M1 - New Governance
Organizing flexibel and targeted research
The University of Bremen is creating new and sustainable organizational frames for the six existing high-profile areas by developing new forms of research governance. Overall cooperation with extra-mural institutes will be expanded and binding strategic agreements between the University of Bremen and its non-university partners strengthened.
Initial projects include:
- MARUM as a “research Faculty”
- the joint graduate program “System Design” and
- ZenTra—the Center for Transnational Studies run jointly by the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg
The MARUM and the consequent expansion of the high-profile area of marine, polar and climate research is of central strategic importance: Altogether in 2010, more than 1,100 scholars and scientists were working in the broadly networked marine research institutes in Bremen and Bremerhaven.
MARUM as „Research Faculty“
The core comprises the research center/excellence cluster "The Ocean in the Earth System", funded by the DFG together with the Federal Government and the Federal States and under the umbrella of MARUM, complemented and reinforced by strong non-university research institutes such as the local institutes of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft (AWI), the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPI), Leibniz-Gemeinschaft (ZMT). This expertise is supplemented by the marine research conducted at Jacobs University and the applied research carried out by the Institute of Marine Resources (IMARE), which is financed by the City State of Bremen. Over the past few years, the MARUM has earned considerable standing in the international scientific community, a fact underscored by its international programs and numerous publications in high-ranking publications. In order to more firmly anchor University research under the umbrella of MARUM and to establish it for the long term as an interdisciplinary research center for marine sciences, MARUM has become the University’s only “Research Faculty”. This ensures that MARUM, as a fundamental unit of the University beside its twelve Faculties, now enjoys more financial independence, and the freedom to develop and conclude agreements with cooperation partners, and more independence in all matters within the university.
Joint graduate program „System Design“
The start of Excellence-Initiative funding for the University of Bremen on 1st November 2012 coincided with the start of the graduate program System Design (SyDe). SyDe is embedded in the University’s high-profile area “Information – Cognition – Communication”. It is a cooperation project between the University of Bremen and the external research institutes German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The program supports the training of doctoral students whose PhD projects deal with the design of electronic systems. The continually growing complexity of such systems – used for example in cell phones but also in automobiles and aircraft, robotics and space travel – calls for new intelligent processes to ensure their correct functioning and safety.
SyDe starts with a group of 10 doctoral students, who will also be working as research assistants in the participating research groups. To provide optimal training, the offer of the ProUB Graduate Center will be expanded by a scientific curriculum.
ZenTra – Center for Transnational Studies: Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg
Firms conduct business and trade with different nations and their employees are often sent on assignments or posted abroad – modern society is increasingly being impacted by transnational processes. How can we cope with the issues and costs involved? What effect does worldwide trade have on working conditions and labor law? Questions such as these are the center of focus of ZenTra – the Center for Transnational Studies run jointly by the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg.
ZenTra is embedded in the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK) Institute of Advanced Study in Delmenhorst. Besides visiting scholars from abroad, more than 50 researchers of the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg are involved in ZenTra. At the University of Bremen, the activities of ZenTra are integrated in the high-profile area Social Policy, the State and Social Change.
ZenTra is supported by the Stiftung Mercator, the Volkswagen Foundation, and the federal states of Bremen and Lower Saxony. Financing for the project also comes from Excellence Initiative funds provided by the Federal Government and the Federal States. The ZenTra gets off to a good start by hosting two Cooperative Junior Research Groups.
