The Graduate Center aims to promote the careers of outstanding young researchers working on digitalisation’s technical, economic or social aspects. The particularity of the working groups is that doctoral students and postdocs work together on a current topic — from an interdisciplinary perspective. Loder emphasises: “The networking, the professional exchange, the interdisciplinarity, the training and, last but not least, the time and freedom to work on an additional research topic thanks to the funding are a well-rounded package.”
bidt Graduate Center
Self-organisation in working groups
From 2022 to 2023, the expert in digital mobility management was part of the first year of the Graduate Centre and a member of the working groups “Public Goods and AI” and “ChatGPT”. According to Loder, the working groups are the perfect example of self-organisation in the academic world. “In a small environment, you can try out what freedom of research and teaching at the university means. You can organise things yourself and, at the same time, have to ask yourself the questions: What actually makes sense, and how do you implement the process? This is not only educational but also fun.” Further research questions and projects often arise as a result of the broad-based specialist expertise and in-depth exchange.
The exchange and networking in an interdisciplinary environment were not only inspiring, but also motivating.
Prof. Dr. Allister Loder To the profile
The “Public Goods and AI” working group investigated how digitalisation can help to make public goods — such as local public transport, healthcare or public broadcasting — fairer, what structures are needed for this and who should initiate the change. It was particularly interesting to work together with people from other disciplines.
Merging research fields
In this case, the team consisted of an engineer, an ethicist, a political scientist, a journalist, and a philosopher. “It was about bringing the worlds of research together,” says Loder. It was an exciting challenge to sharpen the problem together and even develop a format to bring the research question to the public. The independent organisation of the panel discussion “The distribution of public goods — the digital as a solution?” with speakers from the fields of mobility, health, and broadcasting was also new for the researchers — and the feedback from the audience was very good. “I’m currently using the panel’s output in a lecture,” explains Loder. In addition to the visible results, he emphasises that being part of the working group has contributed to his academic development. The collaboration with other disciplines, the exchange and network created by the bidt Graduate Centre have benefited his career greatly. Thanks to this network, his connection to the bidt community will be maintained long-term.
The bidt structures help to understand how the research and funding landscape works — in Bavaria and beyond.
Prof. Dr. Allister Loder To the profile
