Graduiertencluster „AUFBRUCH - Die Transformation in eine nachhaltige regionale Bioökonomie gestalten“

The Rhenish district has the vision of becoming a model region for a sustainable and competitive bioeconomy in the near future. The AUFBRUCH graduate cluster aims to empower young people in their doctoral programmes to seize the momentum for change and help shape the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy. AUFBRUCH is one of 31 projects from the 19 anchor projects that the state of NRW considers to be central to the successful, rapid and visible implementation of structural change. AUFBRUCH brings together a consortium of eight partners in and around the Rhenish area, namely RWTH Aachen University, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, the Industrial Biotechnology Cluster (CLIB), TU Dortmund University, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Jülich Research Center, Cologne Technical University and Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences. This means that AUFBRUCH represents expertise from the fields of biotechnology, chemistry, process engineering, logistics, economics, social sciences and spatial planning. The total of 37 funded doctoral projects, plus associated projects, are each categorised thematically into one of six innovation areas, which use case studies to address the overarching challenges of the bioeconomy in the region. AUFBRUCH will thus provide doctoral students with excellent disciplinary training, promote interdisciplinary cooperation and emphasise transdisciplinary interaction with stakeholders in industry and society. In the labour market of tomorrow, people with such outstanding qualifications will be able to shake up their companies, establish new collaborations and think sustainably about products and processes from the outset. These skilled workers can not only passively accompany the transformation process in the region, but actively help to shape it. AUFBRUCH places a strong focus on entrepreneurship. As drivers of employment and innovation, start-ups break up established structures and generate added value and jobs in a short space of time. Through interactive event formats, doctoral students are taught a start-up mentality, background knowledge and a strong connection to the Rhineland region with its neighbouring communities, paving the way for start-ups.

RWTH Aachen University

FH Aachen - University of Applied Sciences

TU Dortmund University

CLIB - Cluster Industrial Biotechnology e.V.

Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

Research Center Jülich GmbH

TH Köln - University of Applied Sciences

Hochschule Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences

Successful structural change requires local value creation and jobs in a sustainable economic structure in a liveable and climate-neutral region. The GC AUFBRUCH will help shape this structural change by developing technological innovations for a sustainable and competitive regional bioeconomy in six innovation areas. This will be done in the graduate cluster by doctoral students, who will receive the essential qualifications in the GC to act as visionaries and designers of the transformation process and to implement sustainable technologies in forward-looking start-ups and transfer them to companies in the region. In this way, AUFBRUCH creates experimental spaces for the development of interdisciplinary innovation concepts that are necessary for shaping the transformation towards a sustainable bioeconomy for the key industries of the regional economy and fundamentally support structural change.

The aim of AUFBRUCH is to enable doctoral students to actively shape the transformation in the Rhenish area through interdisciplinary training and inspiration for founding a company. The aim is also to break down boundaries between disciplines, stakeholders and fields of expertise in order to realise a sustainable bioeconomy in the region.

AUFBRUCH has set itself the following overarching sub-goals:

1. excellently trained specialists who, as visionaries and designers, drive the transformation process with and in the region
2. technological innovations for a sustainable and competitive regional bioeconomy
3. forward-looking start-ups to strengthen the Rhenish district as a business location

Within this framework, the Social Research Center will draw up recommendations on how vocational education and training and higher education need to change in order to meet the changing demands on employees' skills. In addition, recommendations will be developed for the development of a skills ecosystem that can contribute to the development and implementation of the technological innovations developed in the project. Furthermore, the key stakeholders for the development of a regional agenda and strategy for new competences will be defined.