TU Berlin Future Perspectives Until 2025

Our contribution to shaping the future

To forge a bridge between technological research and social responsibility – this was the founding mission of Technische Universität Berlin in 1946. We regard as one of our foremost tasks the exploration and shaping of technological and societal change using interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, while offering our students outstanding preparation for addressing these challenges.

By pursuing a holistic strategy, we contribute in an innovative manner to shaping the future. In doing so, we acknowledge our responsibility – a responsibility which is historically based –  to conduct research and teaching for the benefit of society as a whole, while remaining true to our ethical values and our commitment to a humanistic approach.

Against this background, research and teaching in the natural, planning and engineering sciences take place on equal footing, and in close cooperation, with the humanities and the educational and social sciences.

The Executive Board launched a strategy process

In order to master the approaching challenges, and in line with TU Berlin’s mission statement, the Executive Board has reflected on questions such as:

  • What strategic direction should our university pursue over the coming seven years?
  • What strengths can we build on? What are our goals in this regard? How can we best realize and operationalize the high aspirations driven by the values that we have set ourselves in our research, teaching and everyday university life?
  • What are the main fields of action, what measures should we take to achieve our goals?

In this context, the Executive Board launched a strategy process, during which we first drafted a strategy for the future, which – for the first time in the history of our university – was then further developed in a participatory dialog with the university members.

All TU Berlin members were given the opportunity to submit comments and make suggestions. Based on the results, the Executive Board identified ten fields of action that are of strategic importance to our university.

Ten strategic fields of action until 2025

Realizing Holistic Research for the Benefit of Society

Our Aspiration

TU Berlin has placed its focus on the advancement of research and technology for the benefit of our society. To this end, we conduct interconnected research at the highest international level into fundamental principles and their applications. Making use of our entire spectrum of subjects, we strive to establish new future-related fields of research and promote inter-faculty research activities in networks with external players.

Where We Are Now

The range of disciplines at TU Berlin makes it possible to assume a holistic approach to research dealing with the urgent issues of the future. The research success of TU Berlin is as much due to the outstanding performance of many scientist working on their own individual projects (funded, for instance, with individual grants from the German Research Foundation or ERC grants) as it is to their collaborative activities (in clusters of excellence, Knowledge and Innovation Centers [KICs], collaborative research centers, Einstein Centers, research campuses, etc.) and other cooperative ventures with industry (for instance, BASCat, Industry and Science Campus Berlin – IWCB). TU Berlin has supplemented its competencies by building strategic networks through targeted cooperation with players from the worlds of science, business, politics and civil society. Conducting integrative research in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research cooperation groups is a key element of TU Berlin’s research strategy. This means that we prioritize joint research activities, while placing the greatest value on attracting top-level researchers. The basis for all this is created by the strategies coordinated with the faculties for the purpose of promoting collaborative projects in fundamental and applied research.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • We endeavor to ensure that innovative fields of research are identified at the earliest possible stage and, if applicable, integrated in our research profile. We undertake to make decisions concerning development planning for institutes, faculties and the entire University on the basis of reliable data.
  • We strive to strengthen cutting-edge research by individuals, for example, by supporting proposals for ERC grants. To this end, we will continue to pursue the successful strategy which we developed for this purpose in 2017. This strategy includes a variety of means by which support is provided, as well as services for (potential) applicants.
  • We initiate and promote joint projects in fundamental and applied research in all core areas. To this end, we aim to identify potential applicants at an early stage and, if necessary, link them in a targeted manner with cooperation partners within our university or from external networks. We facilitate the application process by providing needs-oriented assistance. We support promising projects as early as the application stage, for instance, by providing a suitable infrastructure, helping people save valuable time, and opening up additional opportunities for professional exchange.
  • Where possible, we systematically expand research infrastructures that are of strategic interest to our key application areas. To this end, we are carrying out a self-evaluation and developing a road map to safeguard our work and its further development. Furthermore, we envision a joint use of the research infrastructures within the Berlin University Alliance.

