with partner universities and partner companies. The latter include AUDI AG, Airbus Defense & Space GmbH, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. and EPOS CAT GmbH, an IT service and consulting company. All project partners were very pleased with the approval of funding.
Dr. Sabine Maaßen, Member of the Board for Human Resources and Organisation at AUDI AG: "We congratulate the THI on the approval of the funding. With this initiative, industry and university are once again demonstrating close cooperation. By interlinking research and teaching with professional practice, we are ensuring the urgently needed mutual transfer of know-how: Together, we are thus promoting innovation and securing the next generation in future-oriented professional fields. And besides, the attractiveness of Ingolstadt as a location also benefits from this great programme."
Birgit Graumann, Head of Human Resources at the Airbus site in Manching: "Participating in the project of the Technical University of Ingolstadt to attract new professors is also securing the future of our industry. Airbus supports the professional qualification of postdocs to enable application-oriented teaching. The challenge in the coming years is to shape and secure our role as a high-performance aviation location for the future together with the stakeholders of the region. An important basic prerequisite for this lies in close cooperation with colleges and universities. More than half of the employees in aircraft construction have a university degree."
Prof. Dr. Raoul Klingner, Director of Research Management and Governance at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft: "Universities of applied sciences make an important contribution to the effective and goal-oriented transfer of scientific findings to society and the economy through their regional roots and their proximity to practice. To support the universities of applied sciences in this important task for Germany as a business location and to strengthen the innovative power of the individual regions, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft offers special framework conditions for strategic cooperation between Fraunhofer institutes and universities of applied sciences on site. For example, the Fraunhofer Application Centre 'Networked Mobility and Infrastructure' in Ingolstadt has enabled institutionalised cooperation between the THI and the Fraunhofer Institute for Transport and Infrastructure Systems IVI since 2019. The funding of the 'Professional Tenure Track Programme' at the THI now opens up further promising opportunities in the networking of personnel and the joint development and qualification of young scientists."
Andreas München, Managing Director of EPOS Cat: "EPOS CAT GmbH is delighted with the positive decision by the Technical University of Ingolstadt to support the "FH Personal" programme for the recruitment of young professors. The decision of the Joint Science Conference is to be seen as an investment in the Ingolstadt region and the linking of theory and practice. Thanks to its experience and expertise in the high-tech environment, EPOS is convinced that, together with the THI, it will be able to use the investment both economically and scientifically in a profitable way. At EPOS, the future junior professors will gain insights into practical applications in order to prepare them ideally for their work in an academic environment."
The first five junior professorships at THI are to be appointed at the end of 2021. One year later five more scientists will start. Two more professorships will then follow each year. After the successful pilot phase of the programme, the THI plans to fill about 15 to 20 percent of its positions through the junior professorship programme in the long term.