bwIT alliance of more than 40 state universities and colleges
Furtwangen University (HFU) is part of the new “bwIT Alliance for Science,” a consortium of more than 40 universities and colleges in Baden-Württemberg. The aim of the alliance is to create a cross-university, powerful, and secure IT infrastructure that supports research, teaching, studies, and administration in an ideal way, and drives digital transformation.
"The cooperation in the bwIT Alliance opens up new opportunities for Furtwangen University and all member institutions to jointly use and further develop their IT services efficiently and in a legally compliant manner. This not only strengthens our competitiveness, but also frees up valuable resources that directly benefit our students and employees," emphasises Dr. Hendrik Kujis, Head of IT at the Information and Media Center (IMZ) at HFU.
The alliance's office will be based at the University of Tübingen for the first three years and will coordinate the collaboration. Initial joint projects such as the bwCloud and bwJupyter cloud services are already being implemented and are facilitating access to modern IT resources.
“As a university with a strong technical and digital focus, we benefit greatly from the close networking and exchange within the alliance. Digitalisation is a decisive factor for the future viability of our universities—and we are now actively shaping this," emphasises Andrea Linke, Head of Administration of Furtwangen University.
The bwIT alliance enables IT services to be shared easily and in a legally compliant manner. A marketplace for IT services will be created, and all universities in the state will benefit from the collaboration. Expertise and resources will be pooled, duplicate structures avoided, and costs saved. The alliance is thus setting new standards for cooperation in the higher education sector and providing an important framework for projects such as the “Universities in the Digital World” future lab.