A milestone for applied research in Brandenburg: the Brandenburg Graduate School for Applied Sciences has been granted the right to award doctorates. On 14 August 2026, the Minister for Science, Dr Manja Schüle, presented the certificate to the joint research institution. This marks the first time the state has granted the right to award doctorates to universities of applied sciences. The right to award doctorates is initially valid for eight years, until 2034. The University for Sustainable Development (HNEE) is one of the four partner universities of the joint research institution.

Minister Schüle presented the new doctoral programme together with Prof. Dr Eva-Maria Saliu, Vice President for Research and Knowledge Transfer at HNEE, Prof. Dr Ulrike Tippe, President of Wildau University of Applied Sciences, Prof. Dr Andreas Wilms, President of Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences, and Prof. Dr Tobias Schröder, Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs at Potsdam University of Applied Sciences. 

Minister Dr Manja Schüle said: “Our universities of applied sciences have long been shaping the future: here, urgently needed skilled workers receive vocational education, smart solutions to specific challenges are developed, and innovations are put into practice particularly quickly. And they do so particularly effectively: the German Research Council has confirmed that, by national standards, our universities of applied sciences demonstrate a high level of research strength and the ability to secure third-party funding. It is therefore logical that we should now take a step further and grant them the right to award doctorates. For in doing so, we are not only strengthening the competitiveness of Brandenburg’s universities of applied sciences and Brandenburg as a centre of science. We are also offering graduates of these universities new and attractive career paths – and a scientific future ‘Made in Brandenburg’.”

With the right to award doctorates, the faculty can conduct doctoral procedures independently and confer doctoral degrees. Until now, professors at Brandenburg’s universities of applied sciences could only supervise doctoral theses in cooperation with universities authorised to award doctorates. The procedures were their responsibility. This new development recognises the growing research strength of the universities of applied sciences: doctoral degrees are an important part of their research, and having their own right to award doctoral degrees strengthens their academic autonomy.

Prof. Dr Eva-Maria Saliu, Vice President for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development: “For the HNEE, the right to award doctorates is both a mark of recognition and a commitment. In future, we will be able to offer early-career researchers reliable prospects right through to a doctorate, whilst at the same time taking responsibility for procedures that must be academically rigorous, transparent and reliable. Many of our research questions arise through close interaction with the professional world. The doctoral programme gives young researchers the opportunity to pursue these questions within an independent doctoral process. For me, reliable supervision and collaboration across university boundaries are absolutely essential to this.”

The doctoral programme is supported by the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences, the Brandenburg University of Applied Sciences, the Wildau University of Applied Sciences and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE). It is divided into three sections: Engineering Sciences, Natural and Environmental Sciences, and Economic, Social and Media Sciences. Within these sections, female professors and doctoral candidates from the four universities collaborate on specialist topics. The programme is led by a steering committee comprising female professors, PhD candidates and full-time staff members of the programme. The state provides around 1.55 million euros annually for the work of the doctoral programme as part of the university funding agreements. 

For Brandenburg’s universities of applied sciences (HAWs), the right to award doctorates is an important step. It fulfils a key prerequisite for the competitiveness of Brandenburg’s HAWs: they can attract early-career researchers to their diverse, application-oriented research projects and offer them attractive career paths leading up to a doctorate. In an increasingly diverse research landscape, universities of applied sciences make an independent contribution through their applied research. To do so, they must be able to offer academic career paths and prospects that match this profile.

In 2014, the state included the prospect of doctoral programme authorisation for research-intensive areas at universities of applied sciences in the coalition agreement. In 2015, the HNEE submitted a proposal for a ‘Brandenburg Academy of Applied Sciences’. From 2019, the universities began establishing joint doctoral structures. Since 2023, a working group comprising the four universities of applied sciences has been preparing the doctoral programme. The amendment to the Higher Education Act in 2024 created the legal basis for the granting of the right to award doctorates. In 2025, the universities signed the cooperation agreement. An external panel of experts reviewed the application in January 2026. Since February, the secretariat at the HNEE has been coordinating the next steps.

Female professors with a strong research record from the four universities are eligible to become members of the doctoral programme. Each section must have at least twelve female professors with a strong research record. To qualify, they must demonstrate outstanding achievements in applied research, a publication rate and a minimum amount of competitively secured, research-related third-party funding. Common rules ensure the quality of the procedures and their equivalence with doctoral procedures at universities: supervision and assessment are carried out by different individuals; mandatory supervision agreements govern the collaboration; and at least two reports are required for each doctoral thesis, one of which must be from an external reviewer. Subject-specific and interdisciplinary training programmes accompany the doctoral studies.

The work of establishing the programme does not end with the granting of the right to award doctorates. The next tasks include admitting members, setting up committees, adopting the regulations for the first doctoral procedures and admitting the first doctoral candidates. A further review is required before any extension can be considered. This review assesses how the right to award doctorates has been exercised and the impact the joint research group has had.