Ina Brandes, Minister of Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, opened the Ruhr Innovation Lab’s first Future Dialogue.
Manfred Bayer, President of TU Dortmund University, welcomed the participants on behalf of the Ruhr Innovation Lab.
Minister Brandes with Martin Paul (left), Dortmund Mayor Alexander Kalouti, and Manfred Bayer (right)
View of the city: The Ruhr Innovation Lab’s first Future Dialogue took place at the Dortmunder U.
Karola Marky, a professor of computer science at the University of Bochum, delivered the evening's keynote address on the topic of digital sovereignty.
Lively discussion: Carla Hustedt (with microphone) with Dirk Günnewig, Karola Marky, and moderator Christina Elmer
There was a lot to talk about during the fishbowl discussion, here with Götz Erhardt, with Alice Kichheim and Nicole Krämer to his left.
All participants in the panel discussion at a glance. The audience was also able to participate.
An atmospheric evening scene to wrap things up
Future Dialogue
More Experimentation!
The first network meeting of the Ruhr Innovation Lab was a great success. The Future Dialogue focused on one of the most pressing issues of our time: AI and digital sovereignty.
The Ruhr region as a future-oriented laboratory, from which solutions to central societal questions and challenges emerge: This vision came to life at the first network event of the Ruhr Innovation Lab. The Future Dialogue „Future Proofing the Ruhr: Digital Sovereignty in Action” brought together expertise from various disciplines at the TU Dortmund University and the Ruhr University Bochum with perspectives from partners in politics and business, from non-university research institutions and society.
Around 80 guests were welcomed by NRW’s Minister of Science Ina Brandes and, on behalf of the Ruhr Innovation Lab, by Manfred Bayer, Rector of TU Dortmund University, in the Brauturm of the Dortmunder U.
The Ruhr Innovation Lab is an excellent example of how excellence is always possible when the old church tower mentality in the Ruhr area is overcome and common strengths are sought.
Science Minister Ina Brandes said: „The Ruhr Innovation Lab is an excellent example of how excellence is always possible when the old church tower mentality in the Ruhr area is overcome and common strengths are sought. Consequently, TU Dortmund University and Ruhr University Bochum are applying for the status of a University Consortium of Excellence with a university-crossing experimental space for top research, transfer and social commitment. The challenges of our time need both such university-crossing cooperations and strong partnerships with the economy to open up new research fields and to make scientific findings quickly economically usable.“
We have come together to cooperate permanently with each other.
Rector Professor. Manfred Bayer emphasized that the Ruhr Innovation Lab is not a one-hit-wonder for the application in the excellence competition: „We have come together to cooperate permanently with each other. Today’s Future Dialogue as an exchange format is a start, more events will follow – sometimes in Dortmund, sometimes in Bochum, but always on the strong foundation of our cohesion and together with our partners.“
In the charming atmosphere of the Brautum, they organized the first dialogue evening of the Ruhr Innovation Lab (from left): Carla Hustedt, Alice Kirchheim, Karola Marky, Martin Paul, Ina Brandes, Dirk Günnewig, Alexander Kalouti, Manfred Bayer, Götz Erhardt, Christina Elmer, and Nicole Krämer
Bayer himself then contributed an input on the technical conditions and challenges of the evening’s topic, while Professor Karola Marky, Head of the Digital Sovereignty Lab at Ruhr University, focused on the individual and our daily behavior in the digital world in her keynote. A lively fishbowl discussion was supposed to conclude the evening earlier and lead to the get-together, but it „positively overflowed“, as moderator Professor Christina Elmer put it, because there was so much to say about AI and digital sovereignty – with these participants:
- Professor Karola Marky
- Professor Alice Kirchheim, TU Dortmund University and head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML
- Professor Nicole Krämer, University of Duisburg-Essen, Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security of the University Alliance Ruhr
- Carla Hustedt, Head of the Digitalized Society Department of the Stiftung Mercator
- Götz Erhardt, Co-moderator of the Initiativkreis Ruhr
- State Secretary Dirk Günnewig, Ministry of Finance of North Rhine-Westphalia
The audience was also involved in the discussion round.
What were the takeaways from the first joint evening of the Future Dialogue? An impressive location, many stimulating conversations and food for thought, and not least from the many valid arguments of the discussion the „Swiss Army knife for digital sovereignty“, as moderator Christina Elmer put it: „It contains experiments, tolerance for ambiguities and friction, as well as digital literacy, cooperations with research and the Ruhr Innovation Lab“. Götz Erhardt from the Initiativkreis Ruhr has brought the essence of the Ruhr Innovation Lab to the point as vividly as aptly: „More experimentation!“
