Vision

A high quality of life as well as a healthy and attractive living and working environment are becoming an important location factor for metropolitan regions against the backdrop of urbanisation. With participatory neighbourhood development, research on sustainable construction and renovation, innovative materials and optimised exterior and interior acoustics we contribute to the sustainability of the built environment.

For our often interdisciplinary approaches, we use physical models on a scale up to real settings in urban space including innovative participation concepts, various laboratories and workshops, measuring equipment as well as simulation tools to achieve valid and vivid research results.

Competence Centre for Acoustic and Thermal Building Physics

Competence Centre for Geodesy and Geoinformatics

Competence Centre for Integral Architecture

Competence Centre for Sustainable Urban Development

Digitalisation, artificial intelligence and climate change will continue to strongly influence industry and the economy in the coming years. This is reflected in fundamental structural changes for value chains, work processes and corporate structures. The question of future competitiveness is linked to how successfully companies and regions manage to shape the change. Therefore, we conduct inter- and transdisciplinary research on the following topics, among others: Sustainable Finance (e.g. financing the energy and mobility transition), sustainability management, environmentally oriented logistics (e.g. CO2e calculation), Logistics 4.0, Lean Logistics and digital and networked product, process and factory planning. To this end, we develop and use methods for artificial intelligence, simulation, big data analytics, data protection and data security in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) and optical measurement technology, among others.

Competence Centre for Digital Transformation in Research, Education & Business

Competence Centre for Industrial Applications of Mathematics and Computer Science

Competence Centre for Innovation Acceptance and Transformation

Competence Centre for Sustainable Economics and Management

The climate protection agreement reached in Paris in 2015 underlined the urgency of the energy transition and the expansion of renewable energies. We are therefore conducting interdisciplinary research into innovative and intelligent energy concepts to supply metropolitan regions with resources efficiently and sustainably. In doing so, we take a systemic view of the entire metropolitan region - from individual buildings to city districts to rural districts. With intelligent power grids ("smart grids") and mobility concepts, energy management solutions, solar heating and cooling as well as simulation and control of energy technology systems we want to shape the sustainable metropolitan region of the future.

Competence Centre for Acoustic and Thermal Building Physics

Competence Centre for Integral Architecture

Competence Centre for Sustainable Energy Technology

The inhabitants of a metropolitan region are on the move a lot, from the surrounding area to the city, from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, from work to home or during leisure time. We research organisational, technological and infrastructural solutions for sustainable mobility offers. Important topics are: reducing emissions, increasing traffic safety, changing forms of propulsion, urban-rural relationships, increasing the attractiveness of urban spaces, the digitalisation of mobility and sustainable operating strategies for transport infrastructures. In this way, we are making a contribution to the upcoming transport turnaround.

Competence Centre for Geodesy and Geoinformatics

Competence Centre for Mobility and Transport

Competence Centre for Sustainable Economics and Management

Competence Centre for Sustainable Urban Development

Upheavals in society and disruptive developments in the economy are leading to a changed understanding of education and work. In a digitalised future, work and continuous learning will take on a new significance. The big challenges: What does this future look like? How do we support effective learning that is flexible in terms of time and place with individualised offers and feedback? How can employees participate in shaping change? How and when will society accept new technologies? These are the questions we are asking ourselves.

Competence Centre for Digital Transformation in Research, Education & Business

Competence Centre for Innovation Acceptance and Transformation

Competence Centre for Sustainable Economics and Management

Digital transformation has profound effects on economic and social structures. The unlimited networking of data and devices creates new conditions for the development of metropolitan regions. In the future, entire system processes can become automated and autonomous - this applies to buildings and urban systems as well as urban simulations and industrial production processes. In order to solve the challenges of handling today's and tomorrow's abundance of data as efficiently and sustainably as possible in interdisciplinary interaction, artificial intelligence methods are increasingly being adapted and developed as adequate processes.

The digital transformation enables innovations in many areas of society and the economy, but at the same time it is also driven by innovations. The diverse possibilities create pressure to change and innovate, which we counter with our groundbreaking research.

Climate change and resource scarcity are both limiting and reinforcing factors - in the sense of innovation drivers - for the development of metropolitan regions for tomorrow. The risks of environmental change increase the vulnerability and adaptation pressure of metropolitan regions. With our research in the five thematic fields, we would like to actively shape sustainable development on an economic, social and ecological level. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as a benchmark for this.