FAST - Franconia Alliance of Science and Technology

Franconia Alliance of Science and Technology - FAST

Cooperation between north-west Bavarian universities in science and technology

The Universities of Applied Sciences of Ansbach (HAN), Aschaffenburg (HAB) and Würzburg-Schweinfurt (THWS), the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) and the University Hospital Würzburg (UKW) have been working together for a long time in various areas of science, research and teaching. The five institutions have now formed an alliance to co-operate closely on joint topics in the fields of science and technology.

The alliance of universities in north-west Bavaria is called the "Franconia Alliance of Science and Technology" (FAST). Through FAST, scientific and technological key focus areas are to be addressed and further developed and regional strengths are to be synergistically bundled and made available on a supra-regional basis. As a result, the area of north-west Bavaria will gain visibility as a science region which, in view of its proximity to Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Thuringia, will have an impact far beyond the region into the neighbouring federal states.

The FAST network comprises around 44,000 students in approximately 180 Bachelor's and 110 Master's degree programmes, who are supervised by around 800 professors. This makes the university network comparable in size to other metropolitan regions.

The goals of the Franconia Alliance of Science and Technology

• joint projects in teaching
• the coordinated conception and realisation of research projects
• measures for the realisation of joint doctorates
• Co-operation with industry.

The cooperation also supports the regional implementation of the Bavarian Science Forum (BayWISS) initiated by the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture, Science and the Arts, which aims to further expand the permeability of academic career paths in Bavaria while maintaining high standards.

Procedure

As a first step, the FAST universities have submitted six applications for the establishment of professorships to the state government's Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern (ZD.B) programme, which were drafted in close consultation. The applications are each led by a university. They are based on the outstanding, profile-forming strengths of this university and are complementary to the other applications of the partner universities. At the same time, synergies are developed with the other universities in the network with the other professorships applied for and with the existing hardware and software expertise on the various topics at all locations.

Applications

• HaW Ansbach: "Digital inclusion and ambient assisted living"
• HaW Aschaffenburg: "Cooperative, automated transport systems"
• HaW Würzburg-Schweinfurt: "Socioinformatics and social aspects of digitalisation" and "Flexible digital production (Industry 4.0)"
• University of Würzburg: "Medical Data Engineering" and "Digital Media Processing"