Future Talent Award: FMI students honored

What changes when robots suddenly become part of the team? How do working from home and digitalization affect the design of office spaces? And what does CO₂ pricing mean in concrete terms for owners of residential buildings? Students and alumni of the Facility Management & Real Estate Management degree program at the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol addressed precisely these questions in their final theses. In doing so, they demonstrated not only a keen sense of current developments, but also the ability to address complex future issues in a practical manner.

This strength in terms of content and methodology did not go unnoticed: at the beginning of June 2025, several theses were nominated and honored at the Future Talent Award 2025 organized by Facility Management Austria (FMA) and the International Facility Management Association Austria (IFMA Austria). The award ceremony took place during the FMA's summer festival in Vienna. The prestigious award recognizes academic writing that enriches the industries with fresh ideas – a strong sign of the quality of education at the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein Tirol.

Research that doesn't end in the lecture room

What sets these works apart is not only their methodological rigor, but also the desire to contribute something with their own research: to practice, to discussion, to progress. The aim was not to confirm what was already known, but to take a close look, ask intelligent questions, and develop new perspectives.

Our students write their scientific theses on current and relevant topics – be it new working environments, digitalization, or issues of climate responsibility. The fact that they don't just write a thesis, but are committed to examining and questioning concrete approaches, is what makes their work so valuable. Asc. Prof. (FH) Dipl.-Ing. Christian Huber, Director of Studies of the bachelor's degree programs in Energy & Sustainability Management and Facility Management & Real Estate Management, as well as the master's degree programs in Energy & Sustainability Management and Facility & Real Estate Management.

Für ihre Abschlussarbeiten wurden drei Studentinnen der FH Kufstein Tirol aus dem Bachelorstudiengang Facility Management & Immobilienwirtschaft – sowohl im Vollzeit- als auch im berufsbegleitenden Format – mit dem Future Talent Award 2025 ausgezeichnet:

• Susanne Stoiber: Sustainability strategies in the housing industry – Development of a tool for allocating and calculating CO₂ tax in Germany, summer semester 2024
• Sarah Klingler: Vacuum robots in commercial use – A qualitative study on acceptance in facility management, summer semester 2025
• Gülsen Akyol: Working environments – from the summer semester of 2024, which deals with changes in spatial structures in office buildings as a result of technology and digitalization.

A degree program as a space for possibilities

The Facility Management & Real Estate Management degree program sees itself as a space for such developments. For research that is open. For ideas that do not yet need a finished result. And for people who want to find something out – and not just reproduce knowledge, but get involved.

The submitted works show that the big questions of tomorrow are often asked very quietly – in an interview with cleaning staff, in an Excel-based CO₂ simulation, or in the analysis of room plans. And that is exactly where change begins.

Links:

• Energy & Sustainability Management | ft
• Facility & Real Estate Management | ft