Shaping the future of digital research together

The Digital Academy is establishing an interdisciplinary platform for digital research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. It aims to connect researchers from the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, make existing expertise more visible, and facilitate access to digital methods, research data and new opportunities for collaboration.

Developing digital research together

Digital methods are changing the way research is conducted in almost every discipline. The Digital Academy aims to actively shape this transformation at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Its development is based on a participatory approach: from the outset, researchers have been invited to contribute their perspectives and help define the structures, methods and support services needed for digital research at the University.

Several interdisciplinary workshops were an important step in this process. They brought together researchers with different disciplinary perspectives, experiences and needs. The results of these workshops provide a foundation for the further development of the Digital Academy.

At the event »Creating the Digital Academy—Perspectives & Reflections on Digital Research« on 20 April 2026, participants reflected on the results of the workshops and discussed the Digital Academy’s next activities. Selected research examples also highlighted the wide range of digital methods and research questions emerging across different disciplines.

Highlighting the diversity of digital methods

The event was chaired by Prof. Birgitta König-Ries from Distributed Information Systems and Prof. Volker Gast from English Linguistics. The discussion focused on the expertise already available at the University, new opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration, and ways of improving access to digital methods and research data.

Research approaches were presented by Prof. Noriko Cassman from Bioinformatics, Dr Corinna Kufner from the field of Photonic Abiogenesis, and Prof. Julia Kuhn from Romance Linguistics, among others. Their work represents the range of disciplines in which digital methods are opening up new perspectives on research questions.

An additional perspective was provided by the external keynote speaker, Prof. Oliver Mothes from Dresden University of Applied Sciences. His contribution focused on the field of Visual Computing.

Networking, knowledge transfer and collaboration

The Digital Academy will create new opportunities for networking and knowledge transfer and support the development of collaborative research projects. The planned structures are intended to foster exchange across disciplinary boundaries and help researchers integrate digital methods and research data into their work.

The aim is to establish a space at the University where researchers can explore new approaches, develop successful methods further and initiate joint projects. In this way, the Digital Academy will contribute to shaping the digital future of research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena together.