We promote outstanding digitalisation research

As a cross-sectional topic, digital transformation touches on various socially relevant issues. We therefore support interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from different universities and institutions. Furthermore, we advance the networking and international visibility of digitalisation research in Bavaria.

We achieve this by funding external research projects and conducting internal research at bidt. Our agile project management ensures that the teams provide and receive feedback reports on their progress regularly by way of sprint reviews and workshops.

Our research areas on digital transformation in detail

Government, Regulation and Infrastructure

Digitalisation creates new demands on lawmaking. While legislation is bound to a specific territory, digital connection transcends borders, creating a potential gap between the law and its enforceability. At the same time, we must consider how international legislation can effectively regulate rapidly evolving objects of regulation, such as emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) or novel business models. As a result, governments are often faced with the dilemma of either regulating too early and possibly restricting promising innovations, or falling behind. Additionally, it is essential to explore how the state and administration can be digitalised to react more rapidly to new challenges.

Michael Stehling

Research Coordinator, bidt

Prof. Dr. Dr. Eric Hilgendorf

Member of bidt's Board of Directors, Chair of the Department of Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, Legal Theory, Information and Computer Science Law | Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Felix Freiling

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Computer Science 1 (IT Security Infrastructures), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Prof. Dr. Dirk Heckmann

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Law and Security in Digital Transformation, Technical University of Munich

Communication, Society and Participation

Digitalisation has dramatically changed the media and public political spheres. On the one hand, digital media allow everyone to express themselves and participate in the digital space. On the other hand, issues such as social bots, fake news, cyberbullying or the segmentation of public discourse into separate public spheres are gaining importance in this context. Growing digital participation of citizens may also require us to rethink the representativity of political decisions. Last, we see a public debate on technological developments: which digital applications are favoured and which are not? Robust research can support society and policymakers in negotiating guidelines, considering the inherent logic of intermediaries such as social networks or search engines.

Dr. Andreas Wenninger

Research Coordinator, bidt

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Julian Nida-Rümelin

Member of bidt's Board of Directors, Professor emeritus of Philosophy and Political Theory | Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich

Prof. Dr. Hannah Schmid-Petri

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Science Communication, University of Passau

Prof. Dr. Ute Schmid

Member of bidt's Board of Directors and the Executive Commitee | Member of the Bavarian AI Council | Head of Cognitive Systems Group, University of Bamberg

Economy and Labour

Digital innovations are a significant source of growth in highly developed economies: they encourage the creation of fresh business models, enhance productivity by improving human-machine interaction, and promote global competition through increased interconnections – all these developments are changing the economy and the work environment, including the financial sector.

In this context of change, how can we leverage that innovation potential efficiently and in a socially acceptable way without creating conflicts of interest, for example, between independence and international free trade? To what extent do the traditional values and institutions of the social market economy have to be adapted to the conditions and opportunities of the digital economy? These are some of the questions that concern the research projects in this area.

PD Dr. Angela Graf

Research Coordinator and Research Project Leader, bidt

Prof. Dr. Alexander Pretschner

Chairman of bidt's Board of Directors and the Executive Commitee | Chair of Software & Systems Engineering, Technical University of Munich | Scientific director, fortiss

Prof. Dr. Thomas Hess

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Director of the Institute for Digital Management and New Media, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität

Prof. Dr. Sabine Pfeiffer

Member of bidt's Board of Directors | Chair of Sociology Technology – Labor – Society, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)