Josef Hovenjürgen, Parliamentary State Secretary for the Ruhr Region and the Ruhr Conference, visited the Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) in Dortmund.

He was welcomed by the Rector of TU Dortmund University, Prof. Dr. Manfred Bayer, as well as Prof. Dr. Emmanuel Müller (TU Dortmund University), Director of the Research Center, and Prof. Dr. Nicole Krämer (University of Duisburg-Essen), member of the Scientific Board. Founded in 2021, the cross-university Research Center has now filled the eighth of a total of 15 new professorships with internationally renowned scientists to make intelligent systems more trustworthy.  

Parliamentary State Secretary Josef Hovenjürgen from the Ministry of Regional Identity, Communities and Local Government, Building and Digitalization was impressed by the scientific expertise and innovative strength of the Research Center in the heart of the Ruhr region: "It's great to see that our Research Alliance project, which was launched a few years ago, has gained significant momentum. It is growing and taking on clearer and clearer contours. Our aim was to attract many bright minds from all over the world to the Ruhr region to pursue science at the highest level. Today we can say that this innovation turbo has ignited. The Ruhr region has once again proven that it can do research and excellence: It can do research and excellence."

As founding director of the Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security, Prof. Dr. Emmanuel Müller and the founding team (Prof. Dr. Nicole Krämer, Markus Pauly (TU Dortmund University), Christof Paar (Ruhr University Bochum)) set the research priorities and shaped the development of the center from the very beginning: "Many human decisions are supported by artificial intelligence - sometimes without us being aware of it in a blind trust. With our research, we want to empower people to understand, check and control AI, but also to develop technologies that are reliable, safe and trustworthy." Prof. Dr. Nicole Krämer adds: "With our research center, we are building on the interdisciplinary strengths of the UA Ruhr in the fields of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and psychology."

Prof. Dr. Manfred Bayer, Rector of the Technical University of Dortmund, adds: "The Research Center shows that the UA Ruhr can successfully develop its cutting-edge research together. International scientists come to the Ruhr region to conduct research together at the highest level and address pressing issues of the future." The members of the Research Center previously worked at the University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich and the University of California (UCLA), among others.

The Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security was founded in 2021 as one of five cutting-edge research facilities at UA Ruhr. It focuses on the trustworthiness of intelligent systems in security-critical applications and pursues a unique human-centered research approach. The Research Center brings together researchers from different disciplines such as social sciences, data sciences and IT security and enables them to work on long-term research questions in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber security in an interdisciplinary and cross-university manner.

In the UA Ruhr Research Alliance, the University of Duisburg-Essen, Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Technische Universität Dortmund are pooling their cutting-edge research in four Research Centers and one College. In the four Research Centers "One Health Ruhr", "Chemical Sciences and Sustainability", "Trustworthy Data Science and Security" and "Future Energy Materials and Systems", the UA Ruhr addresses pressing issues of our time such as health, sustainability, digitalization and energy. The College for Social Sciences and Humanities promotes excellent research in the humanities and social sciences and advances the international networking of the UA Ruhr.

The Research Alliance was initiated by the Ruhr Conference and will be funded by the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia with a total of 123 million euros in the start-up phase from 2022 to 2025.