Nils Backhaus

Journal Special Issue (SI) Announcement It is with great pride that I can announce the publication of the Special Issue (SI) "Research at Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS)" of the journal "fteval - Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation" of the Austrian Platform for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation (fteval). Amidst the 30-year anniversary of UAS in Austria (and the 30-year anniversary of my alma mater IMC Krems University of Applied Sciences), we developed the idea for this SI as a collaboration between IMC-Krems and fteval for highlighting the specifics, challenges and success factors for performing R&D at UAS. The result was excellent - there are now nine different peer-reviewed articles (in German and English) on a broad range of issues such as institutional R&D strategies, funding schemes (e.g., for the collaborative Josef Ressel research centres) or analyses of future development paths for the sector. A magazine part includes an info-graphic, an interview with IMC CEO Udo Braendle and a conference report on the 17th UAS Research Forum – the yearly conference for R&D at UAS. The SI can be downloaded open access here: https://lnkd.in/dnfDbEH5. It was a great honor to have been guest editor for this SI, and I am looking forward to any comments and the continuation of the debate on this topic. #evaluation #innovationpolicy #research #researchpolicy

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📢 Exciting Announcement: Our latest article, "The Twin Transition in Practice: How digital technologies promote employee green behavior," authored by Jasmina Veit, Ronny Ehlen, Ulrike Fasbender, Siegmar Otto, and Caroline Ruiner, is now available in the journal "Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation (GIO)." 📚💼 In our interdisciplinary research article, we explore how digital technologies, through psychological ownership and organizational support for the environment, promote employee green behavior. Our findings offer theoretical and practical insights for promoting sustainability in organizations and navigating the twin transition. 🌱💡 Furthermore, as the result of a collaboration between psychologists and sociologists, this article highlights the potential of interdisciplinary research in understanding the relationship between sustainability and digitalization. 🌱💻🌐 The article is available here: https://lnkd.in/eC8dyNzB #TwinTransition #Interdisciplinary #EmployeeGreenBehavior #DigitalTechnologies #Sustainability

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📢 New blog alert! Unlock the secrets of successful lead qualification! Here's a new blog by Blue Avenir: 'Effective Methods for Lead Qualification: A Comparative Analysis for Generating MQLs.'. This in-depth article covers manual analysis of target customers, CRM systems, other methods of lead qualification, the benefits of using AI and future trends. Don't miss these important tips to improve your lead generation efforts. This blog is a go-to for anyone who wants to optimise their marketing strategies and stay ahead of the competition. Click on the link and have a read 👩‍💻 https://lnkd.in/gTxMAc7C #LeadQualification #B2BMarketing #Marketing #Sales #MQLs #MarketingStrategy #MarketingTips #LeadQualifying #Aitools #AI #BlueLead #BlueAvenir #LeadGeneration

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Cooperatives are both an economic enterprise and a democratic project. This 'dual nature' could be seen as a paradox. To manage this, some coops truly embody grassroots democracy, while others can look more like an autocracy. This study of 14 German #coops is a fascinating deep-dive into the potential and pitfalls of #Cooperatives.

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We want to share today the report "Concepts and methods to measure societal impacts – an overview", by Susanne Bührer, Alex Feidenheimer, Rainer Walz, Ralf Linder, Bernd Beckert and Elisa Wallwaey. The report addresses the different definitions of societal impact and its strands of discourse. 👇 Read it below! #SocietalImpact #SocialImpact #Report https://lnkd.in/daifWmF8

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I have also left Twitter/X because I cannot support that heap of misinformation anymore. I have also left Instagram and Facebook. What are your thoughts on this? Is it time to migrate off social media (she says on social media)? Ps. My decision to leave Facebook was mainly due to the quite brutal threats I received over the platform when talking about climate-related science, but also due to the FB-induced genocide in Myanmar and the FB digital colonialism in Africa. I just couldn't anymore. I still have LinkedIn due to my work contacts. #scientists4future #climate #science

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What is the relationship between #foresight and the #innovation climate of an organization? In an empirical investigation of 147 upper‐tier managers we (together with Bernhard Wach, Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences and Dr. Felix von Held, IICM | Institute for Innovation and Change Methodology GmbH) find the following: 💡 researching for trends and developing scenarios positively influence the innovation climate of a company 💡 in particular developing scenarios is of relevance for an innovation climate 💡 training managers in future‐oriented capabilities is than beneficial for an innovation climate if the company does not go beyond trend research 🚀 What do companies need to do? Clearly, embrace foresight for their innovation climate. 👉 The paper is open access and can be downloaded: https://lnkd.in/daWWRTxP 📌 This paper is part of a research project on Robust #leadership. The German version our book is about to hit the market: https://lnkd.in/dycvtZJP Bavarian Foresight-Institute, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt

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Digital social innovations in rural areas – what critical junctures tell us about the process behind them? Happy to share a new publication together with Tobias Chilla, Lisa Birnbaum and Stephan Kröner. Based on a qualitative comparative approach to process tracing, we made the following findings. ✅ Participatory processes are crucial for digital innovation in rural communities. ✅ ‘Hybridisation’ is an intermediate step that helps to reduce the digital divide. ✅ Collaborative learning in rural communities benefits successful institutionalisation ✅ Endogenous and exogenous impulses trigger different path dependencies for rural innovation. Check our findings here: https://lnkd.in/ex4npHQc Please find more on our project (2020-2023, BMEL) and the case studies: www.heidi-toolbox.de

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#Wilmasreview of the week Wilma 🐶 takes a walk and gets the impression that a 🧟‍♀️/👻/💀-apocalypse is imminent - what to do about it? A difficult challenge, some might even say a "wicked" problem... So she checks out an article by Guy Peters in Policy and Society Journal to understand what the term wicked problems actually means and whether it helps her to find appropriate policies: (1) Wicked problems are difficult to define. ➡️ Her problem is quite easy to define, Wilma thinks, and has been depicted a lot in media 💀. (2) Wicked problems have no stopping rule. ➡️ Her problem is somewhat stoppable, Wilma thinks - eradication of Zombies, for example🔫. (3) Solutions to wicked problems are not true or false, but good or bad. ➡️ Not sure about this, Wilma thinks the number of dogs rescued is a key figure for a correct solution. 🐕 (4) There is no immediate or ultimate test for solutions. ➡️ That is an empirical question, thinks Wilma. You can test more than many people think 💣. (5) All attempts to solutions have effects that may not be reversible or forgettable. ➡️This is also the case for many strategic issues that are not necessarily considered wicked. What about temporary quarantines for Zombies? 🤔 But yes, there is no free lunch, hopefully also not for🧟‍♀️ (6) These problems have no clear solution, and perhaps not even a set of possible solutions. ➡️ Complexity is a defining component of the word "problem". Otherwise it would regularly be referred to as a task. What does this mean for the apocalypse? Wilma would like to try out lots of solutions. ⚔️🔫🏹🛡️ (7) Every wicked problem is essentially unique. ➡️ This apocalypse might have some commonalities with other (public health) emergencies. 💉 (8) Every wicked problem may be a symptom of another problem. ➡️ Wilma argues that a zombie apocalypse might be a standalone issue 😨 (9) There are multiple explanations for the wicked problem. ➡️ Despite multiple explanations, a dominant theory (e.g., a viral outbreak or Halloween) could guide a unified response. 🎃 (10) The planner (policy-maker) has no right to be wrong. ➡️ The necessity for decisive action is a common aspect of many emergency situations, Wilma thinks (e.g., miss dog lunch) 🤯 ➡️ The article argues that the existence of complex, ill-structured problems should not become an excuse for stretching the concept of wicked problems to the point where it becomes analytically meaningless. ➡️ While adopting information-processing frameworks for complexity and ambiguity is needed, they may still apply to all problems. #postdog Kong Frederiks Center for Offentlig Ledelse

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A highly recommendable article by Amrei Bahr on the ethical aspects of using #AI in academia. I found section c. Loss of Digital Autonomy through AI Use in Academia especially intriguing. Find the #OpenAccess paper here: https://lnkd.in/eGg6XFdp

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#AI can help to further increase #productivity of #manufacturing processes! Fraunhofer IST and Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology (IWF) closely collaborate to lever the potentials and demonstrate the performance in concrete use case: How can AI support electroplating technology in terms of cost and resource efficiency? What is actually behind a data-based model? How can we know on what basis an AI model has made a decision?

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Super Daten-Ressource inklusive Benutzer-Guidelines und Trainings: https://lnkd.in/es4nM8R https://lnkd.in/em-Eyu4i Trainings (Aufzeichnungen der Webinare unten auf der Seite): "The Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S) organised a series of webinars on climate projections for Europe with special emphasis on high-resolution regional projections. Climate projections are essential for assessing future climate change and its potential impacts. A wide range of users needs detailed regional and local climate change information. Participants joined us to learn more about regional climate models and their use. The webinars discussed global and regional climate models, scenarios for the future and how regional climate projections can be used for climate change impact assessments in different sectors in Europe." https://lnkd.in/ePPdZ33j

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Something to be considered not only from business management standpoint, but also among ourselves, resource governance and political ecology Scholars. Hope to read a full version from Miriam Wilhelm soon!

