On April 1st, 2023, the ECDF launched the second funding phase "New Generation", in which the research focuses on the areas of "Integrated Health", "Transforming Communities" and "Sustainable Cities". With the start of the second funding phase, Gesche Joost (UdK Berlin) took over the spokesperson role of the ECDF. In our annual report we present the various projects, events and those involved.
In 2023, the ECDF-Professors again started a wide variety of research projects: The project by ECDF-Prof. Max von Grafenstein aims to use data protection symbols in the form of small icons to enable individuals to better understand the complexity of data protection, for example with regard to data protection guidelines. The joint project by ECDF-Prof. Andrea Cominola and Ivo Daniel offers digital solutions for saving water. On September 1st, 2023, the new project "iOLE - intelligent online leak detection" was launched. The project combines two leak detection algorithms that have already won awards in science and can achieve different levels of accuracy in locating leaks by covering different requirements.
In 2023, the first of ten ECDF-Professorships was also made permanent at a Berlin university: On April 1st, 2023, Berit Greinke accepted the call from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin) to the permanent professorship of "Wearable Computing" at the Institute for Experimental Clothing and Textile Design. She is thus taking up the first professorship to emerge from the ECDF and be permanently appointed to one of Berlin's universities.
At the events, we were able to organize a wide variety of events together with our partners. One of the highlights was the ceremony to extend the ECDF on March 20th, 2023. Around 250 guests from science, politics and society came together in Berlin's Futurium to celebrate the extension of the ECDF for another five years. The spectacular backdrop of the Futurium provided the ideal setting for the celebratory event of the ceremony, which not only offered a review of the ECDF's achievements to date, but also an inspiring outlook on the digital future.
The ECDF was also open to the general public again as part of the Long Night of Science 2023 and the Berlin Science Week. For the Long Night of Science, the ECDF once again offered visitors a journey through a variety of interdisciplinary projects that deal with current challenges and innovative solutions for digital transformation. From late afternoon to midnight, guests were able to get to know twelve projects from the field of digitalization research and try some of them out for themselves. From improving personal safety in road traffic to designing climate-neutral cities, various aspects of digitalization and its effects on our daily lives were examined. Under the motto "Dare to Know", the Berlin Science Week took place again in the fall. ECDF was represented with various events and scientists on a wide range of topics in digitalization research.
The entire ECDF annual report is available for download here: DEU/ENG.
We hope you enjoy reading!