Strengthening Networking Activities within the Scientific Community

Our Aspiration

High-quality top-level research is only possible if global perspectives are taken into account and global demands are met – here, we view leading universities around the world as our benchmark. We strive to expand our own skills and competencies, and enhance our options for shaping TU Berlin by entering into strategic alliances with other universities and non-university research institutions – at the regional, national and international level.

Where We Are Now

Over the years, TU Berlin has strategically strengthened at various levels its long-nurtured collaborative network with other research institutions.

Non-university research institutions at the regional and national level (Fraunhofer Society, Helmholtz Association, Leibniz Association, Max Planck Society) are already strategically important partners with whom TU Berlin cooperates in major research projects and joint projects. No fewer than 58 of around 345 professors at TU Berlin have been jointly appointed with other research institutions. Together with the medical faculty Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, TU Berlin acquired a new research building in 2018, where research is conducted on the “The Simulated Human.”

A special form of scientific cooperation can be found within the city limits of Berlin: in 2016, TU Berlin, in conjunction with Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and their joint medical faculty, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, decided to establish the Berlin University Alliance. As part of the 2018 Excellence Strategy, TU Berlin and the other Berlin universities jointly submitted an application for funding as a consortium of Universities of Excellence. This requires close cooperation in a variety of strategic fields. The implementation of the projects outlined in the application will strengthen TU Berlin as an individual university, while raising Berlin’s profile as a research and science location in the international arena.

Strategic partnerships with selected universities in Europe and Australia demonstrate the strength of our engagement in these regions. Through its regional presence, TU Berlin – partly in alliance with the Berlin universities – currently has local representation in Brussels, Cairo and São Paulo; in the future, this will also extend to North America. Furthermore, TU Berlin has supported international research, teaching, and administrative exchange through an active network of global partnerships. A variety of such partnerships can be found in Europe, Australia, the USA, Israel, China, the MENA region and in research cooperation projects with the Global South.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • In the coming years, we will intensify our extensive cooperation with non-university research institutions through the joint appointment of professorships as well as through new forms of cooperation. To this end, in consultation with external institutions, we are developing new approaches to conducting joint appointments. Furthermore, we will explore new cooperative formats to promote joint research projects and establish new research groups.
  • In the future, we will be joining forces within the Berlin University Alliance in selected interdisciplinary research fields and strengthening each other mutually in a more targeted manner in our research and teaching. In addition, we will work together to increase the exchange between science and society as well as the promotion of our junior scholars. Furthermore, we will collaborate more closely on cross-cutting issues of strategic importance such as internationalization, digital transformation, diversity and equality, but also teacher training.
  • We will expand our own global network by entering into strategic cooperation with universities in the USA and in the Global South.

Forming Networks between Research and Practice

Our Aspiration

We aim to promote the transfer of knowledge and technology between our university and the world of practice by means of reciprocal exchange during the entire research process. We endeavor to enter into strategic alliances with selected players from the spheres of business, politics, culture and civil society. In addition, we will promote the transfer of innovation through spin-offs and support members of TU Berlin in their efforts to establish companies. We are dedicated to communicating research results of societal relevance to the general public, advising political players, and engaging in active exchange with civil society, as well as non-university networks and players, thereby enriching our research and teaching activities.

Where We Are Now

For many years, TU Berlin, as a university of technology, has made the transfer of knowledge and technology a major focus of its activities. We consider this focus to be on equal footing with research and teaching. Technology exploitation plays an important role and is successfully supported by various structures within our university. With regard to its entrepreneurial activities, TU Berlin occupies a leading role in Germany. Our university has enabled transfer in the sense of reciprocal exchange in different forms and formats – not only in cooperation with the private sector, but with all sections of society. The focus in this regard has been on communication, application and consultation.

