The partners are investigating key 6G network technologies, including connection handoffs, antenna systems, and multi-connections. They are focusing on how vehicles can seamlessly transition between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, how to design high-performance, reliable antenna systems, and how to connect end devices, such as cars, drones, and machines, to different network elements, such as satellites or local radio cells, simultaneously.
 

These new approaches to connected and automated mobility will first be evaluated in simulations and then examined in real 3D networks with base stations and satellites. The goal is to bring 6G into practical application using commercially available hardware and software components. In this way, the result will be solutions that can be applied to other areas.
 

Further Information:
 

https://www.forschung-it-sicherheit-kommunikationssysteme.de/projekte/6g-coverage

 (only available in German)
 

Contact:
 

Prof. Dr. Armin Dekorsy
Head of the Department of Communications Engineering 
Director of the Gauss-Olbers Space Technology Transfer Center
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62400
Email: dekorsy@ant.uni-bremen.de

The application deadline is July 15. Starting at the end of July, the first admission offers will be sent via email, so that applicants will have certainty shortly after the application deadline.

The basic requirement for admission to a degree program is a high school diploma or equivalent qualification. In addition to the German high school diploma (Abitur), this can also be a subject-specific qualification, such as one based on a three-year vocational training program. For some subjects, applicants must also demonstrate specific language skills or prior internships. You can find out more about this at https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/applying-for-studies/bachelor-and-law.

The Central Student Advisory Service Can Help You Decide

If you’re still unsure and need help making a decision, you can take advantage of the counseling services offered by the Central Student Advisory Service. Their services include in-person counseling, as well as counseling by phone and via Zoom. More information is available at https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zsb.

In addition, numerous information events will take place in May and June. These include, for example, a Zoom event featuring all universities in the state of Bremen on May 28 and the information day for prospective students on June 24. An overview of the events can be found at www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/study-orientation

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/studienplatzbewerbung

https://www.uni-bremen.de/isi (only available in German)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zsb

Contact for questions from the press:

Christina Vocke
Head of Administrative Department 06: Student Affairs
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-61000
Email: christina.vocke@uni-bremen.de

Study Based on Hourly Price Data

The study by Johannes Paha and Wiebke Siebert is based on hourly price data for various fuel types around May 1, 2026. The analysis shows that similar declines can be observed for diesel as well as for Super E5 and E10.

The researchers point out that the so-called pass-on effect – that is, the passing on of tax cuts – depends heavily on the intensity of competition in the market. “While in highly competitive markets tax cuts are generally passed on to consumers to a large extent, in less competitive market structures a larger share remains with the companies,” Siebert explains.

In addition, external factors such as public holidays, crude oil prices, or regulatory requirements influence price trends. For instance, the comparative analysis around Easter 2026 showed significant price increases. The launch of the discount on May 1 also coincided with a period of increased travel, making a holiday-related price impact plausible.

Initial Results Are a Snapshot

The authors emphasize that this is an initial snapshot. Since the fuel rebate has only recently taken effect, further analyses will be necessary in the coming weeks. Paha: “However, it is evident that only about a quarter of the fuel rebate reaches end customers, while the remaining portion remains with companies in the value chain.”

Further Information:

Johannes Paha, Wiebke Siebert: 12 Cent – Tankrabatt kommt nur teilweise bei den Endkunden an: Tankrabatt_260502.pdf

www.uni-bremen.de/en/guenther/home-1

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Johannes Paha
Professor of Economics, specializing in Innovation and Structural Economics
University of Bremen
Faculty of Business Studies & Economics
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-66631
Email: jpaha@uni-bremen.de

What hosts should provide:

• A fully furnished single bedroom
• Shared access to bathroom and kitchen facilities
• Good public transportation connections to the university (within 30 minutes)
• Basic English skills, since many students are just beginning to learn German

Ideally, the room should be available throughout the entire summer school, but potential hosts are welcome to sign up if only a shorter period is possible.

Hosts who accommodate students for the full duration will receive 420 euros to compensate expenses.

The International Summer School combines language lessons with a varied activity program that includes excursions, presentations, and group activities. These experiences offer students the chance to explore Germany’s culture and connect with its people.

Those interested in hosting a student can contact the Summer School team at sommerkurs@uni-bremen.de by June 30, 2026.

Contact:

Donia Labidi
University of Bremen
Language Centre of the Universities in the Land of Bremen
Summer School Office
Phone: +49 421 218 61980
Email: sommerkurs@uni-bremen.de

The project is coordinated by Professor Anna Förster, head of the Sustainable Communication Networks research group. The project team also includes researchers from Mahidol University (Thailand), General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (Sri Lanka), the University of Ngaoundere (Cameroon), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) (Cameroon), and the University of Namibia. Additional partners are based in Germany and Italy.

The project aims to connect professors, researchers at various career stages, and students. At its core is an annual two-week summer camp. Furthermore, the project seeks to support mobility among students and researchers, for example through internships, theses, and guest lecture roles.

The DAAD is supporting the project as part of the “SDG Partnerships” program. This program supports university partnerships that contribute to sustainable development in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to the establishment of high-performing and globally oriented universities in both the partner countries and in Germany.

Further Information:

https://www.daad.de/en/information-services-for-higher-education-institutions/further-information-on-daad-programmes/sdg-partnerships/

https://iot-summercamp-bremen.de/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Anna Förster
Chair of Sustainable Communication Networks
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen 
Tel.: +49 421 218-62383
Email: anna.foerster@uni-bremen.de

Research shows that people respond differently to psychotherapy. This study aims to understand why this variation occurs. The research will focus on the group dynamic itself. It is well-known that feeling supported, connected, and safe within a therapy group can significantly enhance its effectiveness. While this is understood in general group therapy, it hasn't been extensively studied in groups treating a broad range of different conditions like depression and anxiety. This study seeks to fill that gap.
 

How participation works:
 

The treatment program consists of 12 weekly sessions. Each session lasts for two hours and takes place in a group of about ten people. The group is led by a licensed psychotherapist and a co-therapist. In addition to attending the therapy sessions, participants will complete questionnaires to track changes and potential influencing factors. They will be administered before the start of the therapy, during the sessions, at the end, and again at three and six months after the therapy concludes. This group therapy is a standard form of psychotherapy. Therefore, the costs associated with participation are covered by health insurance. Adults aged 18 to 75 are eligible to participate in the study. Individuals experiencing psychological distress or mental health concerns are encouraged to contact the clinic. During an initial consultation, the team will determine whether this specific program is a suitable fit.
 

Starting Dates and Contact Details:
 

The next group session begins at the end of April, with additional groups starting each month.
If you are interested, get in touch by calling +49 421 218-68546
Tuesdays from 12:30 - 1:30 p.m. or Wednesdays from 9:30 - 11:00 a.m. 
 

