Research is integral to the development of higher education. Application-based research at ASH is aimed at the development and/or scientific management of innovations in professional practices in the social care and healthcare fields. Engaging in this type of research is also essential to ensuring that instruction and further training reflect the latest developments in the various disciplines.

Research at ASH Berlin focuses on three main areas:

• Social work
• Health
• Early childhood education

In an environment characterized by continual and bi-directional flow of knowledge between the university and professional practice, the primary emphasis is on the implementation of new approaches, processes or solutions to problems, which are fostered through close ties between the development of professional practices and scientific analysis.

ASH began to promote the research activities of its affiliates early on in many ways: by freeing up its own resources (hours of course relief and research sabbaticals), supporting the acquisition of outside funding and entering into both regional and international research collaborations. 

This strategy has been successful: in the last five years, ASH professors have been involved in over 100 research projects, 30 of which involved regional or international collaboration. The amount of outside funding going to ASH research has increased to an annual total of €700 000. ASH teachers have published their findings in around 950 monographs, scientific papers and articles. In view of these figures, it is not surprising that in recent years ASH has regularly taken first place among Berlin’s public universities of applied sciences with respect to the performance-based allocation of research funding.