TU Berlin is already engaged in intensive communication about science and scholarship to strengthen trust in science, research and scientific findings, thereby fostering academic freedom in a national and international context. We increasingly make use of new means of communication for the purpose of initiating and maintaining dialog.

For many years now, TU Berlin has been working closely, and successfully, with various partners in the private sector; examples here include T-Labs (Deutsche Telekom AG), BASCat (BASF SE), the Industry and Science Campus Berlin (IWCB, Siemens AG), and the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF). Issues concerning society itself are specifically addressed at the research campus Mobility2Grid (Federal Ministry of Education and Research), at Campus Charlottenburg, as well as at two EIT KICs, in each of which TU Berlin is involved as a Core Partner.

TU Berlin regards transdisciplinarity as a forward-looking research principle, for both academic and non-academic society. Research questions are formulated and explored thematically and methodologically from the perspectives offered by various disciplines and, beyond the borders of the academic world, by partners from the world of practice – and this all takes place throughout the entire research process. Participatory research already has a long tradition at TU Berlin and is visible, for instance, in the activities conducted in the field of planning and social sciences or at the Center for Technology and Society (ZTG).

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • We undertake to evaluate the formats currently offered at TU Berlin and to expand our science communication through additional innovative formats that we will use for the strategic setting of agendas for public debate. Furthermore, we will support our researchers in performing their role as ambassadors for the transfer of knowledge: in addition to offering relevant training courses for the acquisition of certificates, we will implement internal quality standards based on the rules of good scientific communication.
  • We will intensify and expand our extensive network of partners in a targeted manner by adding players from the private sector; in doing so, we will place a special focus on sustainability, digitalization and our core areas. We will develop innovative cooperative formats, for instance in connection with the co-working space EINS which is scheduled to open in 2019.
  • We will further develop our Centre for Entrepreneurship (CfE), which promotes the establishment of spin-offs and anchors entrepreneurship in research and teaching, with regard to its organizational structure and content. The CfE will also be responsible for operating the co-working space EINS and an associated Maker Space.
  • We will continue to strengthen our transdisciplinary activities to broaden TU Berlin’s overall profile. This will apply, above all, to the development of topics and the conceptualization of new projects, as well as to a targeted matching of players from the spheres of research, politics, civil society and business.
  • We endeavor to raise our participatory research to a completely new level of development by means of conducting pilot projects involving citizen science. In doing so, we intend to invite ordinary members of the public to join us in developing new scientific approaches and methods for the transfer and acquisition of knowledge.

Future-Oriented Teaching and Learning

Our Aspiration

We endeavor to strengthen TU Berlin’s standing as an attractive educational institution that enables students to acquire the professional and social skills they need to actively shape not only their own individual futures, but also the future of our society. Our wide range of subjects enables students to pursue a transdisciplinary academic education that reflects the University’s social and global responsibility. Continued academic education and the transfer of knowledge and technology are integral components of the courses offered at TU Berlin and enable lifelong learning. We strive to continuously improve the quality of teaching by encouraging a dialog between teaching staff and students, with the supplementary involvement of partners from the world of practice, and by providing means to professionalize teaching.

Where We Are Now

With about 34.500 students, around 23% of whom are international students, TU Berlin is one of the largest academic educational institutions for technology in Germany. In its so called Ziethen Manifesto of 2012, TU Berlin committed itself to an approach to teaching that places students and their learning processes at the center. Since then, we have already implemented a number of measures that have noticeably raised the importance of teaching. All 140 study programs offered at TU Berlin already pursue the overarching goal of educating students to have an open-minded attitude, to think critically, to act responsibly, and to possess a specialist grasp of their subjects. Broadly conceived bachelor’s programs – mostly taught in German – are conceptualized to lay the foundations for further studies in specialized, English-taught master’s programs. In 2018, with a view towards the further development of its teaching practices, TU Berlin formulated as a permanent aspiration a new Mission Statement for Teaching. This formulates as an objective a modern, future-oriented and practice-oriented form of education that opens up a range of different career paths for students. This Mission Statement will serve as the basis for all of the regulations, guidelines and strategies pertaining to teaching at TU Berlin that are to be implemented over the coming years.