Further Information: 
 

PULS – University Psychotherapeutic Outpatient Clinic: https://www.uni-bremen.de/ambulanz-puls/erwachsene (currently in German only)
 

Contact: 
 

Pauline Tenbrüggen 
Institute of Psychology / Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy for Adults
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences 
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68544
Email: p.tenbrueggen@uni-bremen.de

Comprehensive, Long-Term Data over Decades

“Central to this analysis is one of the most comprehensive datasets on vegetation change in Europe to date,” emphasizes Professor Martin Diekmann from the University of Bremen, head of the Vegetation Ecology and Conservation Biology research group. The team analyzed over 6,000 permanent and quasi-permanent vegetation plots in forests, grasslands, and alpine summit regions. “These plots were surveyed repeatedly over periods ranging from 12 to 78 years using standardized methods. In order to focus on assessing climate-related effects, only sites without significant changes in land use were included.” Researchers recorded the full composition of species and standardized the abundance data, the frequency and dominance of individual species, to enable comparisons between the ecosystems.

Diverging Dynamics Across European Ecosystems

The results reveal that theromophilization proceeds differently across ecosystems. In grasslands, the shift is primarily characterized by an increase in thermophilic species. In forests, both the decline of cold-adapted species and the rise of warmth-demanding species contribute to change. In mountain regions such as the Alps, however, a completely different pattern emerges, as both cold-adapted and warmth-demanding species are in decline. Diekmann says, “Despite this, plant community composition is still shifting in favor of thermophilic species, since those adapted to cold are declining more rapidly.”

Climatic Debts: Plant Adaptation Is Slower than Climate Change

According to the research team, one of the study’s key findings is the phenomenon of “climatic debts.” By this, the study’s authors mean the lag between changing climate conditions and plant communities’ ability to adapt to these. “Plant communities adapt to the warming climate more slowly than this is changing. This results in an imbalance between ecological composition and local climate conditions, posing long-term risks to biodiversity and ecosystem stability,” the biologist explains. These climatic debts are particularly pronounced in forests and mountain regions.

Targeted Adaptation Measures Needed

The results show that the impact of climate change is not uniform, but depends strongly on ecological conditions. Researchers conclude that conservation and adaptation measures must be tailored to fit specific ecosystems if they are to be effective.
Researchers from Europe, North America, and Asia participated in the study. According to the authors, it provides a unique comparison of how various European ecosystems react to climate change.

Further Information

Original Publication:
Yue, K., Vangansbeke, P., Myers-Smith, I.H. et al. Contrasting thermophilization among forests, grasslands and alpine summits. Nature (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09622-7

www.uni-bremen.de/en/vegetation/lab-members/prof-dr-martin-diekmann  

www.uni-bremen.de/en/  

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Martin Diekmann
Vegetation Ecology and Conservation Biology Research Group
Institute for Ecology
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62920
Email: mdiekman@uni-bremen.de
 

Dr Mandy Boehnke, Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity at the University of Bremen, said: “For ten years, our collaboration with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg has demonstrated the tangible benefits of partnerships for early-career researchers. Through mutual exchange and the reciprocal opening of our qualification programs, we create additional opportunities for advanced training, networking, and personal growth.”
The partnership also expands networking opportunities beyond individual universities. Researchers can exchange ideas, build connections, and explore potential research collaborations. The ongoing dialogue between coordinators, many of whom have worked together throughout the entire partnership, is also highly valuable.

Professor Katharina Al-Shamery, Vice President for Academic Career Paths, Equal Opportunities, and International Affairs at the University of Oldenburg, said: “The close collaboration with the University of Bremen is not only a cornerstone of our current support for doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, but also opens up new perspectives for the future. The partnership will enable us to design flexible, individualized programs, provide new momentum in academic training, and strengthen our collaboration with the University of Bremen in a sustainable way.”
In addition, BYRD and the Graduate Academy are committed to providing excellent doctoral supervision. During the winter semester, they co-organized an online event for university faculty, offering insights into effective doctoral supervision and opportunities for collegial exchange. Both universities also present the Outstanding Doctoral Supervision Award to recognize particularly dedicated supervisors.

Bremen Early Career Researcher Development

The Bremen Early Career Researcher Development (BYRD) program is the successor to the ProUB Graduate Center, one of the University of Bremen’s strategic initiatives to support researchers in their qualification phases. These measures were developed as part of the university’s institutional strategy, “Ambitious and Agile,” which led to success in the Excellence Initiative from 2012 to 2017. Since 2017, BYRD has continued ProUB’s work with an expanded scope that now includes postdoctoral researchers. BYRD offers mentoring, coaching, training, and networking opportunities. Topics covered include academic writing and publishing, presentation and communication skills, qualitative research methods, and career development within and beyond academia.

Graduate Academy of the University of Oldenburg

The Graduate Academy is the University of Oldenburg’s central interdisciplinary institution for the career development of doctoral candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and assistant professors. An interdisciplinary training program with approximately 40 events and workshops per year is open to all researchers in training phases across all faculties. These events build transferable skills relevant to the job market, supporting professional development for both academic and non-academic career paths. The “Progressio” and “Perspektiven” mentoring programs offer one-year support specifically for women pursuing professorships and for first-generation students of all genders.

Further Information:

https://uol.de/en/graduate-academy

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/byrd

Contact:

Dr Marie Saade (BYRD – Bremen Early Career Researcher Development): byrd@vw.uni-bremen.de 
Dr Julia Anna Matz, Graduate Academy: graduiertenakademie@uol.de 

Kai Bischof, deputy director of MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen and professor of marine botany in the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry, has been researching the ecophysiology of macroalgae for nearly 30 years, with a particular focus on the underwater vegetation of polar coastal ecosystems.
 

“Outstanding Contributions to Polar Research”
 

By welcoming the two Bremen-based scientists, the academy is recognizing their multifaceted and outstanding contributions to polar research. In particular, their work in both polar regions, their leadership role in field research, the development of innovative methods, and interdisciplinary research approaches, as well as their commitment to fostering the next generation of researchers and international collaboration have been highlighted.
 

Under the patronage of King Harald of Norway, the Norwegian Scientific Academy for Polar Research is the world’s only scientific academy that focuses on the polar regions and the associated challenges across all scientific disciplines and with an international perspective. Other members of the academy from Bremen include the former director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Professor Antje Boetius, and sea ice physicist Professor Christian Haas, also from the AWI.
 

Further Information:
 

https://www.polar-academy.com/

https://www.marum.de/en/Prof.-Dr.-kai-bischof.html

https://profiles.awi.de/140-olaf-eisen

Contact:
 

Prof. Dr. Kai Bischof
Marine Botany
Faculty of Biology / Chemistry &
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 63050
Email: kbischof@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Olaf Eisen
Professor of Glaciology
Faculty of Geosciences &
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)
Phone: +49 471 4831 1969
Email: olaf.eisen@awi.de

High Quality Through Integration into Research and Teaching
 

The clinic offers therapy appointments for people with mental illnesses who value treatment based on the latest scientific standards. “With our opening, we are launching our first study as part of PULS: a structured group therapy based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a modern advancement of cognitive behavioral therapy,” explains Professor Barbara Cludius, the academic director of the adult program division. “The focus is not on fighting against distressing thoughts and feelings, but on dealing with them in a more flexible way in order to align more closely with personal values and actively shape one’s own life.”
 

The twelve-week group therapy also offers participants the opportunity to share experiences with others facing similar challenges and to support one another. As part of the study, questionnaires are used to better understand which factors contribute to patients benefiting from the treatment to varying degrees.
 

