RWTH Aachen strengthens research: Käte Hamburger Kolleg goes in the second phase!

RWTH Aachen strengthens research: Käte Hamburger Kolleg goes in the second phase!

Aachen, Deutschland - The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has announced today that the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Cultures of the Research on RWTH Aachen will be funded for another four years. This decision strengthens research in the field of science and technology history as well as philosophy and sociology, which have been the focus of the colleague since 2021. RWTH Aachen reports that the college under the direction of Professor Gabriele Gramelsberger and Professor Stefan Böschen will go into the second funding phase from May 2025.

The central goal of the college is to promote the integration of different disciplines into science research. There is an intensive exchange between the humanities and social sciences as well as life, nature, technology and engineering. The focus is in particular the change in research cultures that are influenced by digitization and globalization.

research focuses in the second funding phase

In the new funding phase, the college will examine three essential subject areas: the effects of digitization and globalization as a transformation driver, the dynamics of the standardization of science and research cultures as well as the diversity of the cultures of the research. The aim is to develop a theory of the "cultures of research" that is based on historical and comparative perspectives.

The Science Council emphasized in the context of its recommendations how important interdisciplinarity is for solving complex social challenges. Interdisciplinary research should not only contribute to processing application -oriented problems, but also strengthen the interrelationships between different disciplines. The Science Council emphasizes that powerful disciplines are a prerequisite for successful interdisciplinarity.

integration of international guest scientists

Another important aspect of the work of the college is the integration of international guest scientists. This serves to enrich the research results and to support the culture of knowledge at RWTH Aachen. The successful cooperation and the share of knowledge across technical limits are of central importance.

The college not only wants to achieve innovative research results, but also promote academic exchange and further development. The research approaches are shaped by central terms such as "digitality/complexity" and "Globality/Varieties of Science". These concepts are crucial to understand the challenges and opportunities in the context of the global change processes.