With the launch of the School of Education (SETUB) in 2015, TU Berlin has consolidated its expertise in the field of teacher training and aligned it to its new guiding principles. Likewise, it is imperative that we implement these principles consistently in the future.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • In the future, we will endeavor to connect our teaching activities even more closely with our research. To this end, we will further develop our master’s degree programs such that students have the opportunity to assist in research projects at an early stage of their studies. We will differentiate research projects more strongly with regard to their topics and adapt them to TU Berlin’s long-term research priorities. With the support of the Berlin University Alliance, we will expand interdisciplinary master’s degree programs, including for the purpose of training junior staff for interdisciplinary research projects.
  • We will use teaching to create impetus for research. To this end, we will expand the range of options available for students interested in research by embracing, and adapting ideas from the Anglo-American concept of the Student Research Opportunities Program (StuROP). Students will be brought into existing research projects during various stages of their studies, thereby enabling them to gain insights into top-level research conducted in Berlin and at selected partner universities around the globe. In addition, together with Berlin universities and international partners, we plan to establish a student research conference where students can present the results of their research.
  • We endeavor to make it possible, and easier, for our students to gain international and intercultural experience. To this end, we will further expand our range of exchange and dual-degree programs. Master’s degree programs will increasingly be taught in English.
  • As part of the elective and compulsory-elective modules, we will teach our students specific supplementary skills in areas of high relevance to society. This pertains, in particular, to certification programs in the fields of gender, sustainability and digitalization that already exist or are being developed.
  • We intend to counteract the, in some instances, high dropout rates for the initial stage of studies by means of the successfully established MINTgrün orientation course of study with its interactive formats in teaching and learning in the STEM subjects. The course will be supplemented by mentoring programs.
  • We will continue our endeavors to further develop teacher training into an element that contributes to TU Berlin’s profile and we will enhance the visibility and networking of such teacher training – both internally and externally with all of our players. We will expand our courses and programs, including those for stays abroad, in order to enable more students to enter teacher training at a later stage of their studies.
  • Furthermore, we will expand our range of options for continued academic education in order to support “lifelong learning” as an educational opportunity.

Strengthening Science-Support Units

Our Aspiration

A modern and efficient administration is an essential requirement for excellence in research and teaching. Every day, the University’s administrative staff, whether in the central departments and sections or in the faculties and institutes, strive to achieve this goal.

It is also essential to keep pace with the developments and challenges of modern science management and to develop structures and processes to fully harness the potential of administration as a means of providing support to scientific activities. University-specific reform measures, a growing university, the increasing digitalization of work and the increased rate of work which this demands represent challenges for TU Berlin, as do changes in society and the shortage of skilled labor. The entire university system is subject to a strong dynamic of change leading to an increased importance and increasingly visible role for units providing scientific support.

Where We Are Now

TU Berlin offers its staff a wide-ranging continuing education program to equip them with the skills to meet the changing requirements of their jobs and to enable them to develop their personal skills. As a family-friendly university, TU Berlin offers a range of options to help achieve a good work-life-balance. This includes models for part-time work, flextime and home office.

