Staff Unit for Strategic Initiatives

  • The Staff Unit for Strategic Initiatives (SPE)

    works on forward-looking projects at the University of Bremen. It provides impulses for strategic development, generates ideas for institutional projects, advises the Rectorate and designs strategy and change processes. The Unit is thus making a contribution to the university's development and visibility in the face of increasing institutional project funding, diverse external requirements and increasing competition.

    To this end, the Staff Unit develops scenarios, concepts and measures, writes or supports institutional applications, manages processes and moderates strategy workshops, produces benchmarks and SWOT analysis and prepares decision of the Rectorat. The Staff Office is located at the Rector's office.

What we do

The Staff Unit works on current topics of strategic importance, which often cover multiple fields of activity and are initiated by the Rectorate - this can be a new institutional cooperation or a digitization strategy or an application in a federal-state programme.

In addition, the Unit coordinates the University’s activities in the Excellence Strategy, supports the university's high-profile areas and possible clusters of excellence and advances Bremen's Institutional Strategy. For the ‘Zukunftsrat’ - the Excellence Initiative Board - it acts as the office.

In 2017, the university agreed on its "Strategy 2018–2028 " - impulses, coordination and monitoring for the implementation of the strategy are a task for the Unit in the coming years.
 

How we work

The "Strategy 2018 - 2028" is an example of the basic functioning of the Staff Unit: here, the Unit has conceived and set up the strategy process, identified international role models, evaluated existing sub-strategies of the university, compiled very different perspectives from the university, condensed them and repeatedly feedbacked them with the Rectorate.

An online consultation throughout the university made considerable progress with the text before it was discussed and adopted in detail in the Academic Senate. Last but not least, we also took care of the translation, graphic design and communication of the document.

However, we don't always go all the way, we don't go through strategic processes from A to Z: many projects are shorter, start later or stop earlier (for us).

Who we are

We are a small team, working agile and methodically diverse, with high professional standards and a realistic eye for what is feasible.
We systematically coordinate with other units of the university: At the start of the project, the roles are assigned, and if projects become permanent tasks in the end, they are handed over to other units.

Dr. Achim Wiesner

has been head of the Staff Unit for Strategic Initiatives (SPE) at the University of Bremen since 2015. 2010–2015 he was Head of the Unit "Research Services" at the University of Bremen. In this function, he played a critical role in developing and drafting the successful proposal for the "Ambitious and agile" Institutional Strategy. 2012–2019  he coordinated the implementation of this Strategy funded from the Excellence Initiative.
2008–2010 he was responsible for research cooperation between the University of Bremen, the University of Oldenburg and Jacobs University for two years, having already coordinated the Bremen proposals on behalf of the Rectorate in the first phase of the Excellence Initiative.
Prior to his work in science management, Achim Wiesner taught and researched as a political scientist at several universities; he studied in Hamburg and Amsterdam. He was a founding member of the “Netzwerk Wissenschaftsmanagement” (the German Science Management Network). At the Center for Science and Research Management (Zentrum für Wissenschaftsmanagement in Speyer) he has been teaching "Strategy in Science and Research Institutions" since 2010.

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Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60015

Dr. Maike Koschorreck

joined the Staff Unit for Strategic Initiatives in October 2020. Before, she acted as Senior Coordinator of the Deans’ Office at the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS), an inter-university institution at the University of Bremen and Jacobs University funded by the DFG Excellence Initiative and EU Horizon 2020. At BIGSSS, she coordinated the EU COFUND PhD Program “BIGSSS-departs” as well as various projects in organizational development, science communication and as transfer. She has gained international experience through research stays at the University of Wollongong (Australia) and the Graduate Center at the City University of New York (USA) as well as in numerous cooperation projects with BIGSSS’ international partner institutions.
With a background in cultural studies and social sciences, her scientific work focused on migration, social inequality and institutional discrimination in the education system as well as qualitative research methods.

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Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60018

 

Lisa-Maria Speck

joined SPE in October 2021, following a stint as personal assistant to the Vice President for Teaching and Learning at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. Prior to that, she spent several years as a course developer and project coordinator at Goethe University's Department of Teaching and Quality Assurance (LuQ); in 2020, she also served as acting deputy department head. At LuQ, her work focused on the strategic and organizational development of teaching innovation and the implementation of an interdisciplinary pre-study orientation program.

Lisa-Maria Speck studied history and philosophy in Frankfurt and subsequently joined her alma mater's scientific staff as a university assistant and lecturer. Her research centered on the political imagery of Tudor England.

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Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60017

Updated by: SPE