Fields of Action
Joining, thoroughly connecting and externally visualising the knowledge potential, the resources, the competences and the shared interests of the region’s knowledge institutions – this is what the “Verein zur Förderung der Wissensregion Düsseldorf e.V.” has set out to do. To be both effective and efficient, the association’s work focuses on projects in three main fields of action: 1) promoting excellent education and training for tomorrow’s world of work, 2) connecting science, economy and society and 3) implementing public relations activities for the knowledge location of Düsseldorf, Mettmann, Neuss.
Field of Action 1 focuses on cross-institutional learning and on teaching key qualifications such as digital competences. It also aims at acquiring and retaining the best brains in the region of Düsseldorf.
Through Field of Action 2, the association wants to initiate innovation and transfer processes, connect institutions and minds and improve the framework conditions for science and research.
Field of Action 3 is all about visualising the significance of the location factor knowledge. It aims at mapping out a USP, at sharpening the region’s profile and at pooling interests (e.g. vis-à-vis politics).
The three fields of action represent the association’s strengths: it can provide the necessary connection of its members – also between those who have not yet cooperated with each other – (Field of Action 2) in order to offer cross-institutional education and key competences for science, economy and society (Field of Action 1) and thereby enhancing and visualising the knowledge location’s attractiveness (Field of Action 3).
Our Aims and Tasks
The association advocates the promotion of knowledge, as an important location factor and as the resource of the future, in the interest of its members and the public. This is achieved through knowledge transfer and public relations…
… for the universities by improving the framework conditions for research and teaching, with the aim of establishing a research profile for the region, as an engine for efficient cooperation in the fields of research promotion and funding, and by representing interests vis-à-vis local politics;
… for the region’s companies, chambers and trade unions as a way of employer branding, aiming at the training and retention of qualified specialists and striving for applied research cooperation activities;
… for providers of vocational training by offering innovative ways of cross-institutional and lifelong learning and of imparting key competences, especially in the digital field;
… and for civil society organisations, civic groups and the region’s citizens through open educational and cultural offers, through modern and connective living concepts and through public events.
The joint exchange of knowledge, the cross-linkage of existing work and the initiation of innovative joint projects account for the benefits that all members draw from the association’s work in its three main fields of action.
Promoting and Connecting Knowledge in the Region of Düsseldorf
As an association sustained by diverse producers and users of knowledge, our main task is finding innovative cooperation projects from which everyone in the region of Düsseldorf benefits simultaneously: students, apprentices, employers and specialists, researchers and creative artists as well as all citizens thirsty for knowledge.
As a first lighthouse project, the “Innovation Semester“ is directed at students of the University of Düsseldorf and the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, apprentices from regional member businesses of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Industry and Commerce as well as at soon-to-be journeymen/-women or masters of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Crafts. The Innovation Semester wants to provide its participants with the opportunity of overcoming the limits of one’s individual branch of education for the sake of a joint project. Participants are meant to get together and develop a societally innovative project through their diverse educational biographies and specialised perspectives. These projects will be presented after an intense, four-month preparation phase.
Photo credit: Oliver Tjaden