In 2011, its anniversary year, the Bosch Group is expanding its higher education funding and launching a new global initiative. The company is investing a total of 50 million euros to provide support for universities and research projects in Germany, China, India, and the U.S. over the next ten years or so. The initiative – the “Bosch InterCampus Program” – aims to achieve lasting improvements in research conditions for undergraduates and scientists in the university sphere, thereby accelerating progress in the highly promising fields of the environment, energy, and mobility. As a global supplier of technology and services, Bosch is once again underlining its social responsibility with this commitment and is also offering young graduates excellent prospects for the future. In 2011 alone, Bosch will take on 9,000 university graduates worldwide – 1,200 of them in Germany.
The rapid developments of the last few years in all key technology sectors are also placing enormous demands on business. “By funding science and research, we’re investing not only in the future viability of our company but also in the future of a global society,” says Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the Bosch board of management.
The major challenges include areas such as energy, the environment, and mobility. It is against this backdrop that Bosch has decided to invest more in these research fields. In the InterCampus program, undergraduates and scientists will therefore research into electromobility, energy generation, energy efficiency, and reducing emissions from 2011 onward. To create the optimum conditions for this, Bosch is setting up new institutes and chairs, expanding those already in existence, and creating networks among universities. The aim is to stimulate a dynamic transfer of knowledge.
Some 22.8 million euros of the total budget is going to India. The ten-year development project aims to set up the independent “Robert Bosch Center for Research in Cyber Physical Systems” at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Cyber-physical systems will help to save energy in buildings, for instance. The house of the future will know what current energy prices are and the local weather is
like, and optimise its energy consumption according to the needs of its occupants. Bosch is creating a campus for IT design, cyber-physical systems, mobility solutions and renewable energy in collaboration with India’s leading scientific institute. “With our funding for higher education in India, we are creating a perfect research and working environment for future IT specialists,” says Vijay Ratnaparkhe, managing director of Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions in India.