Potential of transdisciplinary research at universities of applied sciences 

The research project ‘TDR4HAW: Transdisciplinary Research at Universities of Applied Sciences – Status quo and potential of a sleeping giant’ was launched at the beginning of November 2024. “HAW” is the HAW is the German abbreviation for UAS – universities of applied sciences. 

In addition to the CHE Centre for Higher Education, the research team also includes the Fachhochschule Potsdam (Potsdam University of Applied Sciences) and the Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde (Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development). 

Together with academics from these two UAS located in the German federal state of Brandenburg, the CHE project team – consisting of Saskia Ulrich, Cort-Denis Hachmeister and Isabel Roessler – will focus on transdisciplinary research at UAS. 

An analysis of this specific research at UAS is intended to contribute to the professionalisation and quality development of research at UAS. ‘Although the topic of application-oriented and transdisciplinary research at universities of applied sciences in Germany has become increasingly important, there is still a lack of sufficient data in this area,’ says Saskia Ulrich. ‘We want to close this gap in the research landscape as part of this project,’ says the project manager of TDR4HAW at CHE. 

The aim of TDR4HAW is to develop concrete concepts for the profiling and further development of transdisciplinary research at UAS and to systematically tap into its diverse potential for the science and higher education system. 

In the joint project, the research modes and activities at UAS in Germany will be quantitatively recorded and qualitatively typologised. In addition, the characteristics, structures and framework conditions of transdisciplinary research will be analysed using case studies on the federal state of Brandenburg. In addition to investigating the status quo, TDR4HAW will survey the needs of stakeholders, including researchers, practice partners and university management, regarding professionalisation and quality development. 

The three-year project is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the ‘Science and Higher Education Research’ funding programme.