By agreeing to participate, patients at the outpatient clinic enable the continuous development of psychotherapeutic methods – including in teaching: “Another distinctive feature of our therapy program is what we call ‘teaching therapies.’ This involves having part of the treatment conducted by advanced master’s students in the Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy degree program – naturally under the close supervision of experienced, licensed psychotherapists,” explains Professor Lars White, who serves as the academic director for the child and adolescent program division.
 

Further Information:
 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/ambulanz-puls (only available in German)
 

Members of the media are invited to cover the event on April 16, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. at Forum at Domshof. In addition to State Councilor Karolin Kumar, Professor Maren Peteresen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies at the University of Bremen, and Professor Ingrid Darmann-Finck, Dean of the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences, will participate. The program also includes academic presentations by Professor Thomas Ehring and Professor Michael Günter. To register please contact Katrin Hoffmann Clemente (katrin.hoffmann@vw.uni-bremen.de)
 

Contact:
 

Nicole Rennschmied
Managing Director
University Psychotherapeutic Outpatient Clinic (PULS)
Phone: +49 421 218-68990
Email: nrennsch@uni-bremen.de

The experiences gained from MARS led to the creation of the German guide “Männerschuppen – Ein Leitfaden für die Planung und Umsetzung von Männerschuppen in Deutschland” It is aimed at municipalities, associations, and volunteers who wish to establish their own men’s sheds. The guide explains the concept behind the sheds, outlines what to consider when selecting premises and activities, and describes how internal organization among participants can be structured.

Another key topic is organizational and financial realization. The guide explains the spatial and legal requirements that must be met, how health and safety can be ensured, and what funding opportunities are available. It also offers tips on how to establish and promote men’s sheds in the long term. Interested parties can download the guide now at https://www.uni-bremen.de/maennerschuppen.

Research on the topic of men’s sheds has been conducted at the University of Bremen for several years. Now, the University of Bremen is receiving funding from the European Social Fund and the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth to establish additional men’s sheds as places of lifelong learning in northern Germany. The MARS+ project will launch on April 1, 2026, and run for two years.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/maennerschuppen/ (only available in German)

Contact:

Oliver Bock
Men’s Shed Research Area
Epidemiology of Demographic Change Research Group
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
University of Bremen
Email: maennerschuppen@uni-bremen.de

“How can conflicts over the direction of social policy be resolved, and how can the welfare state be strengthened in the face of international crises? These are the questions the conference will seek to answer,” explains Prof. Dr. Frank Nullmeier, deputy director of DIFIS at the University of Bremen.

Public Lecture on April 13

The conference will open with a public lecture on Monday, April 13, at 6:00 p.m., in the Upper City Hall. Speakers on the topic “Future Developments of the Economy and the Welfare State in Germany” ("Zukünftige Entwicklungen der Wirtschaft und des Sozialstaats in Deutschland") will include Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte, Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen and President of the Bundesrat, and Professor Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, President of the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). The event is open to the public and admission is free. Those interested can register by April 7 at https://eveeno.com/270851813.

The remainder of the conference is aimed at experts from academia, politics, and industry and will take place in the Banking Hall at the University of Bremen's Forum at Domshof. Over a hundred participants are expected, including Professor Tanja Klenk (Helmut Schmidt University), Professor Olaf Groh-Samberg (University of Bremen), Professor Pia Lange (University of Bremen), Dr. Renate Reiter (FernUniversität Hagen), Professor Anne Lenze (Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences), Professor Heinz Rothgang (University of Bremen), and Professor Thomas Gerlinger (Bielefeld University). They will engage in discussions on topics such as social inequality and poverty, digitalization and the welfare state, as well as care and health. Participation is free of charge and registration is open until April 7 at https://eveeno.com/270851813.

About DIFIS

The German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS) was founded in 2021 and serves as a platform for research, networking, and academic policy consulting in the field of social policy. The independent institute is supported by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.

Contact:

Heiner Salomon
University of Bremen
German Institute for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (DIFIS)
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Email: heiner.salomon@difis.de
Phone: +49 (0)178 805 49 56

To accompany the exhibition, a public lecture will take place every Tuesday from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. during the lecture period of the 2026 summer semester at Forum at Domshof. The lectures are organized by Sabine Doff in cooperation with Kathrin Sebastian, one of the gender equality officers and spokespersons for the Central Commission for Women’s Issues (ZKFF) at the University of Bremen. Researchers from Bremen’s universities and guests from the worlds of science and culture will address questions such as which missing images need to be added to the scientific landscape of Bremen, how we can successfully acknowledge the achievements of female scientists today, and what experiences women in science – who are pioneers in their fields – are currently facing.

The exhibition at Forum at Domshof will open at 6 p.m. on April 14, 2026, with a presentation by Gesine Born, who will introduce the “Missing Images” project, its history, and its background. Further presentations on the following Tuesdays will focus, among other topics, on Bremen’s first female senator, Käthe Popall; the Bremen educator Betty Gleim; and the pioneering work of the chemist and “housewife” Agnes Pockels. Together with the photographer, “missing images” relating to Bremen will be added in a concluding workshop (at 6 p.m. on July 7). The public lectures are part of the university’s General Studies program and are open to all interested parties. The complete program is available at: https://www.uni-bremen.de/universitaet/forum-am-domshof/versaeumte-bilder-in-bremen (only available in German).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Sabine Doff
Dean of Faculty 10: Linguistics and Literary Studies
University of Bremen
Email: doff@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-68170

Kathrin Sebastian
Gender Equality Officer / Spokesperson for the Central Commission for Women’s Issues (ZKFF) 
University of Bremen
Email: zentrale.frauenbeauftragte@uni-bremen.de

Wilhelm Olbers, born in Bremen, was a physician and astronomer and one of the most famous Bremen residents of his time. It is thanks to him that the Hanseatic city was a European center of astronomy around 1800. His discovery of Pallas in 1802 was a milestone in planetary studies. In addition, he discovered the minor planet Vesta (1805) and several comets, and made significant contributions to comet research.

He formulated the Olbers’ Paradox, named after him, which is still considered a central problem in cosmological theory and raises questions about the structure and finiteness of the universe. In his day job, he worked as a physician in his hometown for nearly four decades. He was a proponent of so-called animal magnetism and, as a physician, was involved in the cases of two victims of the “poisoner” Gesche Gottfried.

The State and University Library Bremen (SuUB) is home to Wilhelm Olbers’ estate, consisting of approximately 4,000 documents that form the focus of the exhibition. The estate, made up of handwritten documents, letters, manuscripts, mathematical calculations, and scientific sketches, records not only his research practices but also the structures of academic communication during that era. His correspondence with figures such as Johann Hieronymus Schroeter, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel, Carl Friedrich Gauss, and Alexander von Humboldt highlights the role of networks in the production of knowledge during the early modern period.

The exhibition illuminates central aspects of the life and work of the famous Bremen native. It demonstrates how scientific knowledge does not emerge in isolation, but rather through exchange between individuals, institutions, and cultural contexts. It is aimed at scholars, students, and a broad audience interested in the history of Bremen and the development of scientific culture in the 18th and 19th centuries.

