Collaboration and Research
Since its foundation 52 years ago, one of the core tasks of TU Dortmund University has been to put knowledge and technologies into practice. This transfer takes place nearby in one of the largest technology parks Europe-wide, with over 300 enterprises and about 10,000 employees.
Strategic networking and collaboration with a large number of external partners makes it possible for us to bring our strengths into play and together develop potential on a continuous basis. Here, a variety of possible cooperation models are in use and different types of projects implemented. In this context, TU Dortmund University works together with external partners both within publicly funded collaborative projects as well as in contract research. Examples of such often interdisciplinary collaborative research are found in many projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research or within ZIM, the Central Innovation Program for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). TU Dortmund University is additionally involved in several joint ventures, such as INVITE GmbH, a public-private partnership between the university, Bayer Technology Services GmbH and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
Such an alliance with external partners within the framework of a company fosters the partners’ research activities and creates synergies that cannot be achieved solely by working together on an informal basis.
TU Dortmund University is also open to other forms of collaboration with external partners. Thus, for example, there are partnerships with companies for the setting up of endowed professorships or foundations that support research and teaching in specific fields. Apart from this, purely non-material support from a company can also be enriching. With other scientific institutions in Dortmund too, networking and collaboration do not exist just on paper but are instead normal practice within windo e. V., the network of university and non-university science and research institutions in Dortmund.
