Group for Research in Public Relations and Communication of Technology

The institute council of the cross-faculty Institute for Mobility Research at the TU Ilmenau approved the application in June with an overwhelming majority. The director of the institute and head of the associated technological center, Professor Matthias Hein, sees this step as an important milestone in the ten-year history of ThIMo: "This means that for the first time we have a social science partner at our side and can now also address the social dimension of sustainable mobility." The expansion of the ThIMo is also related to the recently acquired KREATÖR project, which is funded with around two million euros by the Thuringian Ministry of Economics, Science and Digital Society (TMWWDG). The project scientifically accompanies the planned introduction of highly automated shuttle buses in Ilmenau's public transport system. In the future, these shuttles will transport passengers between Ilmenau's main train station and the TU Ilmenau campus as a pilot project. In addition to the technological aspects, the KREATÖR project analyzes social acceptance, individual risk perceptions and media publicity by the research group PRTK, which is involved in the project until the end of 2023. In addition, the department supports the project partners with communication concepts. "In this way, we succeed in consistently implementing interdisciplinary cooperation at the interface of engineering and social sciences, which is particularly relevant in this project both for the region and for scientific progress in this field," says department head Schwarz.