About AIM

Mission, Vision & Framework

AIM is a research platform and center under the Rectorate of Universität Klagenfurt, dedicated to integrating human sciences and data sciences for the advancement of human flourishing.

Mission & Vision
Our Purpose
"To advance human flourishing in the digital age by integrating human sciences and data sciences into a coherent, non-reductive framework for research, innovation, and societal transformation."

— AIM Vision Statement

01

Integrates human sciences and data sciences across all AAU faculties

02

Advances Digital Health as a flagship research and innovation domain

03

Develops responsible, human-centered AI and data practices

04

Enables interdisciplinary research and provides internal seed funding

05

Connects AAU expertise with regional, national, and international partners

06

Strengthens societal resilience through evidence-based innovation

Our Framework
Human Sciences & Data Sciences

AIM is built on the deep integration of two historically separate but complementary fields, with Digital Health as the galvanising domain that brings them together in practice.

Human Sciences

An interdisciplinary field focusing on the human condition — both material and non-material. Health is the natural starting point, spanning four key dimensions: ontological (material–non-material), level (individual–collective), causal (physical, social, technical), and teleological (resilient, antifragile, flourishing).

OntologicalIndividual–CollectivePhysical & SocialFlourishing

Digital Health

The galvanising domain through which AIM inspires innovations, fosters cross-faculty collaborations, and strengthens a common goal across AAU and its stakeholders.

AAU FlagshipInterdisciplinaryInnovation

Data Sciences

Understood in both narrow and wide conception — encompassing technical and non-technical disciplines that investigate the useful and detrimental qualities of digital technologies across the same four human dimensions.

AI & Machine LearningData EthicsDigital Systems
Conceptual Foundation
Four Dimensions of Health

AIM's framework understands health as a multidimensional concept — going well beyond physiological health to encompass the full spectrum of what it means to flourish as a human being in a digitally mediated world.

Ontological

Addresses the material and non-material dimensions of human existence — what it means to be a person in a world increasingly shaped by digital systems and artificial intelligence.

Material – Non-material

Level

Recognises that health and wellbeing operate at multiple scales simultaneously — from the individual person to families, communities, populations, and societies as a whole.

Individual – Collective

Causal

Examines health through the lens of its determinants — physical (biology, environment), social (relationships, institutions), and technical (digital systems, AI, data infrastructure).

Physical · Social · Technical

Teleological

Focuses on the goals and purposes of human health — from resilience and antifragility to the highest ideal of eudaimonic flourishing: living a meaningful, self-determined, and fully human life.

Resilient · Antifragile · Flourishing