Collaboration

Important scientific partners are the national and international professional associations. The Fraunhofer ICT Group has provided three of the last four presidents of the German Informatics Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik) and, since 2013, has also housed the capital office of the Society in its Berlin offices. This has resulted in numerous joint initiatives, ranging from the long-standing joint sponsorship of the Nationwide Competitions in Informatics (Bundesweite Informatikwettbewerbe) to the co-organization of four scientific years and the joint addressing of politics. Several Fraunhofer Institute directors have also been elected Fellows of the Gesellschaft für Informatik, its international sister company ACM and the IEEE.

The Fraunhofer ICT Group is a member of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics ERCIM. The association of European research institutions in the fields of information and communication technology and applied mathematics provides young scientists with scholarships at leading European research institutes. Topics include computer science, information technology and applied mathematics.

The Fraunhofer ICT Group is involved in the development program for executives Software Campus of the EIT ICT Labs Germany funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The initiative combines cutting-edge research and management practice in a novel way. Graduates manage the entire process of IT projects with the support of research and industry partners. Participants are supported in the form of management training, mentoring, a practical phase and active networks. To date, 18 doctoral students from Fraunhofer IUK network institutes have been able to realize their own projects in cooperation with industry.

The institutes of the Fraunhofer ICT Group are involved in numerous economic and political networks on a national and international level. Their efforts are complemented by the activities of the network, some of which are coordinated centrally.

• With its own specialist events, such as the annual Fraunhofer Technology Day or the ICT Round Table, the Fraunhofer ICT Group provides industry and politics with a broad spectrum of technical expertise and experience.
• The bundling of numerous individual memberships and over 100 individual activities in the industry association Bitkom in a joint Fraunhofer ICT Group membership enables all institutes to participate and led to a seat on the main board of Bitkom.
• At the Federal Association for IT Security e.V. (TeleTrusT) and the Consortium Object Management Group (OMG), the association is active in the form of a membership.
• The Fraunhofer ICT Group is involved in SafeTRANS, a competence cluster that combines know-how in research and development in the field of complex embedded systems in the transport sector.
• At EU level, the Fraunhofer ICT Group is represented in the CONNECT Advisory Forum.

In the national political scene, the Fraunhofer ICT Group has significantly strengthened its activities and visibility in Berlin. In particular, the following initiatives are worth mentioning:

• The Fraunhofer ICT Group is a member of Initiative D21 and has accompanied the German government's Digital Summit (formerly National IT Summit) in various working groups for several years.
• In the Fraunhofer-ICT-Round-Table, which takes place several times a year, employees of members of parliament are informed objectively and professionally about various current digital topics.
• Since 2010, the Fraunhofer ICT Group has been constantly participating in the opening event of Girls' Day at the Chancellor's Office.
• Intensive exchange with the Committee on the Digital Agenda of the Deutscher Bundestag and its members (club discussions, participation in closed conferences, etc.).
• Political evening and lunch events on various current topics.

In recent years, the presence of the network and its institutes in the scientific academies, especially in the German Academy of Engineering Sciences acatech, has been improved. In addition to the membership of several institute directors, Prof. Claudia Eckert was appointed to the acatech Presidium in 2015. In 2017, Prof. Dieter Spath was elected President of acatech.