An accompanying publication has been released (in German) for the exhibition: “Astronom – Arzt – Bremer. Wilhelm Olbers (1758–1840) und sein Nachlass in der SuUB Bremen“, Bremen 2026. Edition Falkenberg.

The SuUB cordially invites you to the exhibition opening on Tuesday, April 7, at 4:30 p.m.:

• Welcome address by Maria Elisabeth Müller, Director of the SuUB
• Introduction to the exhibition by Maria Hermes-Wladarsch (SuUB, exhibition curator)
• Short lecture (in German): “Wilhelm Olbers – Leben und Werk” by PD Dr. Günter Oestmann

Further Information:

Location: State and University Library Bremen, Central Library, Bibliothekstr. 9, 28359 Bremen

Dates: April 7 to June 6, 2026

Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Admission: free

www.suub.uni-bremen.de/ueber-uns/neues-aus-der-suub/ausstellungseroeffnung-wilhelm-olbers/ (only available in German)

Contact:

Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch 
Head of Historical Collections
State and University Library Bremen (SuUB) 
Phone: +49 421 218-59571 
Email: hermes@suub.uni-bremen.de

Development of Actionable Recommendations 
 

The CAMPUS project adopts a multi-perspective and multi-method approach. In addition to collecting data at various universities, including the University of Bremen, the project team is evaluating secondary data and conducting in-depth qualitative surveys, with a focus on jointly developing actionable recommendations. “To this end, we are working with various stakeholders, including students, the Workplace Health Management Office, the Students’ Union, student initiatives, and health insurance companies,” says project lead Dr. Stefanie Helmer from the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen. 
The University of Bremen is the project’s lead institution and is collaborating with the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology (BIPS), Martin Luther University Halle, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
 

Further Information: 
 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/institute-of-public-health-and-nursing-research/departments-working-groups/public-health-research/working-group-evidence-based-public-health/projects/ongoing-projects/projektdetails/gbpsych-uni-bremen-gefaehrdungsbeurteilung-psychischer-belastungen-bei-mitarbeitenden-und-studierenden-an-der-universitaet-bremen-1

Contact: 
 

Dr. Stefanie Helmer 
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
University of Bremen 
Phone: +49-421-218-68803
Email: sthelmer@uni-bremen.de

The twelve-time world champion B-Human has long been a dominant force in the RoboCup Standard Platform League, which has now been merged with the Humanoid League to form the new Humanoid Soccer League. For the first time, B-Human competed with a new robot platform: the humanoid Booster K1 from Booster Robotics.
 

The Humanoid Soccer League is divided into three divisions – Small, Middle, and Large – each defined by the maximum size and weight of the robots. Robots that are smaller or lighter than the division limits are allowed to compete in that division, while larger robots are not permitted to play in smaller divisions. At the German Open, B-Human participated in both the Middle and Large Divisions. A key difference between the divisions is the ball size: a standard football (FIFA Size 5) is used in the Large Division, while a slightly smaller ball (FIFA Size 3 or 4) is used in the Middle Division.
 

In the Middle Division, the Bremen team won all seven of their matches convincingly. Both in the preliminary round and the semifinals, B-Human secured wins with a 10-goal margin. In the final, the team faced the HTWK Robots from the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig), who also played with Booster K1 robots and had won the world championship in the Kid Size Humanoid League last year. B-Human achieved a decisive 6:1 victory.
 

In the Large Division, the team initially had a mixed start: besides a win and a draw, they lost once to the HTWK Robots, who also competed in both divisions. In the final, however, B-Human delivered a significantly improved performance and secured a clear 4:1 victory, taking the championship.
With their double victory in Cologne, B-Human now sets its sights on the RoboCup World Championship 2026, taking place from June 30 to July 6 in Incheon, South Korea.
 

About B-Human
 

B-Human is a joint project of the University of Bremen and the DFKI research department Cyber-Physical Systems, led by Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler. With numerous national and international titles, the team ranks among the most successful in the history of the RoboCup. 
 

The team in Cologne consisted of eight students from the University of Bremen and one doctoral candidate. It is scientifically supervised by Dr. Thomas Röfer (DFKI Cyber-Physical Systems) and Dr. Tim Laue (Multisensory Interactive Systems Research Group, University of Bremen).
 

Since 2017, the main sponsor has been CONTACT Software, a leading provider of solutions for product processes and digital transformation. Additional supporters include JUST ADD AI, cellumation, Ubica Robotics, and Alumni of the University of Bremen e.V.
 

Image material:
Image material is available for download in the DFKI Cloud (https://cloud.dfki.de/owncloud/index.php/s/BiWxMXXnNLbK5Wo). It may be used freely provided the copyright is acknowledged.
 

Further information:
 

Official website of the RoboCup German Open: https://robocup.de/

B-Human team website: https://www.b-human.de

B-Human on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/teambhuman

B-Human on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bhumnbhumn/

Link to the final: https://www.youtube.com/live/wcAyXRAvzQ0?si=o6WOz7Rm8wcs_xwK&t=17746

Contact:
 

Dr. Thomas Röfer
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI)
Cyber-Physical Systems
Phone: +49 421 218 64200
Email: Thomas.Roefer@dfki.de

Dr. Tim Laue
University of Bremen
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Phone: +49 421 218 64209
Email: tlaue@uni-bremen.de

DFKI Press Contact:
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI)
Communication & Media Bremen
Phone: +49421 178 45 4180
Email:communications-hb@dfki.de

According to Anslinger, democratic skills are developed beyond politics classes. Students also develop these skills when they think about work, economics, consumption, or social responsibility and make decisions together. Real-life learning environments can make democratic processes tangible.

One subject that provides such opportunities is work studies. In Bremen, this subject is called economics/work/technology, in short WAT. WAT combines technical, economic, domestic, and social education with topics such as consumer education and career orientation. Anslinger explains: "In these areas, democracy is not only discussed theoretically, but also experienced in practice," for example, through cooperation, co-determination, and the discussion of social issues. In projects on sustainable design or material selection, young people directly practice democratic skills such as negotiation and responsibility. Friese says that, against the backdrop of social change, digital living environments, and the pursuit of greater social justice, democracy education must be further developed in order to actively shape these processes.

The annual conference of the “Society for Work, Technology, and Economics in Education” will focus on the role that work studies can play in this. The conference will take place on March 18 and 19, 2026, at the University of Bremen’s Center of Labor and Politics (zap). Researchers, teachers, and education experts will discuss current challenges in democracy education and new approaches to teaching.

The program includes lectures and workshops on topics such as political education in times of populism, financial education as a means of achieving social justice, and student participation in school decision-making processes. The goal is to identify ways to strengthen democratic skills in everyday school life.

Further Information

www.uni-bremen.de/zap (only available in German)

gatwu.de/gatwu-jahrestagung-bremen-2026/ (only available in German)

Contact

Dr. Eva Anslinger
Deputy Director
Center of Labor and Politics (zap)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-56712
Email: eva.anslinger@uni-bremen.de

Women Who Reduce Their Working Hours Are Particularly Affected

The results show a clear pattern: After childbirth, a decrease is observed in the likelihood that analytical tasks – such as demanding reading, writing, or arithmetic – are carried out by mothers. Complex tasks that require problem solving, a willingness to learn, or dealing with unforeseen situations also decline, according to the study. The same applies to interactive activities such as counseling, customer contact, or coordination.

