Marco Dürr Receives a bidt Fellowship for His Doctoral Project

28.05.2026, Research:

Marco Dürr, a research assistant at Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences (HNU), has been accepted into the funding program of the Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt). Supported by the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts (StMWK), the program funds outstanding doctoral projects in the field of digitalization research. In his dissertation, Dürr examines how users can be empowered to build resilience against anti-democratic content on social media.

Admission to the Graduate Center provides doctoral students with networking opportunities and professional development in the field of digitalization, as well as financial support.

Empowerment through “pre-bunking” interventions

Marco Dürr is a research assistant in the "Online Trust and Safety" group led by Prof. Dr. Marten Risius and a member of the Institute for Digital Innovation. In his research in the field of business informatics, he combines approaches to digitalization with psychological insights to counter the spread of anti-democratic content on social media. His bidt-funded doctoral project focuses on so-called “prebunking” interventions, which are designed to empower users at an early stage to strengthen their cognitive resilience against manipulative and authoritarian narratives. The goal is to promote decision-making autonomy in the digital space through proactive and user-centered approaches and to highlight new perspectives for a sovereign digital society.

bidt Fellows at HNU

With the addition of Marco Dürr, HNU now has four doctoral students supported by the bidt funding program: Nikola Finze, Daniel Hieber, and Nils Riekers had already been accepted into the program. This latest round of funding underscores HNU’s research strength and its commitment to supporting the next generation of scholars in the field of future-oriented digital topics.

Go to Marco Dürr's bidt profile: https://www.bidt.digital/person/marco-duerr/