Participative processes are part of the University’s daily working culture. Through their involvement in various working groups, TU staff participate in the joint shaping of processes with University management.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • As part of our diversity strategy, we are developing our staff policy with an emphasis on transparent and structured processes. Our staff policy supports diverse career paths by taking account of time devoted to family, supporting second-chance education and through the recognition of different forms of work undertaken in various social and professional contexts.
  • On the basis of these principles, we provide transparent educational formats structured towards different target groups. We promote life-long learning and support the professional and personal development of staff through measures such as a continuing education master’s program in science management. The existing continuing education offers are conceived as part of an extensive and dynamic staff development program geared towards today’s challenges. Management are provided with systematic training and coaching and conduct staff-management discussions.
  • We recognize the changing requirements of the workplace and the ongoing need for the development of our staff’s skills and qualifications.
  • We are striving to remove bureaucratic hurdles and to strengthen the autonomy and service mentality of our staff.
  • We are further strengthening the service philosophy and working relations between the Central University Administration and the faculties and central institutes through the development of service level agreements (SLA). This enables us to establish quality standards for administrative work.

Fostering Talent and Developing Potential

Our Aspiration

We aim to provide attractive and challenging jobs and trainee positions to all our staff members. Utilizing a holistic approach to personnel development, we endeavor to open up innovative opportunities for individual development, taking into account the many different possible career paths. The range of what we have to offer in this area has been partly defined together with the Berlin University Alliance and is aimed at our junior scholars, permanent staff members in the academic field, and administrative staff. It is our goal to successfully attract and retain in the long term top-level researchers from Germany and beyond. Furthermore, we aim to cooperate with our highly successful alumni to gain support for our efforts in this field.

Where We Are Now

Attracting, promoting and retaining the brightest minds – this is decisive for TU Berlin’s long-term performance and applies to research, teaching and administration. Today, TU Berlin is already characterized by its strong international profile and the growing diversity of its members. Equally diverse are the fields and contents of work, the ways of working, and, last but not least, the biographies, talents and professional backgrounds of TU Berlin’s members. This diversity must be adequately taken into account and expanded. Equal opportunities, internationalization and equality are the guiding principles of action in all areas of responsibility. In order to ensure the implementation of these principles in the long term, TU Berlin is currently engaged in a participatory process with the target groups to further develop its personnel policy as an integral part of its personnel development.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • We aim to further develop the skills and expertise of our staff members and help them to realize their full potential. To this end, various internal and external providers will conceptualize and implement a range of appropriate options. Whenever possible, these options shall be open to all members of our university.
  • We support the compatibility of professional and family life and will ensure that the corresponding overall conditions are in place, for instance, by the allowance of parental leave and by offering advice and consultation.
  • We offer our junior scholars numerous specialized and interdisciplinary qualification courses. In doing so, we place great importance on individual and needs-based support at all career levels. Opportunities to gain transferable skills are conceived and offered in collaboration with the Berlin University Alliance, both in centralized and de-centralized institutions.
  • By means of special consulting and funding instruments, we endeavor to provide young researchers with the best possible chances and qualifications for starting their careers within the academic world and beyond. Among other measures, we will considerably increase the number of tenure-track professorships, thereby making the path to permanent professorships more plannable. Our long-term goal is initially to fill about a quarter of the professorships established in the TU Berlin budget with tenure-track professors.
  • We aim to improve the active recruitment of the brightest minds from abroad, especially with regard to female professors in disciplines in which they are underrepresented. A staff unit established in 2018 supports the international recruitment process.

Keeping Sustainability Issues Constantly in Mind

Our Aspiration

The members of TU Berlin are committed to the principle of sustainable development through the connection of ecological, economic and social issues. They aspire to meet the requirements of the present, while seeking not to burden future generations.