"It is striking that these changes occur primarily among mothers who reduce their working hours. In contrast, there are hardly any shifts in the task profile when working hours remain unchanged,” emphasizes Professor Gundula Zoch from the University of Oldenburg.

Work-Life Balance as the Main Explanation

However, no systematic differences were found depending on the duration of parental leave or career changes. "Longer career breaks do not automatically lead to greater shifts in the activity profile. Nor does a change to a different professional position explain the changes," says Schulz.

According to the authors, the findings therefore primarily support explanatory approaches that focus on the stress caused by the need to balance family and career. Less support is found for theories that point to a loss of qualifications due to longer breaks or to conscious career changes to supposedly more family-friendly roles.

Significance for Career Paths

Zoch: “The study makes it clear that motherhood not only influences income and the extent of employment, but also the quality and demands of work. Analytical and complex activities in particular are considered career-enhancing and are often associated with better promotion opportunities.”

By highlighting these task-related disadvantages, the study points to a dimension of gender inequality in the job market that has often been overlooked. According to the authors, the study therefore underscores the importance of labor market policy and workplace measures that not only ensure mothers' participation in the job market, but also guarantee their access to challenging and career-promoting tasks.

Long-Term Data from Germany Evaluated

The study in the Journal of Marriage and Family is based on data from the National Education Panel for the years 2011 to 2020. It looked at 1,978 women, comparing their professional activities before and after giving birth. Fixed effects models were used to isolate changes within the same person. This made it possible to distinguish the effects of childbirth from stable individual characteristics.

Further Information:

Schulz, W., and G. Zoch. 2025. “The Job Task Penalty for Motherhood.” Journal of Marriage and Family 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.70046.

www.socium.uni-bremen.de/home/en/?

uol.de/en/social-sciences/profile

northwest-alliance.de/en/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Wiebke Schulz
University of Bremen
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Phone: +49 421 218-58648
Email: wschulz@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Gundula Zoch
University of Oldenburg
Institute for Social Sciences
Tel.: +49 441 798-2152
Email: gundula.zoch@uol.de

Threatening Consequences for Entire Ecosystems

The study “Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature” makes it clear that tropical insects as a whole have only a very limited ability to adapt to climate change. Dr. Marcell Peters, animal ecologist at the University of Bremen and study author, says: “Rising temperatures could have a massive impact on insect populations, especially in regions with the world's highest biodiversity. Since insects fulfill central functions in ecosystems as pollinators, decomposers, and predators, there is a threat of far-reaching consequences for entire ecosystems.”

There are also striking differences between different insect groups. The researchers attribute these differences to the structure and heat stability of proteins. “These properties are relatively conserved in the evolutionary family tree of insects and can only be changed to a limited extent. The results suggest that fundamental characteristics of heat tolerance are deeply rooted in biology and cannot be quickly adapted to new climatic conditions,” Peters says.

The prognosis for the Amazon region is particularly alarming, as Holzmann emphasizes. “If global ecosystems continue to warm unabated, expected future temperatures will lead to critical heat stress for up to half of the insect species there.”

Limited Measurement Data Currently Available

Insects account for around 70 percent of all known animal species, and most live in the tropics. Nevertheless, little is known about how well tropical insects cope with rising temperatures. One reason for this is the low amount of experimental measurement data on temperature tolerance and the insufficient research on many insect groups available to date. An international research team conducted the study and received funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

For the study, the scientists investigated the temperature tolerance limits of more than 2,000 insect species. Data was collected in 2022 and 2023 at various altitudes in East Africa and South America, ranging from cool mountain forests to hot rainforests and lowland savannas. The team also analyzed the genomes of numerous species to study the stability of their proteins and better understand why some insect groups tolerate heat better than others.

Further Information

Holzmann KL, Schmitzer T, Abels A, Čorkalo M, Mitesser O, Kortmann M, Alonso-Alonso P, Correa-Carmona Y, Pinos A, Yon F, Alvarado M, Forsyth A, Lopera-Toro A, Brehm G, Keller A, Otieno M, Steffan-Dewenter I, Peters MK (in press) Limited thermal tolerance in tropical insects and its genomic signature. Nature, doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10155-w

Contact

Dr. Kim Lea Holzmann
Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology
Biocenter, University of Würzburg
Phone: +49 931 31-86716
Email: kim-lea.holzmann@uni-wuerzburg.de

Dr. Marcell Peters
BIOM, University of Bremen
Phone: + 49 421 218-63481
Email: marcell.peters@uni-bremen.de

According to Karakaşoğlu, many factors contribute to a school of diversity, including highly trained professionals who reflect the diversity of society and a wide range of creative, athletic, and musical activities. Such a school is characterized by binding rules and clear measures against bullying, racism, and discrimination. Multilingualism must not only be recognized, but also actively incorporated into teaching, without discrimination in the form of language bans in the classroom or schoolyard. When students join a class during the school year, teachers should individually assess their abilities and support needs, whilst peers help the newcomers settle into the class. The school should also offers programs for all children and young people in which they can exchange ideas with other young people across national borders – either on site or individually.

Yasemin Karakaşoğlu's contributionand all other thought-provoking ideas can be found here: https://reportage.spektrum.de/die-schule-der-zukunft

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
Head of the Education in the Migration Society Research Unit
University of Bremen
Phone +49 421 218-69020
Email: karakasoglu@uni-bremen.de

Registration is possible via the websites of the participating universities or at www.uni-bremen.de/va-studieren-hb (only available in German).
 

Please note: Further events will take place on May 28 and November 12.
 

Further Information:
 

www.uni-bremen.de/va-studieren-hb (only available in German).
https://www.hs-bremen.de/en/study/before/prospective-students/

https://www.hs-bremerhaven.de/en

https://www.hfk-bremen.de/en/study

Contact:
 

University of Bremen
Betina da Rocha
Central Student Advisory Service
Phone: +49 421 218-61152
Email: darocha@uni-bremen.de
 

Bremen City University of Applied Sciences (HSB)
Dirk Busche
Central Student Advisory Service (ZSB)
Phone: +49 421-5905 2743
Email: Dirk.Busche@hs-bremen.de

Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences
Christoph Lüders
Student Advisory Service
Phone: +49 471 4823 556
Email: studienberatung@hs-bremerhaven.de

University of the Arts Bremen (HfK)
Thorrid Dalter
Head of Administrative Department 01: Student and Academic Affairs
Phone: +49 421 9595 1110
Email: thorrid.dalter@hfk-bremen.de

How can AI improve nursing care?
 

Researchers participating in the ProKIP project (Process Development and Support for the Use of AI in Nursing Care) studied how AI solutions can be successfully integrated into nursing practice. They established the basis for this through theoretical and empirical findings. At the same time, the researchers developed an AI Care Readiness Assessment, an evaluation tool to test how well research projects are prepared to use artificial intelligence in care.
 

They examined the benefits of AI systems, data quality, and ethical issues, for instance. The researchers also examined participatory approaches to determine how stakeholders, including nursing staff, patients, and relatives, could be involved in developing and using AI.
 

