„Technical monitoring, safety, environmental protection... these are all topics at the heart of TÜVs, meaning they have been in our DNA for 150 years. With RWTÜV and especially with the RWTÜV Foundation, we are connecting this origin with the future, i.e., with research, science, and innovation.“
Dr. Fabian Fechner, Deputy Chairman of the RWTÜV Foundation.
Since 2007, the RWTÜV Foundation and the RWTÜV e.V. patrons have been promoting research, science, and educational initiatives at an institutional level. Universities and other.
Because the shortage of skilled workers presents a particular challenge for a service provider group like RWTÜV. Likewise, rapid and sometimes disruptive changes in the construction industry, the automotive and telecommunications industries, the energy market, and the digital world are testing the companies of the RWTÜV Group. „We counter this by intensively promoting innovative ideas as well as science and research in topics important to our business areas, in order to actively shape the future and our success!“ says Chairman Thomas Biedermann, outlining the foundation's ambitions.
The change to the foundation’s mission in 2022 also better reflects the Group’s international focus, as it generates more than 60 % of its revenue abroad. As a result, funding projects within the EU and the United Kingdom have been launched in recent years.
Continuity, on the other hand, exists with the board of trustees, which continues to be composed of lawyers Ulrich Kanders, Dr. Peter Sauermann, Elisabeth Bienbeck-Ketelhohn, Dr. Hans Christian Atzpodien, Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert, Director of the University of Duisburg-Essen, as well as Dr. Katharina Kohls (PhD), Assistant Professor Digital Security Group Radboud at Radboud University Nijmegen.
The cooperation with the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), within the framework of which twelve scholarship holders in the fields of electrical engineering, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and IT are supported, continues to be successful. The supported students, who come from countries such as Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and of course Germany and Europe, will receive support not only for the usual one year but for three to four years, from the first semester until graduation. They will also be assisted in their search for internships, working student positions, bachelor's and master's thesis opportunities, and, last but not least, in their career choices.
The RWTÜV Foundation's support for various doctoral projects with full-time positions for 3 years will also continue. Under the name „Secure IoT Systems in the 5G Era,“ a collaboration with the Chair of Systems Security at Ruhr University Bochum is underway. The focus is on web-based Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems, particularly access systems for real estate, and their security against cyber-attacks.
At Maastricht University, the RWTÜV Foundation is sponsoring a doctoral degree abroad in direct thematic connection with the activities of subsidiary Van Ameyde. In the field of „International Insurance Law,“ a legal thesis is being produced on the topic of cross-border insurance claims settlement. The focus is on the „Green Card,“ developed in 1965 with the participation of Van Ameyde founder Henri van Ameyde, and how it can be successfully transitioned into a globalized and digitized future within and outside the EU. The „Green Card“ is a widely recognized proof of motor vehicle liability insurance in many countries, covering damages (e.g., from accidents) caused by the insured to third parties.
The „Critical Experiment“ continues at the University of Liverpool with funding from the RWTÜV Foundation. It concerns an essential future technology within the scope of RWTÜV subsidiary TÜV NORD: the experimental control of the correct loading of a nuclear reactor with nuclear fuel, in the context of a doctoral thesis on establishing a future energy source, Small Modular Reactors. At TUM (Technical University of Munich), a doctoral thesis on energy generation is also underway, supported by the RWTÜV Foundation, relating to the classic fields of activity of RWTÜV subsidiaries CONSULECTRA and Enoplan. Here, a molten salt storage system is being researched, intended to serve as a scalable grid-based energy storage system to ensure the balance of the entire energy system. Molten salt can absorb surplus electricity from the grid and release it again, depending on supply and demand in the electricity market.
In a research project funded by the RWTÜV Foundation and the NRW government, the ewa – eurobits women academy successfully concluded the qualification of career changers as cybersecurity experts with nearly twenty participants in two groups. They received their certificates from NRW Minister for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy Mona Neubaur at a festive closing event. Through a practical approach, key competencies in IT security and cybersecurity were imparted via online and in-person workshops with eight learning modules, which are urgently needed in the job market due to the increasing digital threat landscape. The RWTÜV Foundation is supporting the completion of the pilot phase and its transition to a commercial offering.