Business informatics researchers receive prestigious awards

The Stafford Beer Medal 2025 went to Claudius Jonas, Jannik Lockl, Robin Weidlich and Maximilian Röglinger for their article "Designing a wearable IoT-based bladder level monitoring system for neurogenic bladder patients," published in the European Journal of Information Systems, one of the top international journals in the field of business informatics. The annual award recognises the best contribution to the journal and highlights the team's excellent research. The award-winning paper shows how innovative IoT solutions can be developed in a practical and theoretically sound manner to sustainably improve the quality of life of patients with neurogenic bladder disorders. The underlying research project was carried out in close strategic cooperation with the Bayreuth-based start-up inContAlert. The award ceremony took place during the Blackett Lecture on 2 December 2025 in London. Maximilian Röglinger, Professor of Business Informatics and Value-Oriented Process Management, emphasises: "We are extremely pleased about this award because it shows that our research combines scientific excellence with practical added value. Close cooperation with inContAlert, a spin-off of Bayreuth's Business Informatics department, was a key success factor from the very beginning."

At the same time, another team of researchers from the University of Bayreuth was awarded the Best Paper Award by the journal Business & Information Systems Engineering, the flagship journal of the German-speaking business informatics community. The article "The Twin Transformation Butterfly: Capabilities for an Integrated Digital and Sustainability Transformation" by Anne-Sophie Christmann, Carlotta Crome, Valerie Graf-Drasch, Anna Maria Oberländer, and Leonie Schmidt impressed the review committee with its scientific excellence and high social relevance. The paper establishes the concept of twin transformation as an integrated digital and sustainable transformation and shows what capabilities companies need to implement twin transformation holistically and successfully. Anna Maria Oberländer, junior professor of business informatics and digital transformation, emphasises: "Twin transformation is one of the key tasks for companies in the future. Our research provides a better understanding of how digital and sustainable transformation can be integrated and implemented. It also provides important impetus for our transfer work, for example at the Fraunhofer Twin Transformation Research Campus."

Both awards highlight the scientific excellence and social impact of business informatics research at the University of Bayreuth – from digital innovations in healthcare to strategic skills for successfully combining digitalisation and sustainability in companies. At the same time, they reflect the outstanding cooperation between science, practice, and society. Professor Christian Germelmann, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Economics, emphasises: "The fact that two outstanding publications from Bayreuth's business informatics department have received international recognition is a strong signal for our excellent research: it is scientifically leading and at the same time socially relevant – which is exactly what we strive for in Bayreuth. Congratulations to the teams at the FIM Research Institute for Information Management and the Business Informatics department of Fraunhofer FIT: a truly outstanding achievement of which we as a faculty are very proud!"