The researchers set up a platform for knowledge and data exchange, as well as research labs and specialist coaching services. The goal was to identify success factors for practical applications. Their approaches to data protection by design for care-related digital data were particularly innovative.
“This award recognizes the innovative achievements of AI care projects and care practices. With the AI Care Readiness Assessment, we are creating the first knowledge base on the AI maturity level of care facilities and clinics,” said Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann, project coordinator and head of the Department of Health Services Research at the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen.
 

University of Bremen project researchers include Dr. Kathryn Seibert, Dominik Domhoff, and Janissa Altona from the IPP, as well as Dagmar Borchers, a professor of applied philosophy at the University of Bremen, and her team.
 

Over several years, the ProKIP project accompanied and evaluated eight joint projects nationwide as part of the “Making Repositories and AI Systems Usable in Everyday Nursing Care” funding program from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space.
 

Partners in the project included the University of Bremen, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin Hochschule für Technik, the Verband für Digitalisierung in der Sozialwirtschaft, Halle (Saale), and the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin. The project received financial support from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space.
 

The “Ideas for Impact” award (formerly the Otto Mühlschlegel Prize of the Robert Bosch Foundation) honors groundbreaking care concepts and social innovations that improve health and quality of life, especially for older adults, while impacting the qualitative development of healthcare as a whole. The “Ideas for Impact” award is presented every two years, and the special award was awarded for the first time this year.
 

Further information:
 

https://www.public-health.uni-bremen.de/research/department-7-nursing-science-and-health-services-research

Contact:
 

Prof. Dr. Karin Wolf-Ostermann
Department of Health Services Research
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68960
Email: wolf-ostermann@uni-bremen.de
 

During the initial project phase, the participating universities demonstrated that relatively simple measures can have an impact. These measures ranged from creating biodiversity-friendly campus areas and introducing new seating and recreation facilities, to visualizing energy consumption in buildings. Students, teaching staff members, and employees collaborated in living laboratories to explore how their campus could serve as a testing ground for sustainable development.

The next phase, BreGoS², will focus on how to permanently incorporate these approaches into existing structures, with a particular focus on biodiversity and quality of outdoor spaces, and sustainable laboratory operations. This will involve representatives of all status groups – students, researchers, and administrative and operational staff – who will collaborate in topic-specific networking formats (“hubs”). There, they will share experiences, discuss challenges, and devise practical solutions, such as energy-efficient ventilation control systems for labs and the creation of green, biodiversity-friendly outdoor areas even as the number of surrounding buildings increases. The goal is to develop these hubs into permanent networks of expertise that will continue to operate even after the project has ended.

Connecting Research, Practice, and Teaching

As in the first phase, the connection between research, practice, and teaching will play a central role. Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to develop implementable concepts for their campus, collaborating with experts from operations, administration, and academia. These results will then be incorporated into teaching programs and displayed on campus, making sustainability a tangible part of everyday study and working life.

BreGoS² also considers the wider community, and urban communities and surrounding neighborhoods should also benefit from the project’s methods and outcomes. This will enable universities to expand their role as drivers of sustainable development in Bremen.

With BreGoS², Bremen’s higher education institutions establish a long-term framework for their commitment to climate protection, resource conservation, and livable urban areas which was initially pledged in the “Bremen Goes Sustainable” project.

Further information: 

www.bregos.de (in German only)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Marko Rohlfs
University of Bremen
“Bremen Goes Sustainable” project coordination
Phone: +49 421 218-62936
Email: rohlfs1@uni-bremen.de

Since 2000, the university archive has systematically collected and preserved every aspect of the University of Bremen’s administration, research, and teaching history. Today, it holds over 60,000 archival items, of which more than 39,000 have been cataloged. These include over 15,000 documents, 3,700 printed materials, 5,900 periodicals, and over 5,200 theses and dissertations. 
 

Beyond documents, the building itself is a canvas of history. Among the artworks in and on the building is the reconstructed mural “Terror and Resistance in Chile,” a nearly 50-year-old painting by the Chilean artist collective Brigada Luis Corvalán. The painting is a reminder of the 1973 military coup in Chile and stands as a lasting symbol of solidarity here in Bremen with the Chilean people. 
 

When? Monday, March 9, 2026, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Where? GW1 Building, Universitätsallee, Wing A, foyer on the ground floor
 

Further information about the university archive and art on campus: 
 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/archiv (in German only)
https://www.campuskunst.uni-bremen.de/

Research has so far suggested that particularly pronounced perfectionism can hinder psychotherapeutic treatment. Fear of making mistakes can manifest itself in perfectionistic patients through putting off or avoiding exercises, dissatisfaction with slow treatment progress, or a reluctance to share their insecurities with a therapist. This can ultimately lead to a lack of treatment results or discontinuation of therapy altogether. There is a need for treatment that addresses perfectionism.
 

New Treatment Approach for Patients Struggling with Perfectionism
 

The Psychotherapeutic University Outpatient Services over the Lifespan (PULS) has been working on creating a new treatment approach for perfectionism since it began operations at the end of 2025. A four-week group therapy is specifically designed to ensure that patients don’t succumb to the fear of mistakes, but practice learning to react to the challenges of everyday life with more flexibility and self-compassion. The associated research project will investigate whether and how this compact group treatment can contribute to patients’ psychological wellbeing. If the group setting proves successful, a next step could be to examine whether patients have better chances of benefitting from a long-term individual treatment after undergoing group therapy.
 

The group will take place as part of primary care group psychotherapeutic treatment, which can be billed to public health insurances without much bureaucracy and therefore is a more accessible form of therapy. However, it has rarely been used by psychotherapists so far, since there are no scientifically tested therapy approaches for this specific format. The project aims to help close this gap in psychotherapeutic treatment.
 

The project will begin in March of 2026 and is set to run for three years. It will receive 72,000 euros from the Christoph Dornier Foundation for Clinical Psychology as part of their postdoctoral funding. Recruitment for the first perfectionism groups is expected to begin in fall 2026.
 

Further Information:
 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/ambulanz-puls (in German only) 

www.uni-bremen.de/en/klipse

Contact:
 

Dr. Nathalie Claus
Department of Clinical Psychology and Adult Psychotherapy
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 68548
Email: nclaus@uni-bremen.de

Only 1.8 Million Officially Unemployed

At the same time, the researchers found that large proportions of benefit recipients who are able to work face structural barriers to job placement. Forty-four percent are affected by at least one statistically recorded barrier, while another forty-four percent are affected by several barriers simultaneously. These barriers include long-term unemployment, lack of vocational qualifications, health restrictions, older age, and family care responsibilities. Qualitative studies also show that these burdens often superimpose themselves in everyday life, making integration into the labor market more difficult.

With this background, the authors interpret the “unwilling unemployed” as a politically effective narrative. “This myth individualizes social risks, obscures the structural causes of unemployment, and perpetuates an understanding of the welfare state that prioritizes activation and sanctions over security and support,” explains Dr. René Böhme from the Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw) at the University of Bremen.

Fixation on Unwillingness to Work Distracts from Need for Reform

According to the researchers, focusing on supposed unwillingness to work obscures the need for structural reforms, such as those related to training, poverty reduction, and work-life balance. “Instead of addressing problems in a nuanced manner, morally charged simplifications dominate discussions,” says Professor Irene Dingeldey.

