Research projects and special funding

INTERREG Project: Cross-border InnovationSpace³

In an effort to make businesses based in the rural border region around the cities of Passau; Ried and Schärding fit for the future, INN.KUBATOR Gründerzentrum Passau, Techno-Z Ried and TGZ Technologie- und Gründerzentrum Schärding have joined forces to set up a multi-polar cross-border InnovationSpace3.

EU project "META BUILD": Using digital twins to electrify university buildings

A team headed by computer scientist Professor Herrmann de Meer will be participating in the EU Horizon project "META BUILD": Using buildings on the University of Passau campus, computer scientists will be testing ways to reduce the carbon emissions of academic institutions.

Circular Academy - online knowledge platform as support for green transformation

In collaboration with the degree programme Global Sales and Marketing at the Steyr Campus of the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria, the Cluster of Environmental Technologies Bavaria and the agency Business Upper Austria, the CENTOURIS Institute of the University of Passau is lending a hand to businesses as they navigate the green transformation induced by climate change towards sustainable, circular and profitable business.

EU Horizon project REGROUP - Resilient governance in Europe after the coronavirus pandemic

On account of COVID-19, the EU sees itself confronted by multiple legal and political tensions. How has society and politics changed, and how can the EU be supported in light of the ongoing challenges?

Digitrans-Easy: Digital transformation the easy way

Helping business enterprises cross the digital transformation divide: That is the purpose of the new project DIGITRANS-EASY initiated by CENTOURIS, an institute of the University of Passau. The focus is on practice-driven continuing education for SMEs across Bavaria.

Jean Monnet network EUCON: Between Conflict and Competition, Convergence and Cooperation

Researchers at the University of Passau are taking part in the Jean Monnet network EUCON. Five universities from the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union will be analysing relations between their two regions in the next three years.

EU-Förderprojekt UPSURGE: Nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung durch Nature-Based Solutions

Im Projekt „UPSURGE“ forscht das Institut CENTOURIS der Universität Passau zusammen mit Partnern aus 14 europäischen Ländern an der Entwicklung eines umfassenden Referenznetzwerks für zukünftige Stadtgestaltung und -entwicklung.

EU project LocalRES: how blackouts can be avoided

In this age of smart grids, there are small, networked units, though it must be said that they have become more susceptible to breakdowns. In the EU project LocalRES, a team from the University of Passau are testing insights from the DFG basic research project Schwarzstart.

EU project RENergetic: IT solution from Passau for the energy revolution from the bottom up

A residential area in the Belgian city of Ghent, a university campus in Poznan, Poland, a hospital in Milan: at these three locations, the EU project RENergetic is investigating how citizen energy can be successful.

CONCORDIA: University of Passau strengthens European cyber-strategy

The EU network CONCORDIA is developing a European cyber-security schedule. A team headed by computer scientist Professor Stefan Katzenbeisser from the University of Passau is contributing its expertise in the field of critical infrastructures.

EU-project SUNI-SEA: Fight against 'silent killers' in Southeast Asia

High blood pressure and diabetes have also developed into widespread diseases in Southeast Asia. A team from the University of Passau is participating in the EU project SUNI-SEA, which aims to massively increase effective prevention.

DFG Research Unit 5254/1 "Lasting Learning": How learning becomes lasting knowledge

How must knowledge be conveyed so that it is retained over the long term and can be applied flexibly? This is the central question addressed by the DFG research unit "Lasting Learning". The spokesperson of the research unit is psychologist Professor Tobias Richter from Würzburg.

DFG Project "Experiencing Ethnoracial Exclusion": How Everyday Racism Feels

The Affective and Emotional Dimensions and Dynamics of (Non-) Belonging and Experiencing Ethnoracial Exclusion—A Comparison of Three Groups of Germans of Migrant Background

Cultural sociologists and scholars of migration have increasingly focused on immigrants’ experiences of ethnoracial exclusion such as stigmatization and (perceived) discrimination.

DFG project EEEM: Playful reflection on the perception of disability in film and theatre

What biases do we hold when we see actors with a disability in film or theatre? To confront us with the image we have of people with a disability, the DFG project EEEM will develop an interactive online game.

DFG project ResiServD – resilient infrastructure for the energy revolution

Renewable energies are central to the energy revolution, but the power supply network needs to be adapted to suit the altered conditions. A research team from the universities of Passau and Kassel, already in the second funding phase, are investigating how failures in the new energy infrastructure can be averted.

