As part of his summer trip, Rhineland-Palatinate's Science Minister Clemens Hoch stopped by Mainz University of Applied Sciences yesterday. He was particularly interested in the EMPOWER joint project, which involves Mainz University of Applied Sciences, Mainz Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Worms University of Applied Sciences, Bingen University of Technology, and Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society. University President Prof. Dr. Susanne Weissman welcomed the minister to the university campus in Mainz and said, "We are pleased to be able to give you a deeper insight into the collaborative project today, which, together with our cooperation partners, will enable us to exploit our innovation potential even further, advance strategic networking in the region and use us as a driving force in solving socially relevant issues."
"Through the EMPOWER project, participating universities are given the opportunity to exploit their innovation potential even further and advance their strategic networking in the region. Together with cooperation partners, they can act as a driving force in addressing socially relevant issues. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate is participating as part of the federal initiative 'Innovative Hochschule' with a total of just under 1.3 million euros over the entire duration of the project. In view of today's and tomorrow's challenges, it is essential for universities with a modern set-up to intensively investigate how the knowledge they gain can be transferred to all areas of society and used in a sustainable manner," said Minister Hoch.
"EMPOWER serves to strategically strengthen a researchbased transfer of ideas, knowledge and technology between the participating universities and external organizations from society, business and culture, and focuses on the societal megatrendtopics of connectivity, health, sustainability, cyber security and new work. The pilot projects address current relevant issues in business, culture and society and develop sustainable solutions," said Prof. Dr. Anett Mehler-Bicher, head of the overall project and Vice President for Research & Transfer at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, explaining the overarching goals of the EMPOWER joint project.
Variety of highly topical and innovative projects
Clemens Hoch learned on site about cross-university pilot projects on Smart Industry and Mixed Reality in a corporate context, as well as about alternatives to battery storage when switching to electric power generation. Representatives from the participating universities also introduced him to the New Venture Studio, the Competence Center Digital Manufacturing and the Think Tank Cyber Security. App developments on New Work as well as on the social participation of senior citizens rounded off the picture and contributed to the fact that the Minister of Science was able to get an impression of the diverse, highly topical and innovative projects on which the EMPOWER partner universities are working and researching together.
About EMPOWER
EMPOWER is a collaborative project of five universities of applied sciences in Rhineland-Palatinate launched in 2023 (running until the end of 2027). As a cross-university transfer alliance in Rheinhessen/Vorderpfalz, EMPOWER's goal is to promote the research-based transfer of ideas, knowledge and technology with business and society in the region. To this end, each of the five universities participating in the transfer alliance contributes its expertise on a megatrend topic in terms of content: Mainz University of Applied Sciences | Connectivity, Catholic University of Applied Sciences Mainz | Health, Worms University of Applied Sciences | Cyber Security, Bingen University of Technology | Sustainability, Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society | New Work. EMPOWER is funded by the federal-state initiative "Innovative Hochschule" with a total of 13.2 million euros.
Press contact:
EMPOWER joint project
Britta Käufer
Communications Manager
Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society
Tel. +49 621/5203-249
britta.kaeufer@ 8< SPAM protection, please remove >8 hwg-lu.de
empower-rlp.de