Where We Are Now

We are committed to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Sustainability, in this regard, includes all of TU Berlin’s fields of activity. We research and teach on the topic of sustainability, and the University’s operations increasingly follow the principles of sustainable, environmentally-friendly development. With the establishment of a Sustainability Council that advises the Executive Board, the Academic Senate and the faculties, TU Berlin has taken a further step towards addressing the issue in a comprehensive and systemic manner. The next steps are the development of a sustainability strategy and the application of the German Sustainability Code for Higher Education Institutions. To include all TU Berlin members, the Executive Board initiated a competition of ideas and provided funds to implement the winning concepts. Many of the winning ideas have been included in new teaching projects. Since 2017, TU Berlin has offered a sustainability certificate program that is open to all students.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • As described in Chapter 3, many of our research activities focus on aspects of sustainability. Furthermore, our research will address, among other issues, the reciprocal impacts of digitalization and sustainability. One reason for this is the fact that the effects of digital transformation on sustainable development are ambivalent. On the one hand, a significant portion of the world’s electricity demand is associated with digitalization – and the trend is rising. On the other hand, intelligent systems allow for a more efficient use of our resources.
  • We will integrate perspectives of sustainable development into our teaching. As part of their studies, our students shall acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and qualifications to contribute to sustainable development, and they will earn a certificate in the process. They will thus be placed in the position to recognize how their actions impact upon sustainability and, as a consequence, how to make responsible decisions in this regard. Our teaching staff shall reflect the United Nations’ goals for sustainable development in their teaching and adequately integrate issues relating to sustainability in their courses.
  • Furthermore, we will push for a stronger orientation towards sustainability in our spin-offs supported by our Centre for Entrepreneurship. In the future, we will focus our efforts particularly on those spin-offs that embrace the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship will be taught, researched and facilitated with an eye towards sustainability and with a three-fold focus on economic, social and ecological issues. Entrepreneurial thinking will thus increasingly be evaluated in the light of whether it contributes to addressing global challenges.
  • Within the scope of pending refurbishment measures, we will be taking important steps towards transforming TU Berlin into a climate-neutral campus. For this purpose, we also rely on the expertise of our own researchers. Not only does this approach support the overall University goal of sustainability, it also reflects the goal proclaimed by the Berlin Senate Administration in its “Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Programme 2030,” according to which Berlin is to be developed into a climate-neutral metropolis. This will be facilitated by the new financial leeway provided by the Berlin Senate for refurbishment and new construction measures carried out as part of an organization’s self-management.

Acknowledging Diversity and Living Equal Opportunities

Our Aspiration

In our teaching, research and transfer of knowledge and technology we aim to explicitly consider and embrace the plurality of world views and diverse ways of life. The members of TU Berlin shall actively engage in promoting equal opportunities for all individuals and in creating family-friendly study and working conditions. We strive to ensure equal opportunities and non-discrimination at all levels of the University organization.

Where We Are Now

TU Berlin views the diversity of its members as a driving force for creative scientific work and the academic support that underlies it. In this regard, diversity means the profile of students and staff members in terms of age, disabilities and chronic illnesses, ethnic background, gender, ideological outlook, social background and sexual orientation. TU Berlin understands diversity management as being the conscious and resource-oriented engagement with diversity at the University. All members of our university shall actively promote and support in an appreciative and respectful manner the acceptance of diversity and ensure equal opportunities as well as freedom from discrimination throughout TU Berlin. TU Berlin is committed to creating a structure and promoting a culture of research, work and studies that opens up and integrates the largest possible spectrum of opinions, perspectives and experiences. In doing so, we not only connect with the diversity of Berlin as a city, but also with all global-oriented life visions.

