Research Cooperation
Interdisciplinary cooperation is a central feature of research at the University of Bremen. Interdisciplinary research across faculties is performed in interdisciplinary high-profile areas. In addition to this, University researchers are involved in numerous projects together with top-level non-university institutes in the Land of Bremen. Collaboration is organized on the basis of formal cooperation agreements. In this way it has been possible to establish a large number of intensive cooperation projects and collaborations between the outstanding researchers at the University of Bremen and excellent non-university research institutions. For instance, around thirty institute directors and section heads of non-university institutions hold joint professorships at the University and conduct collaborative research with their University colleagues in a Cluster of Excellence and several DFG Collaborative Research Centers. These professors are active in teaching and supervise MA theses and doctoral dissertations independently.
Alone in the period 2007 to 2010, it was possible to double the number of institutes located in Bremen which belong to the Max-Planck, Helmholtz, Leibniz and Fraunhofer societies (from four to eight). Another new arrival is the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and the Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine is now an associate member of the Scientific Community Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. These research institutions are financed mainly from national funds. A further eleven top-level research institutions are funded by the Land of Bremen and, last not least, there is the Research Center for Eastern European Studies, which is funded by the Standing Conference of the Länder Ministers of Education.
Research institutions financed (mainly) from federal funds:
- Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) Link
- Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology Link
- Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT) Link
- Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials (IFAM) Link
- Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology (IWES) Link
- German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI Bremen) Link
- German Aerospace Center (DLR Bremen) Link
- Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing (MEVIS) Link
Bremen Research Institutes:
- Institut für Werkstofftechnik [Institute of Materials Science] Link
- Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology (BIAS) Link
- Faser Institut Bremen (FIBRE) Link
- Bremer Institute of Production and Logistics (BIBA) Link
- Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) Link
Other institutes affiliated to the University:
The University of Bremen also has a tradition of collaboration in research with other universities in North West Germany. For instance, the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg conducted a joint DFG Collaborative Research Center in the field of neurocognition ― their long-standing cooperation is fixed in a comprehensive cooperation agreement between the universities. For a while now, the University of Bremen and Jacobs University have been collaborating on two Master Programs, as well as on the doctoral program offered by the jointly run BIGSSS Graduate School of excellence, in which faculty from the University of Oldenburg are also involved.
In the fields of marine research, computer science, wind energy and the social sciences, common platforms provide sound foundations for joint research to mutual advantage. Intensified collaboration with neighboring universities ― Jacobs University Bremen, the University of Oldenburg, and other universities farther afield like Hamburg and Groningen ― also contributes toward strengthening those disciplines which alone would lack the necessary critical mass.
The most long-standing success story in the area of regional cooperation is the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, a foundation set up in 1997 by the federal states of Lower Saxony and Bremen. The international fellows researching at this "Institute for Advanced Studies" make a major contribution to worldwide academic networking. link
Moreover, in 2009 the University of Bremen, the University of Oldenburg, Jacobs University Bremen and the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg joined together to set up the NOWETAS Foundation. With generous support afforded by partners in the region, NOWETAS funds cooperation projects in areas of high potential. It also contributes to the sustainable implementation of projects by fostering common development planning. link