DFG project – calculating flexibility in energy systems

For stable and safe operation, the electricity system requires flexibility, particularly in these times of renewable energies. A team from the universities in Passau and Freiburg are developing mathematical calculation methods to help them model that flexibility.

Why Do People Act and How Does It Work?

A DFG research group is examining this question from various perspectives of psychology. Professor Susanne Mayr, psychologist at the University of Passau with a focus on human-machine interaction, is participating in the research.

Collaborative Research Centre CROSSING - Cryptography as the Basis for Trust in the Internet of Things

Cryptography is an essential prerequisite for ensuring that complex services and applications in new and future IT systems are trustworthy. Computer scientist Professor Stefan Katzenbeisser from the University of Passau leads a subproject in the DFG Collaborative Research Centre CROSSING at the TU Darmstadt.

Passau researchers investigate the secret of long-term successful founders

How do founder-inventors manage to keep their companies on a growth trajectory? A research team led by Prof. Dr. Carolin Häussler, Chair of Business Administration with a focus on Organization, Technology Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Passau, searches for answers to this question in a project funded by the German Research Association (DFG).

Emmy Noether research group: the power of the Internet in Russia

How has the rapid growth in the importance of Internet communication in the past two decades affected political communication, politics and political systems in the post-Soviet region? This question is being pursued at the University of Passau by the research group "On the mediatisation of (semi-)authoritarian rule: the power of the Internet in the post-Soviet region", headed by Professor Florian Töpfl.

Research Training Group: Privacy and Digitalisation

How do Social Media, Big Data and digital tracking change the definition of privacy? The Research Training Group 1681 "Privacy" of the University of Passau - funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) - financed early career researchers working on fields related to privacy and digitalisation.

How to make the online dialogue between science and society on climate research work

Professor Hannah Schmid-Petri, who holds the Chair of Science Communication at the University of Passau, has been put in charge of a new project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) that takes climate research as a case in point to study how researchers handle online input from society.

AUTOtech.agil

BMBF-Project ESN4NW: Tapping wind energy to provide sustainable computing with maximus performance

A countrywide cluster project has been launched to study the potential of what are called "windCORES". These wind turbines house data centres and supply them with the power produced on site using a system that is practically climate-neutral.

Strategies for Skills Acquisition: Innovative Teaching Concepts in Teacher Training, digitally enhanced (SKILL.de)

Since 2016, in the project 'Strategies for Skills Acquisition: Innovative Teaching and Consultation Concepts in Teacher Training' (SKILL), scientists at the University of Passau have been working to close the gaps between scientific discipline, teaching methodology and educational sciences.

University consortium for a combined knowledge transfer strategy in the region (TRIO)

From ad hoc collaboration towards a comprehensive transfer consortium: The Transfer and Innovation in Eastern Bavaria (TRIO) programme, which is co-ordinated by OTH Regensburg, seeks to strengthen the knowledge and technology transfer activities of universities in the administrative districts of Upper Palatinate and Lower Bavaria.

PACE – Passau Centre for eHumanities

The Passau Centre for eHumanities (PACE) investigates new computer-based approaches to determine the needs of the humanities and cultural studies fields for research and teaching. The Centre The Passau Centre for eHumanities (German) is an important component of the eHumanities field at the University of Passau.

BMBF ‘Dictatorship and Conscience’ subproject examines persecution in East Germany

The BMBF-funded research project ‘Landscapes of Persecution' is developing a database modelled on the Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names at the Yad Vashem memorial. For the first time, this enables accurate statements to be made regarding the total number of political detainees and people killed, deported or injured for political reasons in the Soviet Occupation Zone and East Germany.

UNICARagil - Research Collaboration on the Mobility of the Future

Leading German universities have joined forces in the BMBF's UNICARagil research network to redevelop the automobile and its development processes. A research team from the University of Passau is also involved.

IndORGANIC: Passau Researchers prepare real Green Transformation Indonesia

Turning Indonesia organic: Can the agriculture of the world’s largest island country be transformed into a bioeconomy? A research team at the University of Passau explores the potential of organic farming in Indonesia - the German Federal Ministry for Research and Education (BMBF) supports the project with a budget of EUR 882.

