AIBE as HTA-Department
In October 2019 the Bavarian Minister-President, Markus Söder, announced the Hightech Agenda Bavaria. For this endeavor, the Free State of Bavaria is investing 5.5 billion euros – among others – in new professorships, study places, and Research Centers of Excellence.
In May 2020, over 100 professorships with a focus on AI were established at Bavaria’s universities. All in all 1000 new professorships are planned, leading to offer 13.000 new study places. In 2021 the Bavarian Higher Education Act was passed in the Bavarian State Parliament. It forms the legal framework for the Hightech Agenda (https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/BayHIG/true).
With the Hightech Agenda the Free State of Bavaria seeks to establish a thematically AI-focused network throughout the state. The network spans the entire Free State with 5 locations as thematic hubs: Munich (AI and robotics), Würzburg (data science), Erlangen-Nuremberg (AI and medicine) and Ingolstadt (AI and mobility).
The AIBE Department was newly established in 2020 at FAU as part of the agenda. It supports the AI health hub Erlangen-Nuremberg with 11 Hightech Agenda professorships. At the department the two FAU focal points of medicine and engineering sciences are combined with artificial intelligence. Thus, the medical technology expertise in the world’s leading “Medical Valley” (https://www.medical-valley-emn.de/en/) location is strengthened for the benefit of patients. The AIBE Department is one of the most modern departments at FAU with new, future-oriented structures: for example, the old chair concept has been replaced. Instead, professorships have been established and an elastic space management model guarantees a maximum of flexibility for choosing the work space one needs.
Find out more about the Bavarian Hightech Agenda via the following links:
https://www.hightechagenda.de/en/
https://www.bayern.de/hightech-agenda-bayern/#I (in german)