The study therefore calls for an objective, empirically-based debate on unemployment. Böhme maintains that “social welfare support should not be seen as an instrument of mistrust, but rather as an expression of social solidarity and shared responsibility.”

Methodologically, the study is based on a secondary analysis of official statistics, quantitative and qualitative research, and literature on social theory. Current data from the German Federal Employment Agency on the structure and extent of benefit receipt, long-term unemployment, qualification levels, and placement barriers were evaluated, among other things. Panel analyses, evaluation studies on labor market policy, and qualitative studies on stigmatization experiences were also included.

iaw Colloquium: “The Renaissance of the ‘Unwilling Unemployed:’ Facts, Myths, and Political Instrumentalization”

René Böhme and Irene Dingeldey will present their findings on February 26, 2026 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the University of Bremen’s Forum at Domshof under the title “Die Renaissance des arbeitsunwilligen Arbeitslosen: Fakten, Mythen und politische Instrumentalisierung” (The Renaissance of the “Unwilling Unemployed:” Facts, Myths, and Political Instrumentalization) in German. The presentation will focus on empirical findings regarding the living conditions of individuals receiving a citizen’s income and the political exploitation of the debate surrounding it.

Further Information:

Böhme, René; Dingeldey, Irene (2026). Die Renaissance des „arbeitsunwilligen Arbeitslosen“ im öffentlichen Diskurs. Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme mit Blick auf die soziale Lebenslage von Personen im Leistungsbezug nach Sozialgesetzbuch II, Vierteljahreshefte zur Arbeits- und Wirtschaftsforschung, S. 1-18, https://doi.org/10.3790/vaw.2025.1473402. The publication is part of the special editions 3 and 4 2025 of the Quarterly Journal of Labour and Economic Research (VAW) on the topic “Myths of Social Politics,” which discusses “mythical” debates in additional social policy areas.

elibrary.duncker-humblot.com/journal/122/vierteljahreshefte-zur-arbeits-und-wirtschaftsforschung

iaw Colloquium on February 26, 2026, Forum at Domshof, Banking Hall, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

www.iaw.uni-bremen.de/en/  

www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact

Dr. René Böhme
University of Bremen
Institute for Labour and Economy 
Phone: +49 421 218-61722
Email: rene.boehme@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Irene Dingeldey
University of Bremen
Institute for Labour and Economy 
Phone: +49 421 218-61710
Email: dingeldey@uni-bremen.de

Exhibition Has Already Toured More than 30 Countries on Five Continents

Symbolic “unissued diplomas” represent 40 deceased students, some of whom were studying when the war began, while others interrupted their education to defend their homeland. The stories behind these diplomas vary in completeness. While some biographies have been comprehensively reconstructed, others remain fragmented as there are no survivors to pass on their stories. 

Since its inception in Ukraine in 2023, “Unissued Diplomas” has spread globally, traveling across five continents, and staged over 300 exhibitions in more than 30 countries. The project is sustained by an international team of over 100 young Ukrainians, united in their mission to preserve the legacies of those Ukrainian students killed.

Lecture by Susanne Schattenberg on February 24

As part of the exhibition, on February 24 – the anniversary of Russia’s invasion – Professor Susanne Schattenberg, Director of the Research Centre for Eastern European Studies at the University of Bremen, will deliver a public lecture. Her talk, “The Daily War Next Door: Ukraine in Its Fifth Year of Conflict,” will take place at 2 p.m. in Training Room 1 of the SuUB’s central building at Universitätsboulevard. Admission is free of charge.

Further Information: 

https://www.unissueddiplomas.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtxYUw3MSTM Interview with Yuliia Kotvytska, student at the University of Bremen and member of the exhibition team

Contact:

Anke Winsmann
Press and Public Relations Officer
State and University Library Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218 59572
Email: oeffentlichkeitsarbeit@suub.uni-bremen.de

“We are delighted to host this key annual conference on inclusion research in Bremen again after 15 years and to welcome more than 300 scholars here,” says Professor Natascha Korff from the University of Bremen’s faculty of Educational Sciences. She is organizing the conference together with Professor Frank J. Müller and many colleagues from the Inclusive Education working group. The conference opens on Wednesday with a lecture by Professor Michael Zander, who will bring in the perspective of disability studies and discuss the links between broader societal questions and school structures. 
 

“A special highlight will be Thursday afternoon, when we invite practitioners from Bremen to engage in conversation with researchers about inclusion and relationship-oriented schooling,” Korff explains. “Especially in light of current discussions on the future of the ‘Schulfrieden’ (school peace) agreement, I am eager to hear the impulses that will emerge.” The introductory talk will be given by Bremen high school student Janne Schmidmann together with Professor Jan Steffens. Also in attendance will be Mark Rackles, Senator for Children and Education, and Dr. Arne Frankenstein, Bremen State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities. 
 

Reflecting on this year’s conference theme - “Research – Attitude – Activism? Inclusion Research between Educational Utopia and System Conformity” - Professor Frank J. Müller emphasizes: “Research, attitude, and activism belong together if we want to build a society in which all people can live, learn, and work under the best possible conditions. At the University of Bremen, this has been a guiding principle since its establishment in the 1970s.”
 

In addition to involving local teachers, students, and other interested participants in a BarCamp addressing current developments, the conference also shines a light on the international dimension. In a public lecture on February 20 at 11 a.m., Professor Evelynn Hammonds and Professor Timothy Patrick McCarthy from Harvard University will give a public lecture, in which they explore how inclusive education can remain viable under the increasing pressure of far-right political groups and governments. 
 

For Editorial Offices: 
 

Interviews can be arranged with nationally recognized scholars such as Professor Andreas Hinz, Professor Annedore Prengel, or Professor Vera Moser, as well as with international colleagues, the Bremen State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, and of course the inclusion researchers at the University of Bremen and the practitioners involved in organizing the BarCamp. 
 

Further Information: 
 

https://ifo2026.uni-bremen.de/welcome-internationals//

For inquiries, contact the conference team
ifo2026@uni-bremen.de

March 24 to 26: Workshops at the University of Bremen and Bremen City University of Applied Sciences

The workshops will be held from March 24 to 26, 2026 – during the Bremen Easter holidays – at the University of Bremen campus and at the City University of Applied Sciences (HSB). This is where the young participants can become researchers themselves. They will program self-driving robots, trace brainwaves as thought detectives, explore new foods from the sea, and take their first steps into genealogical research. The workshops will be held in small groups of up to 20 persons. The events will be held in German. Tickets are available for 6 Euro online via the Kids’ University website at www.uni-bremen.de/en/bremen-kids-university or directly through Eventbrite. To manage demand, a second round of tickets will be released on February 10 at 8 p.m. 

The Kids’ University is organized by the public engagement team from the UniTransfer unit at the University of Bremen. Dedicated scientists from the university, the institutes located at the Technology Park Bremen, and the City University of Applied Sciences contribute individual lectures and workshops across a wide range of disciplines. The Kids’ University is financially supported by Sparkasse Bremen.

