From improving imaging procedures in medicine to ethical aspects of human-machine collaboration – Dr Christina Dieckhoff is concerned with many facets of digitalisation. The science manager coordinates the junior research groups at bidt. The programme gives young scientists from various disciplines the opportunity to set up their own research group on an innovative topic in the phase after their doctorate. It is precisely the “high social relevance of the research questions” that she values so much in her work, says Christina Dieckhoff.
A broad network is the most important thing for researchers.
Dr. Christina Dieckhoff To the profile
The junior research groups funded by bidt are distributed at universities throughout Bavaria. Christina Dieckhoff acts as an interface, so to speak. Her goal is to promote interdisciplinary exchange in the programme and with the bidt projects and to create space for professional and personal encounters. “For researchers, a broad network is the most important thing,” says Christina Dieckhoff. In the interdisciplinary approach to research funding at bidt, there is also the additional task of bringing together the threads of the various disciplines – the prerequisite for creating impulses for new research ideas and collaborations. To this end, Christina Dieckhoff plans events, for example, and advises researchers on their activities. In addition, further training events are an important part of the programme, which will also be accessible to bidt researchers.
Christina Dieckhoff is herself very well networked thanks to her many years in science management. From 2015 to 2020, she was a research officer at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, where she oversaw the Junge Kolleg, which supports outstanding young researchers from various disciplines.
Knowledge transfer between universities and industry
For her work in such a young institute as bidt, the science manager also brings her experience in start-up consulting. She was responsible for setting up the entrepreneurship department at the CeTIM Institute of the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich and was project manager of the Founders’ Academy at Gründer-Regio-M in Munich. So it makes sense that Christina Dieckhoff at bidt is also in charge of the innovation lab programme, which is based at Bavarian universities. With the InnoLabs, bidt offers students an environment in which they can realise ideas and gain practical experience. There, students are supported, for example, in the development of prototypes and start-up projects. In addition, the transfer of knowledge between universities and business is a key goal.
Christina Dieckhoff already set out on her professional course towards research management and digitisation while studying history and geography at LMU. She worked for several years at the Contact Point for Research and Technology Transfer, where she was responsible for digitally recording research performance at LMU. This direct application reference was a good complement to her research interests: Christina Dieckhoff did her doctorate in medieval church history. “I had discovered a research gap and evaluated ecclesiastical court documents in the period shortly before the Reformation that had not been accessible to researchers until then.”
The research not only gave her insights into the personal lives and love and crime of the time – violations of celibacy, for example, were tried as well as fraud or murder – but also gave her access to an era in which liberal aspirations challenged the church and issues such as celibacy or divorce that are still valid today were discussed. “It was incredibly exciting to deal with the church court records, which have been handed down in their thousands, and to ask whether signs of radicalisation were already visible in the population during this time and whether the conservative counter-movement of the 16th century, which was marked by the Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, witch hunts and religious wars, was already emerging,” says Christina Dieckhoff. That she nevertheless decided against an academic career was then due to the fact that she likes to work in an application-oriented way. She is particularly interested in the connection between digitisation and the humanities, as is currently taking shape in the digital humanities.
the research manager has made “Go ahead” her guiding principle in her LinkedIn profile. It describes well the professional career of the Kiel-born research manager since she moved to Munich. However, it is probably not only thanks to Munich as a science location, but also to the Bavarian lakes that the passionate sailor – she already had her own dinghy at the age of eight – has found her home here.
It is very exciting to support a young institute like bidt in its development and to create structures for the promotion of young people in digitization research.
Dr. Christina Dieckhoff To the profile
The bidt now gives her the opportunity to contribute her wealth of experience and help open up new research perspectives on the digital transformation.
Promoting young researchers at the bidt
The bidt is committed to supporting young researchers with a variety of formats.
