FOM University of Applied Sciences

About Us

FOM University of Applied Sciences was founded as an initiative of an economically focused foundation and has university centres in 30 regions in Germany. In addition, since the winter semester 2021, the university has been offering digital live studies, which are broadcasted from multifunctional FOM Studios. As a practically-oriented university for professionals, FOM promotes the transfer of knowledge between the university and business. At the same time, all courses are tailored to the needs of professionals and trainees.

The fact that FOM is so well accepted is illustrated not only in its close working relationship with state-run universities, but also in numerous collaborations with medium-sized regional companies as well as with major international corporations. Having around 45,000 students, FOM is one of the largest private universities in Germany offering face-to-face courses (Source: Federal Statistical Office 2020).

As a business university, FOM is committed to application-oriented research. It aims to generate transferable and adaptable solutions for business or social problems.

The iaim Institute of Automation & Industrial Management is a research institute for application-oriented engineering sciences in the fields of technology, engineering sciences, and industrial and production management. Together with its partners, it develops scientifically sound and application-oriented, innovative solutions.

Our Subproject

FOM University leads the research project RETRAKT and is responsible for the sub-project ‘Development of a transformation concept for circular value creation in the textile industry’. From a labour research perspective, the transition to a circular economy in the textile industry changes processes, work content, tasks and workloads both quantitatively and qualitatively, placing new demands on work organisation, management and skilled workers. FOM analyses the challenges involved in managing these complex projects and, in cooperation with its partners, develops models for a resilient circular economy. To this end, labour research transformation workshops and suitable tools are being developed based on resilience engineering.

Our Motivation

FOM will continue to deepen its research focus on labour research in the RETRAKT project, with an emphasis on complex socio-technical systems and resilience engineering. Resilience engineering expertise will thereby be expanded and extended to new industries.

In addition, FOM aims to develop and design a cross-disciplinary teaching unit (module) entitled “Management of Complex Projects” at master's level. This module supplements the existing “Project Management” module with strategies and methods for project management under conditions of high complexity. In addition, the results of the project will be used to further develop the existing “Sustainability Management” degree program at FOM.