The Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) is increasingly concerned with the qualification of young academics. Five PostDocs have been employed at the HSNR since January 2023. The PostDocs are academics who have already successfully completed a doctorate and are now gaining experience in teaching education, research and professional practice. Half of them work at the HSNR and the other half in a company or organization outside the university. At the HSNR, they are part of the "Tandem Niederrhein" qualification and recruiting project.

With this project, the HSNR not only aims to increase the number of people applying for professorships, but also to work more closely with companies in the region. "We want to counter the shortage of young professors, as we also have a shortage in technical and scientific subjects in particular," says Professor Dr. Dr. Alexander Prange, HSNR Vice President for Research and Transfer. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the efforts of universities of applied sciences (UAS) to improve the applicant situation for advertised professorships and to make a UAS professorship more attractive in its "UAS personnel" guideline.

At the first PostDoc Day, five participants in the project had the opportunity to present themselves and their cooperation projects to the public and representatives of the cooperating companies. These were the University Hospital Düsseldorf, BYK-Chemie Wesel, Peters Research GmbH Kempen, Chr. Hansen GmbH Pohlheim and the SMS group Mönchengladbach. "We are very pleased about the collaborations, because application-oriented research and technology transfer to the region are particularly important to us," says Dr. Antje Hambitzer, who is in charge of the project. The topics covered ranged from paint chemistry to therapeutic and nutritional sciences to mixed reality.

Six more participants will be recruited at the beginning of next year. The participants will undergo a three-year qualification phase, preparing them for a subsequent appointment procedure at a university of applied sciences (HAW). The HSNR assumes that by establishing this new, predictable pathway, it will be able to substantially increase the attractiveness of the HAW professorship.