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Sage open (see link) wants authors to write a plain language summary. what do you think, is this helpful? Occupation-related volunteering: a term and definition for performing one’s work as a volunteer Our research is about the term for and definition of a person doing their usual work as a volunteer. They may work in business, government or a non-profit and volunteer in, for example, a private school, government hospital, or local sporting club. However, unlike other volunteering, the person does what is, will be, or was their occupation as an unpaid volunteer. The current terms, including service-learning, pro bono, corporate or skills-based volunteering, are too limited. We systematically reviewed the literature on what we call the ‘volunteering-work nexus’ from the volunteer’s perspective. We identified 62 scientific articles and, as a result, introduced the term occupation-related volunteering. Most articles took the definition of a volunteer, then added ‘what it takes’ to do occupational work: knowledge, skills and abilities, financial resources and work-related contacts, networks and personal inclinations. The definition recognizes that the willingness and ability to be an occupation-related volunteer changes over work-life stages, from student to employee to retiree, and whether the workplace is involved or not. By listing the required attributes and recognizing the importance of context, the definition is a foundation for future research. Our term occupation-related volunteering can reduce the siloing of knowledge and bridge disciplines, including education, human resources, and non-profit management, across occupations (e.g., legal, administration). It also allows a better understanding of the boundaries and crossovers between work, learning and volunteering. Limitations include that reviewed articles only studied professions in mainly Global North countries; addressing these are among several directions we suggest as future research. https://lnkd.in/eWMvreCJ

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💭 Great Guest Article on #ConceptualAndTheoreticalFrameworks Piotr Makowski (2024) Conceptual and theoretical frameworks – a brief guide for the perplexed (Via Sven Kunisch's Literature-based Research) Link: https://lnkd.in/depSQa5n Short Summary: Concepts, conceptual frameworks, theory and theoretical frameworks play central roles in literature reviews. Yet, scholars often use the idea of conceptual frameworks intuitively, without clarification what they mean by it and this practice embraces both theoretical and empirical works. Thus, the distinction between the two remains ambiguous. Keywords: #ConceptualVsTheoreticalFrameworks #ConceptualFramework #TheoreticalFramework #Conceptual #Theoretical #Review #Research #SystematicLiteratureReviews #TheoryAdvancement #PhD #Publishing Queen's University Belfast University of Warsaw With references to works by Dermot Breslin, David Denyer, Martha Feldman, Ranjay Gulati, Jennifer Howard-Grenville, Patricia Klarner, Joseph Mahoney, Corinne Post, John Prescott, David Seidl, and many others.

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As one of the Austrian members in the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment we at the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft have recently published our action plan, showcasing how we promote qualitative and diverse methods for evaluating research and researchers. Key Points of the LBG Action Plan: Diversity of Contributions: LBG research assessment criteria include contributions beyond journal publications, such as public engagement, teaching, mentoring, open science, and participatory research. Qualitative Focus: Research assessment at LBG prioritizes qualitative evaluations through peer review, but avoids undue reliance on metrics like the JIF and H-index. Ethics and Diversity Hub: The LBG has established the Ethics & Diversity Hub to support ethical practices and diversity in research FAIR research data The LBG supports making research data findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable, inter alia by providing the CREED repository for data underlying publications Future Directions: LBG will continue to refine its assessment practices by integrating additional diversity and inclusion indicators, further promoting open access, and actively engaging with national and international networks, including #CoARA #researchevaluation #researchassessment

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👨‍💻 "I believe that social scientists, and especially methodologists like me, should contribute more to research on understanding quality aspects of the data used. High-quality data are essential for making good decisions" says Ruben Bach, researcher at the Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (MZES). For this reason, Ruben's work deals with New Data and Methods for Social Science Research. To put it simply, "it's like crafting the perfect questionnaire that can be easily read and understood by both, people and computers." 👉 Read the full DSI interviw here: https://lnkd.in/eGP8GgMg #DataScienceInsights

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🎉 Great news from Cyber Valley Founding Partners Fraunhofer IPA and Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO. Their joint initiative KI-Fortschrittszentrum was praised by the latest OECD - OCDE report for playing an important role in the transfer of AI research to industry in Germany. Read more and see the report below👇 #TechTransfer #AI #AIFuture #BetterTogether

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Hannah Blocher and I had a great time presenting our work on partial rankings of optimizers at the 12th International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) in Vienna. After an inspiring keynote by Mortiz Hardt (mrtz.org) on the "emerging science of benchmarks", a lot of people showed up at our poster, eager to learn how to benchmark optimizers according to multiple criteria by partial rankings. The idea is super simple: Imagine you want to benchmark #deeplearning optimizers such as adam, momentum etc... When you rank them with respect to more than one criterion, e.g., minimal loss achieved and speed, some will become incomparable. For instance, optimizer 1 might achieve lower loss at the cost of being slower than optimizer 2. Our method allows to summarize such benchmarking results in a statistically valid way without enforcing a total ranking (where all optimizers would be comparable to each other). Want to learn how this works? Check out our paper. It's a quick read of no more than two pages ;) Tiny Paper: https://lnkd.in/d-mDg4cq Code: https://lnkd.in/dFCW8tCw Poster: https://lnkd.in/dEWngSbK

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