Research

Current and past research projects

Research Focus

My research develops trustworthy AI and semantic web infrastructure for data-intensive science. Working across healthcare, biodiversity, scholarly data, and cultural heritage, I advance FAIR data principles through distributed analytics systems and data space technologies that enable collaboration while preserving privacy and sovereignty. The challenge: making research data not just findable and accessible, but genuinely trustworthy across organizational boundaries.

Active Projects

AI-BioDynamics

Active
Duration: 2025-2029
Role: Coordinator | Project Manager | Lead Proposal Writer
Funder: BMFTR - Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space
Budget: (our share) / (total)

Transforming biodiversity monitoring through an AI-driven platform that integrates multi-source environmental data and transfer-learning models to generate actionable insights for conservation and ESG decision-making.

Artificial Intelligence Biodiversity Process Mining
Collaborators:
  • 2 German Partners and 3 South-Korean Partners

NFDI4DS - NFDI for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

Active
Duration: 2021-2025
Role: Co-Spokesperson | Project Manager
Funder: DFG (German Research Foundation)
Budget: (our share) / (total)

Building a comprehensive research data infrastructure for data science and artificial intelligence in Germany, connecting 17 institutions nationwide.

FAIR Data Knowledge Graphs Research Infrastructures
Collaborators:
  • 17 German Research Institutions

NFDI4Health

Active
Duration: 2021-2025
Role: Co-Project Manager
Funder: DFG (German Research Foundation)
Budget: (our share) / (total)

National research data infrastructure for personal health data, supporting interdisciplinary health research.

Health Data FAIR Data Research Infrastructure

FAIR Data Spaces

Active
Duration: 2019-2024
Role: Co-Coordinator | Project Manager
Funder: BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
Budget: 1,976,054 € (our share) / 32% of total (total)

Building a common cloud-based data space for industry and science by linking Gaia-X and NFDI initiatives.

Data Spaces Gaia-X Cloud Computing FAIR Principles

ARGUS: Non-destructive, scalable, smart monitoring of remote cultural treasures

Active
Duration: 2023-2026
Role: PI | Project Manager | Proposal Writing Contributor
Funder: Horizon EU
Budget: 521,687 € (our share) / 13% of total (total)

Developing AI-powered solutions for monitoring and preserving cultural heritage sites using non-destructive technologies.

Cultural Heritage AI Digital Twins Monitoring

CARE-LLM: Clear and Accessible Resources for Empowering patients using multi-agent LLMs

Active
Duration: 2024
Role: Coordinator | PI | Project Manager | Lead Proposal Writer
Funder: Fraunhofer BIG Data Allianz
Budget: 45,000 € (our share) / 50% of total (total)

Developing multi-agent large language model systems to empower patients with clear and accessible healthcare information.

LLM Healthcare Multi-agent Systems Patient Empowerment

Next Generation Dataspaces Initiative (NGDI)

Active
Duration: 2024-2027
Role: Co-Project Manager
Funder: Fraunhofer ICON Program
Budget: (our share) / (total)

Developing next-generation data space technologies with AI-enhanced interfaces and cross-sector interoperability.

Data Spaces AI Interoperability LLM

FDO Connect

Active
Duration: 2025
Role: PI | Project Manager | Proposal Writing Contributor
Funder: Industrial Funder
Budget: 108,880 € (our share) / N/A (total)

Developing infrastructure for FAIR Digital Objects with nanopublication-based systems and automated tools.

FAIR Digital Objects Nanopublications Automation

RESONANCE: RESpONnsible compliance assistANCE platform

Active
Duration: 2025-2028
Role: Co-Coordinator | Co-PI | Co-Project Manager
Funder: BMBF (Joint Indo-German)
Budget: (our share) / (total)

Platform for deploying fair and privacy-preserving AI in SMEs with responsible compliance assistance.

AI Compliance Privacy SMEs Fair AI

K-Netz_DTM

Active
Duration: 2024-2026
Role: Co-PI | Project Proposal Contributor
Funder: BMBF
Budget: 228,618 € (our share) / 12% of total (total)

Competence network for data trustee models in digital ecosystems.

Data Trusteeship Digital Ecosystems Data Governance

Completed Projects

OutCite: Reference Understanding in the Social Sciences

Completed
Duration: 2020-2023
Role: Co-PI | Lead Proposal Writer
Funder: DFG (German Research Foundation)

Developing methods for understanding and analyzing citation patterns in social sciences research literature.

Citation Analysis NLP Social Sciences Bibliometrics

EXCITE: Extraction of Citations from PDF Documents

Completed
Duration: 2018-2020
Role: Project Manager
Funder: DFG (German Research Foundation)

Automated extraction and processing of citations from PDF documents using machine learning techniques.

PDF Processing Citation Extraction Machine Learning NLP

FATA: False-Alarms in Train Monitoring and their Automatic Discovery

Completed
Duration: 2018-2019
Role: PI | Project Manager | Lead Proposal Writer
Funder: Industrial Funder

Developing AI-based systems to automatically detect and reduce false alarms in train monitoring systems.

Anomaly Detection Transportation AI Industrial IoT

ELMTEX – Affordable, Privacy-Compliant AI for European Healthcare

Completed
Duration: 2023-2024
Role: PI | Lead Proposal Writer | Project Manager
Funder: Fraunhofer FIT internal call

Developing privacy-preserving AI solutions for healthcare document processing in European healthcare systems.

Healthcare AI Privacy Document Processing Clinical NLP

Application Domains

Healthcare

Medical data infrastructure, clinical AI, patient empowerment systems

Biodiversity

Environmental monitoring, conservation analytics, multi-source data integration

Scholarly Communication

Citation analysis, research metadata, author disambiguation, bibliometrics

Cultural Heritage

Digital preservation, remote monitoring, AI-powered conservation

Industry & SMEs

Data spaces, AI compliance, privacy-preserving analytics

Research Infrastructure

National data infrastructure, distributed systems, FAIR Digital Objects