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29 Sweat, lifeblood…
29 Sweat, lifeblood and staying power
Sweat, lifeblood and staying power
Rules of the game in research at
Universities of Applied Sciences
“Research is one percent inspiration and
ninety-nine percent perspiration”. For
Martin Tubach this adaptation of the
famous quotation from Thomas Alva
Edison has almost become the unofficial
motto of the Institute for Applied Research
(IAF) in Reutlingen, of which he is the
Director. He could well mention in addition
the staying power which researchers and
their research need to have at Universities
of Applied Sciences.
The history of research in Reutlingen
goes back almost 100 years. The
establishment in 1910 of the State Testing
Office for Textile Materials marked the
official birth of institutional fibers
research in Reutlingen. From the earliest
days textile chemistry and textile
technology formed the basis of all
research activities; the founding in 1967
of the School of Mechanical Engineering,
followed in 1971 by the School of Business,
meant that research could also be
extended into these fields. Whilst the
content of the various research fields is
naturally very different, they all subscribe
to the basic principles of being practically
relevant and application-orientated. This
is how Tubach defined research activities
at Universities of Applied Sciences in a
recent report: “Applied research at
Universities of Applied Sciences needs
to be problem-orientated and goaldirected.
Detailed answers to the question
“how” have to have priority. Since real
products are being examined, the research
must be capable of dealing with complex
systems.”
Since the IAF was founded in 1991 more
than 120 research projects lasting
between two weeks and three years have
been carried out: not a bad record. “But
it could be better,” says Tubach, referring
particularly to structural obstacles. Such
as the “sandwich position” of applied
research at Universities of Applied
Sciences between, on the one hand, longterm
pure research which is carried out
only at traditional universities and, on
the other hand, short-term, productorientated
and client-specific technology
transfer such as is carried out in the
Steinbeis transfer-centre. “The former
receive financial resources in advance
for their research, the latter are paid for
their results,” is Tubach’s casual
description of the dilemma. Applied
research at Universities of Applied
Sciences, which is organised on a more
medium-term basis, has a more difficult
time, he continues. In a review produced
in 2005 Tubach wrote as follows: “The
German Research Foundation (DFG) and
other research funding bodies are heavily
geared towards the research needs of
traditional universities, and this makes
it more difficult for Universities of Applied
Sciences to get access to the major
publicly financed research funds.”
This is a fate which Reutlingen shares
with around 19 other research institutes
based at Universities of Applied Sciences.
However, compared with some of these
Reutlingen is not badly off: it has been
able to attract an average of one million
Euros per year in external funding. In the
most recent ranking of research
performance drawn up by an advisory
committee of the Ministry of Higher
Education in Stuttgart, Reutlingen
University of Applied Sciences and its
statistics are placed clearly in the upper
half.
Despite all the rifts in the national
education system, these are irrelevant
at the European level. Research projects
from Reutlingen University of Applied
Sciences have received EU-funding on
three occasions (from the third, fourth
and fifth Framework Programmes of the
EU). “A great honour, but with incalculable
risks,” is how the Director of the IAF
describes this. Because the EU-projects
are huge. Around 40 to 50 researchers
of different nationalities should and must
work together. “That is barely
manageable, misunderstandings are
inevitable,” says Martin Tubach. He adds
that the people responsible at the
European level have now also realised
this, and have returned in the seventh
Framework Programme to smaller but
financially well-endowed projects.
However, the results of the research and
development work carried out in
Reutlingen are very respectable, such as
for example the auto-socks (see article),
which have been on the market for two
years.
Not all inventions or research results
bring such effective publicity or catch
the public’s imagination in the same way.
Very few consumers know, for example,
that there are 50 components in the
Mercedes E-class which are made of
natural fibers, that is to say: renewable
resources, and that the research behind
these was carried out in the laboratories
of Reutlingen University. And when entire
production processes are analysed and
tested step by step with the help of
Reutlingen’s measuring methods, in order
to make better products with fewer faults
and to optimise the manufacturing
process, then the companies in question
are usually not particularly keen to make
this generally known.
As so often it is inspiration and chance
which provide the initial impetus for a
research project, but generally these do
not also lead to actual success. Some run
out of steam, others run out of money,
and sometimes it is simply not worth
doing any further research, reports
Tubach. “There are some fashionable
topics, but also some topics which have
a limited shelf-life,” he says. Some topics
are not researched simply because hardly
anybody is interested in them, such as
how to produce gas from liquid manure:
and this despite the fact that green energy
is definitely a hot topic at the moment.
One point which must not be overlooked
in this regard is the relationship between
teaching and research, says Tubach,
whereby the law gives clear precedence
to teaching. “The Professors have a very
heavy teaching load of 18 hours per week,
compared with 9 hours at traditional
universities. The time left over for
research activities is strictly limited,” he
wrote in the 2005 review. All the more
reason to praise the self-motivation and
thirst for scientific knowledge of those
Professors who are willing to undertake
research, he continues. And further: when
the Professors, with all their knowledge
and all their contacts, first arrive at the
university from industry, they are so busy
with teaching that, for the first two or
three years, they are barely able to apply
themselves to their research at all.
Martin Tubach is a chemical engineer and
so to speak a home-grown product of the
university: he completed his degree in
1985, worked as an assistant, and spent
three years with the Steinbeis Foundation
for Business Development. Finally he took
over as Project Coordinator at the IAF
and then six and a half years ago
succeeded the founding Director of the
IAF, Professor Rudolf Kessler, as Director
of the Institute. Tubach is well-acquainted
with the sweat, the lifeblood of the
researchers and also the sometimes tight
corset imposed by public-sector
budgeting, which can make it difficult to
react flexibly. The Director describes the
present state of research activity as one
of stagnation. Approximately ten
Professors – from the fields of Mechanical
Engineering, Chemistry and Textiles –
play an active role in the two research
institutes on the campus (1*). In addition,
a generational change is taking place in
the IAF. A lot of people are allowing their
projects to run down. “We need new
people, and we need to develop some
new topics,” says Tubach. “It is a terrible
shame to see so much potential just lying
fallow here,” he says with regret, and
sees also part of his role as being to
create easier and better conditions for
research, in short: to create incentives
for Professors and also students who are
willing to undertake research. And for
the future he is dreaming of a kind of
“brain-pool” of 127 Professors – with close
links to industry.
(1*) In addition to the IAF there is
another research institute at Reutlingen
University. The Institute for Applied
Research (Automation) (IFA) was
founded on June 1, 1996, and focuses
largely on regional projects.
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