Nuremberg’s cathedrals – best practice for the digital capture of complex architectural monuments

An interdisciplinary team from the Universities of Passau and Bamberg and other contributors are creating a comprehensive digital model of Nuremberg's St. Lorenz church, highlighting the property's information content and incorporating the spatial dimension of constructed architecture.

Genome editing in plant biotechnology - a science based legal analysis of regulatory problems

Researchers from the University of Passau reconsider from scratch the EU’s regulatory framework for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in view of the latest biological insights into genome editing techniques, for example CRISPR/Cas9.

The BMDV project KIMoNo: How can artificial intelligence improve our mobility?

The University of Passau will be researching how mobility can be improved in rural regions with the help of artificial intelligence. 'KIMoNo' (KI-based, multi-type optimisation of mobility in non-urban regions [1]) is the name of the project, which is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport to the tune of approximately 1.

IRIXYS: Tri-national Centre for Big Data Research

Researchers from Passau, Lyon and Milan have established a virtual institute and present their results on the jointly-maintained online portal IRIXYS.org. Their research focuses on Big Data and data security.

ForInter: Bavarian research network 'Interaction of Brain Cells'

What is science allowed to do? What is medicine allowed to do? Researchers from Passau are creating a legal framework for research and therapies with genome-edited brain cells. The Passau project is part of the Bavarian research network 'Interaction of Human Brain Cells' (ForInter).

bidt-project "Vectors of Data Disclosure"

To what extent does our cultural background and the legal environment affect how willing we are to disclose our personal data? Does it for example make a difference if the data is transferred to another country—a common feature of many transactions?

East-Bavarian Centre of Internet Competence

The East-Bavarian Centre of Internet Competence aims to consolidate East-Bavarian universities' research competence on the subject of the Internet and make this extensive body of research available to businesses in the region as a catalyst for innovation.

‘ViDe(m)o’ research project examines (rule-based) images of democracy

How is democracy depicted in the media, and what mental images are conjured up when we think about democracy and democratic rule? These questions are being tackled by a research project undertaken by the professor of Methods of Empirical Social Research at the University of Passau.

ERC Advanced Grant 'ReConFort' – Europe’s constitution needs communication

As part of the “ReConFort” EU project, Passau’s legal historian Professor Ulrike Müßig worked together with an international research team to analyse constitutional debates in five European countries during the 18th and 19th centuries.

ERC Starting Grant 'iHEARu': Computer-based human speech analysis

One speaks with smartphones or call services on a daily basis. Researchers at the University of Passau decisively promote a technology of enhancing automatic speech and speaker recognition by adding social factors.

European network "WEGO: Wellbeing, Ecology, Gender and cOmmunity"

Masculinised mining industry meets equal indigenous society: How does this affect gender and the power relations within the local community? The sociologist Professor Martina Padmanabhan and the Development Economist Professor Michael Grimm found a European network of excellence on Feminist Political Ecology that carefully examines gender relations in the responses to environmental challenges.

EUTIP: Interdisciplinary network analyses impacts of TTIP

The objective of the Innovative Training Network EUTIP (EU Trade & Investment Policy) is to foster interdisciplinary research into the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with a view to create a significantly increased European knowledge base and research capacity on TTIP, thus helping Europe reap the benefits of TTIP, such as wealth, or jobs, while addressing its challenges, such as democracy, accountability, environmental- and labour standards.

Data Neutrality and Open Access: Access to user data in the digital economy

Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon – one thing the most valuable companies in the world have in common is that they have exclusive access to their users’ data. What does this spell out for competition in digital markets?

PICCARD – Collaborative behaviour among software developers

Can vulnerabilities like the Heartbleed Bug be avoided? They can, says Dr. Janet Siegmund, a computer scientist at the University of Passau, but only if the communication is right. Dr. Siegmund and her team are working on a model that predicts the chances of success of a project based on the communication of the involved software developers.

'Big Picture': measuring data giants

Digitising three-dimensional objects to high levels of precision produces image files in sizes that have never been seen before. Conventional digital image processing is no longer enough to handle these huge, highly complex volumes of data.

Fraunhofer research group 'Science Communication'

The Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence 'Integrated Energy Systems' CINES is establishing a research group relating to science communication: the group led by Professor Hannah Schmid-Petri is extending the research performance of the excellence cluster by the central dimension of science and technology communication.