TU Berlin is strongly committed to being a gender-equitable university. As early as 2015, it set itself qualitative and quantitative targets for each faculty in order to increase the proportion of women. In addition, it has drawn up a comprehensive portfolio of measures to achieve these targets. The measures range from attracting female pupils and supporting female students in the completion of their studies to recruiting female junior scholars. With regard to students, early successes have already been registered as a result. TU Berlin’s gender-equality work is focused on three areas: strengthening the advancement of women, further developing the organization, and changing the organizational culture.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • We have engaged in a participatory coordination process to develop a diversity strategy that embraces numerous fields of action. The diversity strategy will identify concrete objectives ranging from ensuring diversity in staff recruitment and development, and in workplace and academic culture, to implementing diversity as a cross-cutting issue in teaching, in research and in the transfer of knowledge and technology, and to developing diversity-equitable infrastructures, advisory services and participatory decision-making processes. The entire strategy is based on our taking stock of the core dimensions of diversity. In doing so, we will be putting into effect a needs-based approach that addresses all target groups, thereby seeking to attract and value members from various social backgrounds.
  • We will anchor internationalization and internationality in the University’s conception of itself – and indeed in all of its members’ conceptions of themselves – and ensure that these core values form the foundation of research, teaching, administration, and the transfer of knowledge and technology. To this end, we will systematically support our staff members by providing training opportunities (for instance, in the form of English language courses and courses to acquire intercultural skills), thereby enabling them to live and implement internationalization.
  • We will consistently integrate the objectives of internationalization, diversity and equal opportunities as cross-cutting issues in all structures and processes. The focus in this regard lies on administrative structures and processes as well as on recruitment measures and the means by which support is provided in research, studies and teaching.
  • We endeavor to support female junior scholars on their academic career paths by means of special options and to facilitate the switch between research and industry.
  • We will further develop our organizational culture at TU Berlin by raising awareness of gender equality and intensifying our public relations work in this direction. For instance, we aim to raise the awareness of all players with regard to equal opportunities by increasing transparency in the distribution of resources. In addition, we will continuously adapt our organizational and managerial structures to reflect diversity and equal opportunity principles.

Designing Digitalization

Our Aspiration

At TU Berlin, we regard digital transformation as an important field of research and we engage our entire spectrum of disciplines to make significant contributions to society. Furthermore, all our other areas of activity benefit from the application of digital technologies by proactively using them for innovative design and development.

Where We Are Now

Digital transformation is fundamentally changing everyday university life in all areas of activity: research, teaching, studies and administration. It is in TU Berlin‘s own interest to promote this process intensively and proactively. However, digitalization is not an end in itself, but rather a way to simplify work procedures and increase productivity.

In addition, TU Berlin regards digital transformation as an object of strategic importance in its research. TU Berlin embraced the topic of digitalization early on, thereby making a significant contribution to Berlin establishing itself as Digital Capital.

The use of digital technologies already extends to all fields of science and research; digital models, simulation, visualization, and the analysis of large quantities of data have already become integral parts of the sciences. Nevertheless, from TU Berlin’s point of view, digital transformation also leads to fundamental changes in the way research is conducted and knowledge exploited, as well as in research processes and the way results are handled; all of this gives rise to new challenges.

For TU Berlin, the provision of open access to academic publications is a desirable paradigm shift in dealing with research results. For this purpose, TU Berlin has already formulated its own open access strategy. In addition, TU Berlin supports the provision of open access to data generated at the University (open data), thus enabling the data’s reusability. In this regard, the FAIR principle (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) is the starting point for all considerations. To this end, a repository for various types of data was set up in 2016.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • We intend to make our research data freely available to as many researchers as possible. We will link this data with scientific and academic publications, doctoral theses, and other similar documents, in order to further increase their practical value. To this end, we will develop a guideline that describes the procedure for the sustainable storage of data with high reuse potential. On this basis, we will expand those infrastructures concerned with publications and the provision and curating of research data. This will open up the opportunity to make research results available for review and use, and enable ordinary members of the public to participate in academic knowledge processes.
  • In accordance with our open access strategy, we will actively expedite the implementation of Golden Open Access and Green Open Access in our organization, thus ensuring that the Berlin Senate Administration’s target, according to which Berlin’s academic institutions are to provide open access to 60% of their articles by 2020, is achieved, if not exceeded.
  • Where possible, we will initiate additional outstanding joint projects and supplement supporting structures in order to further expand Berlin’s leading role in the field of digitalization. Through appropriate construction measures (for instance, the research building “Interdisciplinary Center for Modeling and Simulation”), we will strengthen interdisciplinary research in this area.
  • We prepare our graduates well in terms of the skills and knowledge they require in an increasingly digitalized world. Our faculties therefore continuously assess what new content needs to be included in the curricula of their respective degree programs. Independent of this, TU Berlin will offer a certificate program on the topic of data science that will be open to all students and give them the opportunity to acquire additional skills in this field.
  • In cooperation with the Berlin University Alliance, we will expand the range of digital teaching materials on offer and support our teaching staff in introducing new, digitally supported teaching concepts. These concepts are to supplement our classroom teaching and enable flexible learning.
  • We will adapt the design and equipment of teaching and learning spaces in such a way as to support both conventional teaching formats and digitally enriched ways of teaching and learning. The current generation of “digital native” students rightly expects a technical university to use modern digital technology, and teaching content, methods and student services to contribute to a coherent “digital experience”.

