Teacher training, renewable energy, neuroscience: the state of Lower Saxony will in future be funding three new doctoral programmes in these fields at the University of Oldenburg. This means 45 doctoral scholarships for doctoral candidates.
Following the re-launch of the Lower Saxony Doctoral Programme by the Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK), universities in Lower Saxony submitted 29 proposals. Eleven were approved, three of them at the University of Oldenburg alone, making it the most successful higher education institution. The funding period is four years, with each doctoral programme receiving 15 ‘Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg’ scholarships. The total funding amounts to 2.9 million euros.
“The new doctoral programmes focus on teacher training, renewable energies and the neurosciences – three outstanding research focuses at the University of Oldenburg,” said Prof. Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, Vice-President for Research. Early-career researchers provide important impetus for the university’s research and help to drive it forward. “However, we also see this funding as recognition of our achievements to date in supporting early-career researchers, as well as an incentive to continue along this path consistently,” said Al-Shamery.
Just how consistently this is being pursued is demonstrated, for example, by the Graduate Academy, which since last year has been bringing together all the university’s services offering interdisciplinary advice, further education and support for early-career researchers at all qualification levels. The Graduate Academy forms the overarching structure for two Graduate Schools in the fields of natural sciences and engineering (OLTECH) and social sciences and humanities.
‘Learning processes in transitional contexts – empirically investigating and modelling the practical placements of teacher training students’ is the title of the first of the three new doctoral programmes. The application was submitted by research groups specialising in subject-specific didactics from all Schools and the educational sciences, including the Centre for Didactics (diz).
The dual role of learner and teacher
The doctoral programme addresses the dual role of teacher training students as learners and teachers during their practical placement as part of their studies. During this phase, teacher training students teach for the first time. They must structure their lessons in such a way that they are tailored to the pupils’ knowledge, skills and ways of thinking. At the same time, the students are also learners.
They apply their subject-specific and pedagogical knowledge to reflect on their teaching and to incorporate these insights into their lesson plans. The doctoral candidates analyse the learning processes of students as they plan, deliver and reflect on lessons during the practical phase. In doing so, they explore the interplay between teaching and learning and its significance for teacher training.
A functional energy supply from renewable sources
The doctoral programme ‘System Integration of Renewable Energies’ focuses on the integration of renewable energy sources into the electricity grid. The application was submitted by School II (School of Computing Science, Business Administration, Economics, and Law) and School V (School of Mathematics and Science) at the University, as well as the Department of Civil Engineering and Geoinformation at Jade University of Applied Sciences.
The doctoral programme focuses on power forecasting and grid operations management, as well as the development of new technologies and systems designed to ensure a functional, reliable and cost-effective energy supply from renewable sources. The doctoral candidates’ main research focuses include forecasting models for wind and solar energy, the operation and control of smart grids, storage and hybrid systems for renewable energy, and the geographical and economic system planning of renewable energy networks.
Automatic Speech Recognition and Signal Processing
The modelling of cognitive processes in the human brain during the processing of visual, auditory and haptic signals, as well as research into assistive technologies – for example in hearing acoustics – form the focus of the approved doctoral programme ‘Signals and Cognition’.
The proposal was submitted by the Departments of Psychology, Physics and Dutch Studies at the University of Oldenburg, the Department of Technical Assistance Systems at Jade University of Applied Sciences, and the Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technologies at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT). The doctoral candidates in the doctoral programme are conducting research into topics such as automatic speech recognition, signal processing in assistive systems and the modelling of individual perceptual and processing capabilities, amongst others.