Scientific expertise is in high demand
It is our goal to help society, business, and politics make informed, reflective and sustainable decisions through scientific knowledge. By means of consultation, statements and expert reports, members of our university bring their critical-constructive, scientific expertise into social discourses and processes on a national and international level. This enables the transfer between science and politics and contributes to leaving a free, democratic, social and peaceful world behind for future generations.
Member of the Academic Council
Prof. Dr. Christine Silberhorn, Physicist at Paderborn University
Member of the German Ethics Council
Prof. Dr. Muna Tatari, Islamic Studies at Paderborn University
Members of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Prof. Dr. Christine Silberhorn, physicist at Paderborn University, and
Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide, computer scientist at Paderborn University
Cooperation professorship with the Bonn Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
Prof. Dr. Hubert Ertel, Economist at Paderborn University
Chairwoman of the General Rabbinical Conference
Prof. Dr. Elisa Klapheck, Theologian at Paderborn University
Scientific Director of the WSI - Economic and Social Research Institute of the Hans Böckler Foundation
Prof. Dr. Bettina Kohlrausch, Sociologist at Paderborn University
Head of the National Research Centre of the IEA study ICILS 2023
Prof. Dr. Birgit Eickelmann, Educationalist at Paderborn University
University Meets School
We bring a breath of fresh air into the classroom: How can Data Science be taught in school? How can we introduce the idea of artificial intelligence to children? In order to prepare schools for the future, researchers at Paderborn University are developing and testing modern teaching concepts and materials.
From our university into the classroom and back again – the transfer work in our cooperative projects provides schools with the opportunity to benefit directly from new educational concepts, while teachers and researchers gain valuable insights for the further development of new concepts and studies.
Our Centre for Educational Research and Teacher Education – PLAZ-Professional School is one of the first teacher training centres in North Rhine-Westphalia. Our study programmes with a wide range of subjects for all school types focus in particular on future-oriented concepts for digitalisation and inclusion.
The UA11+ is an association of mid-sized universities with strong research and transfer capabilities. They are all linked by the fundamental objective of making an impact on their respective region. Paderborn University is a founding member. Prof. Dr. Birgitt Riegraf, president of Paderborn University, is the chairperson of UA11+.
For decades, the member universities have built up close and trusting contacts with local partners from business, politics, independent research institutions, and various societal spheres. It is their goal to clearly visualise and represent their interests vis-à-vis politics and the public and to promote research, teaching, and transfer activities within a network. In doing so, they aim to highlight the crucial role of mid-sized universities as a force for innovation. The UA11+ is intentionally receptive to additional members – a fact indicated by the "plus" behind the number eleven, which stands for the founding universities of the association, in order to facilitate sustainable and high-performance cooperation.
Paderborn University is a member of the Transfer alliance (TransferAllianz), the German Association for Knowledge and Technology Transfer. The nationwide network consists of universities, independent research institutions, and transfer service providers.
Access to knowledge and the latest research results is crucial for social, economic, and technological progress. Communicating with society, within the scientific community, and with industry and politics paves the way for this. The Transfer alliance links partners nationally and internationally in order to promote targeted exchange. It provides access to research and development findings from over 200,000 scientists. The association also represents German interests in several international networks and acts as a link to the public.
The five public universities in Ostwestfalen-Lippe – Paderborn University, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences and Detmold University of Music – have been working in close cooperation for many years. In order to institutionalise this cooperation, they founded Campus OWL in 2016. Prof. Dr. Birgitt Riegraf, our University president, is the second chairperson of this association.
The network provides the framework for cooperation projects and increases the visibility of the academic region Ostwestfalen-Lippe (East Westphalia-Lippe), especially in the areas of transfer, research, internationalisation, and digitisation. With its various types of higher education institutions – University, University of Applied Sciences, University of Music – Campus OWL reaches over 65,000 students with over 500 study programmes at its locations in Paderborn, Bielefeld, Detmold, Gütersloh, Höxter, Lemgo and Minden, covering the entire academic spectrum.
The association's liaison office in New York – Campus OWL, Inc. – was established in 2020 and builds a bridge across the Atlantic. It aims to further develop the region's internationality and strengths, also as a prominent research and study location. The Liaison Office supports and promotes study and research opportunities and fosters cooperation with North American partner institutions.
The technology network it's OWL – Intelligent Technical Systems OstWestfalenLippe has around 200 companies, research institutions and organisations developing solutions for intelligent products and production processes. Paderborn University is also part of the cluster, which is based in Paderborn. Having been awarded a prize in the German government's Leading-Edge Cluster Competition, it's OWL is considered one of the largest initiatives for Industry 4.0 in SMEs.
Through our scientists' fundamental application-oriented excellence in research, we set new standards for technological progress in collaboration with our partners and facilitate the rapid transfer of scientific findings into practice.
It's OWL stands for innovative spirit, technological competence, research expertise, and active technology transfer. The interaction between mid-sized technology leaders and fundamental application-oriented research institutions in the manufacturing sector is a distinctive feature of the region. Together they develop new technologies and make them accessible to small and mid-sized enterprises through practice-oriented services.