EUR 300,000 for science at the European Campus in the Upper Rhine region

In the first funding round of its Seed Money program, Eucor – The European Campus has approved financing for eight research and teaching projects to the tune of 300,000 euros. Launched in 2017, the Seed Money mechanism of the trinational university grouping aims to finance new cross-border academic projects at the member universities and to contribute to the ongoing development of a joint campus. Funding with Seed Money is intended to boost long-term academic cooperations with an international appeal. The total volume of funding from January 2018 to December 2020 is almost one million euros. The University of Freiburg is involved in all eight concepts and is the promoter for three of them.

A total of 38 entries competed for the award. “We are delighted that our academics from the European Campus have submitted so many cross-border projects. The choice wasn’t easy for us with the high quality of applications,” says Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer, President of Eucor – The European Campus and Rector of the University of Freiburg. “We are confident that the projects that receive funding will continue to drive academic excellence at our locations and enrich our shared range of courses. The projects will take us in the Upper Rhine region a large step further on the way to creating the first European university.”

Support was given to three projects under the aegis of Teaching and five under the aegis of Research and Innovation – these include two from the Physical Sciences & Engineering and Social Sciences & Humanities categories as well as one from the category of Life Sciences. The funding allowances amount to a maximum of EUR 48,000 per project. The selection committees consisted of experts from all five member universities.

Funding for Teaching

Mutualisation et internationalisation de l’offre de formation en médiévistique de Strasbourg, Freiburg et Bâle
This humanities project is based at the Catholic Theological Faculty in Strasbourg and is being realized in cooperation with the universities of Freiburg and Basel. The partners aim to interlink closely their existing Masters programs in Medieval Studies. Among other things there will be shared seminars and events for the students to enhance language skills.

TREE MSc
This Biology project is taking place under the leadership of the Université de Strasbourg together with all the other universities in Eucor – The European Campus. Its aim is to establish a cross-border degree program that produces highly-trained researchers in plant science.

Upper Rhine Science Trails
Led by the University of Freiburg in cooperation with the Universities of Basel, Haute-Alsace and Strasbourg, the project involves the development of an e-learning concept intended to enable cross-border teaching and learning online as well at the European Campus, and involves among other things a multilingual app.

Funding for Research and Innovation

Physical Sciences & Engineering category:

Advanced modelling of hybrid interfaces towards innovative technologies
Led by the Université de Strasbourg and in cooperation with the universities of Freiburg and Basel, a cross-border scientific network for computational materials science is being developed. The partners are designing new interfaces between solids and liquids that are suitable for the development of electronic double-layer transistors. These have a charge density about 100-times higher than ordinary transistors, which today are fitted in almost all technical commodities.

DA-HPC-OR: Data Analysis for Improving High Performance Computing Operations and Research
This project combines interdisciplinary competencies in the fields of high performance computing, law and data analysis. The researchers want to analyze data from the universities’ own high performance computers. The project is based at the University of Basel and is being realized in cooperation with the universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg.

Social Sciences & Humanities category:

Synergies from an Integrated Renewable Energy Supply and Storage System in the Upper Rhine Region: An Interdisciplinary Analysis (SIRES_URR)
This interdisciplinary project is studying the basic conditions for more efficient and flexible production, distribution and temporary storage of renewable energies in the Upper Rhine region. All Eucor – The European Campus universities are engaged in this project, which is being directed by Freiburg.

Aesthetics of Protestantism in Northern Europe
This Scandinavian studies project is led by the Université de Strasbourg. In cooperation with the universities of Basel and Freiburg, academics want to study the significance of Protestantism from the Reformation to the present day on the aesthetics of Scandinavian culture.

Life Sciences category:

Using optogenetics to visualize histone H2AX phosphorylation in living cells with high precision
This Biology project is based at the University of Freiburg and is being realized jointly with the Université de Strasbourg. The partners are studying an altered form of the protein H2AX in living cells which plays an important part in the repair of DNA.

Background information about Eucor – The European Campus

The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Eucor – The European Campus developed out of a long-standing cooperation between the universities of the Upper Rhine region. In December 2015 the five member universities – the University of Basel, the University of Freiburg, the Université de Haute-Alsace, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Université de Strasbourg – signed the founding document to create an independent legal entity for cross-border research and teaching. With this, the universities created the first EGTC between universities at a European level. The European Campus places a particular focus on research in the areas of quantum physics and quantum technologies, precision medicine, sustainability studies and cultural studies.

In total, the EGTC combines the competencies and potential of 15,000 researchers and 11,000 doctoral and PhD students as well as more than 120,000 students. Together, the Eucor – The European Campus university grouping is working to build a distinctive academic and research area – one without walls and borders and with an international appeal.

www.eucor-uni.org

 
Contact:
Janosch Nieden
Head of the Eucor – The European Campus EVTZ coordinating office
Telephone: +33 (0)3 68 85 82 93
e-mail: janosch.nieden@eucor-uni.org