Research and Innovation in Professional Higher Education – EU project: DHBW Karlsruhe examines “Future Research Skills”

Bringing scientific innovation into society, designing applied regional solutions based on scientific research – this could be a suitable description of the mission of professional higher education. Research is gaining more and more importance when it comes to regional, federal and European development. In the international EU project RECAPHE, a research team of DHBW Karlsruhe in close cooperation with other institutions examines how applied universities can perform even better in promoting “Future Research Skills”.

These skills and competences should enable target groups such as students, teachers and university staff to independently initiate and implement applied research projects. For this purpose, the RECAPHE (Enhancing Staff Research and Innovation Capacity in Professional Higher Education) members are currently designing a competence framework for conducting successful applied research in professional higher education. In the following steps, a tool shall be developed for measuring the target groups’ competences and advising them on how they can enhance their skills. The aim is to propose a corresponding digital training system.

Prof. Dr. Ulf-Daniel Ehlers, Professor of Education Management and Lifelong Learning at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Karlsruhe (DHBW Karlsruhe), managing the project in the NextEdcuation working, appreciates the value of this work: „The project is a great opportunity for applied universities and their staff to expand their range of competences in order to pursue innovative research projects in the future“.

The project started in September 2019 and will end after a three-year period in August 2022. It is coordinated by Jagiellonian University (Poland) and financed by Erasmus+. In addition to the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Karlsruhe, this project is supported by EURASHE (European Association of Institutions in Higher Education, Belgium), Institutio Politecnico de Setubal (Portugal), Vilniaus Kolegija (Lithuania), Knowledge Innovation Centre (Malta), Institute of Technology SLIGO – IST (Ireland) and Eurokreator (Poland).