Ensuring Our Organization’s Ability to Renew Itself

Our Aspiration

TU Berlin regards itself as a learning organization that provides its staff members with continuous development opportunities. We expect all status groups to contribute to the creation of modern organizational and managerial structures and to participate in the organization of everyday university life. We are committed to operating our facilities in a safe, healthy, resource-saving and environmentally conscious manner.We are open to innovation and consider it the basis for the continuous renewal of our university.

Where We Are Now

TU Berlin is aware that the strength of its performance, its adaptability, and its ability to renew itself in a highly dynamic environment are determined significantly by competent and committed staff members – both in research and administration. It is not just people who should be continuously developed through appropriate measures for individual growth aimed at staff members; this should apply equally to the entire organization, including its rich and diverse culture.

The tasks, structures and processes at TU Berlin are constantly subjected to review and, if necessary, adapted, expanded or simplified. Digitalization is used as a means to simplify and accelerate processes and, at the same time, create transparency about information, thereby laying the basis for decision-making and control processes. Among other measures implemented in recent years, TU Berlin has pooled and concentrated the competencies within its organization, thereby promoting internationalization and the transfer of knowledge and technology. This has resulted in new, focused structures that include easily identifiable contact persons and simplified procedures that strengthen and better support TU Berlin’s activities.

Changes such as these require knowledge, participation and the willingness to change on the part of those involved. TU Berlin is aware of the fact that the possibility to participate at the levels of everyday university life is essential for the University’s further development and its ability to renew itself. To this end, various steering committees have been established that work together to continuously develop the organization. Additional projects focused on change are conceptualized and carried out with the involvement of the staff members concerned, and also include training measures for the latter.

Our Goals and the Path to Achieving Them

  • As part of Germany’s largest SAP project, we are in the process of implementing a comprehensive new campus management system. In addition to the traditional administrative fields of human resources management, finance, procurement and facility management, this will also concern study-related administrative processes (student lifecycle management). We regard this as an initial and fundamental step in the implementation of comprehensive digitalization – an endeavor that we will pursue over a longer period of time through a step-by-step integration of existing “islands” into a comprehensive system.
  • We undertake to review our structures and processes regularly and to adapt them as necessary. In doing so, we will take into consideration, above all, any changes that arise to the legal, political, research-related and university-internal framework conditions. An example in this regard is the independent Export Control Unit recently established at TU Berlin.
  • We aim to implement forward-looking structural and development planning in order to recognize emerging developments at an early stage, and to evaluate, adopt and actively advance them.
  • We will discuss and further develop topics of strategic importance in coordination with University management, the bodies concerned with the University as a whole (Academic Senate, Board of Trustees) and the faculties (bodies, committees, closed meetings).
  • We will continue our regular discussion groups composed of Executive Board members and functionaries from the deans’ offices to deal with strategic topics such as quality management in studies and teaching, research, internationalization and the promotion of junior scholars.
  • University management and the faculties will enter into joint agreements on objectives and comprehensively apply the newly developed appointments strategy.
  • We undertake to set quality standards and to evaluate our actions in order to continuously improve ourselves. We are currently pursuing a system accreditation process.