The University of Bremen embraces its societal responsibility by understanding research-based knowledge and technology transfer as an inclusive effort. The UniTransfer unit is the University of Bremen’s central interface between academia, industry, and society. Its experts support cooperation and projects across the full academic spectrum: from start-up support, to the commercialization of inventions, the placement of specialists and leadership personal, or science communication formats to the coordination of school outreach, the management of the university foundation, and fundraising.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/bremen-kids-university

Contact:

Isabell Harder
Administrative Unit 16, UniTransfer
University of Bremen
+49-421-218-57134
Email: isabell.harder@vw.uni-bremen.de 

What Are CFCs – and Why Are They Important?
 

CFCs are artificially produced chemical substances that were once frequently used as coolants in refrigerators and air conditioning systems and also as propellants in spray cans. It was later discovered that they destroy the protective ozone layer in the stratosphere, which protects against dangerous ultraviolet radiation. For this reason, many countries decided to ban the production of CFCs worldwide in 1987 under the Montreal Protocol. Since then, the ozone layer has been slowly recovering.
 

Looking Back 70 Years
 

Until now, 1971 was considered the date of the first measurement of CFCs in the atmosphere. At that time, the British scientist James Lovelock achieved this breakthrough with a newly developed measuring device. The new study now provides results for the year 1951.
In 1950 and 1951, solar measurements were carried out with a spectrometer at the high-altitude Jungfraujoch research station (3570 meters above sea level). The original aim was to study the sun's atmosphere and the measurements were recorded and archived on long rolls of paper.
 

These measurements not only provided results about the solar atmosphere, as planned at the time, but also contained additional signatures of the Earth's atmosphere. At the time, this extra input was rather disruptive, whereas now it was the scientists' focus. Researchers from the University of Bremen, together with scientists from the Department of Astrophysics at the University of Liege in Belgium and the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds in the UK, have now scanned the spectra, digitized them, and re-evaluated them using modern analysis methods. They discovered traces of the CFC “Freon-12” in the Earth's atmosphere at the time.
 

Surprisingly High Concentration
 

The concentration measured in 1951 was around 26 “pptv” – that is, 26 molecules of CFC per trillion air molecules. Model calculations had expected only around 9 pptv for this time. The researchers emphasize that the models probably did not take all emission sources at the time into account.
 

Significance for Climate Research
 

The discovery shows how valuable historical measurement data can be for today's research. “These old records allow us to trace the history of air pollution more accurately,” explain the researchers. This helps to improve climate models and better understand how quickly harmful substances spread in the atmosphere. In addition to CFCs, other gases in the Earth's atmosphere can also be detected in the historical spectra, which is the objective of further research projects.
The study has been published in the renowned journal Geophysical Research Letters.
 

Further Information:
 

https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL117453

Contact:
 

Prof. Dr. Justus Notholt
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62190
Email: jnotholt@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de

This year, the central memorial event is being organized by the University Executive Board. Historian Dr. Veronika Hager from the Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility and Future (EVZ) will be the guest speaker. In her German talk entitled "Die (Un-)Mittelbarkeit der Erinnerung: Gedenkarbeit zwischen historischer Distanz und dringlicher Nähe," she will examine the changing nature of remembrance of Nazi crimes in light of dwindling eyewitness accounts, new forms of digital communication, and current debates on historical politics.

Veronika Hager will provide insights into a field under pressure and discuss the following questions: How distant or how close is the Nazi past to us today? And how close do we allow it to come to us? What characterizes critical remembrance practices in the present, and what can they achieve?

“Direct conversations with eyewitnesses are becoming less and less possible for most people. At the same time, archived eyewitness accounts, historical crime scenes, and architectural and material sources are becoming increasingly important in communicating Nazi injustice,” says the historian. These records are sometimes subject to high demands for authenticity, while VR applications test the tangible proximity of the past and AI puts the handling of historical facts to the test.

At the same time, history is being heavily exploited for political purposes: “Revisionist narratives are increasingly entering the mainstream, and what was once believed to be a solid consensus is beginning to falter.”

Further Information:

Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism
Small Lecture Hall, “Keksdose” building, room HS 1010
January 27, 2026, 4:00 p.m.

up2date interview: A Culture of Remembrance in Transition. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and ever fewer eyewitnesses – How will these changes affect the way people remember the Nazi era?

Contact:

Dr. Mandy Boehnke
Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60041
Email: kon3@uni-bremen.de

Mayor Bovenschulte: University Is Doing Outstanding Work

In his welcoming address, Mayor Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte highlighted two developments in particular that, in his view, exemplify the academic excellence and strategic orientation of the University of Bremen: "First, the university secured two Clusters of Excellence last year, namely “The Ocean Floor” and “The Martian Mindset,” and is well on its way to becoming a University of Excellence. Second, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, one of the most important AI conferences, is coming to Bremen this summer. Both of these developments clearly show that our university, its employees, and its students are doing outstanding work. I would like to thank everyone who continuously supports research and teaching in Bremen, especially the "unifreunde" Association.

Karolina Kumar, State Secretary to the Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science, also underscored the university's importance in terms of academic policy and emphasized its international appeal: “We support the University of Bremen in its efforts to become a University of Excellence in cooperation with the University of Oldenburg. Science and universities are of great value to Bremen and have a strong international appeal: They stand for progress, attract students and researchers from Germany and abroad, and strengthen the region in the long term. Especially in times when science and democracy are under pressure worldwide, for example through authoritarianism, misinformation, and restrictions on academic liberty, close cooperation is more important than ever.”

President Bruder: Top-level Research in Bremen and Oldenburg

Commenting on the cooperation with the University of Bremen, Professor Ralph Bruder, President of the University of Oldenburg, said: “As comparatively young universities, the universities of Oldenburg and Bremen have developed remarkably and, only around 50 years after their founding, are among the top research universities in Germany – especially when measured by their size. There are a total of four Clusters of Excellence at our locations, which means research at the absolute highest level. This reflects our research strength, which we use to tackle the very diverse, highly complex, and interdisciplinary challenges of our world.”

The focus was on a panel discussion on the topic of “Science in Transition” with an international perspective: In addition to Jutta Günther, Karolina Komar, State Secretary to the Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science, Professor Ralph Bruder, President of the University of Oldenburg, Professor Jouke de Vries, President of the University of Groningen, and Dr. Serguei Kouzmine, President of Constructor University, also took part in the discussion. The English-language roundtable was chaired by science journalist Jan-Martin Wiarda.

The Northwest Alliance connects the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg with the aims of combining excellent research with social responsibility and developing innovative solutions to regional and global challenges. The numerous academic and non-academic institutions in the region, with which both universities cooperate closely, play a central role in this, as does the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK). The Northwest Alliance sees itself as part of the international scientific community, particularly in close partnership with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. As the Northwest Alliance, the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg are submitting an application as a consortium in the second funding line for Universities of Excellence.

19 New Professors Welcomed

The 19 newly appointed professors at the University of Bremen and the 5 newly appointed professors at Constructor University were also welcomed at the New Year's Reception. Jutta Günther: “I am delighted that we were able to welcome our newly appointed professors in a celebratory setting today. We are delighted and proud to welcome you all to the university community.”

The traditional New Year's Reception for the University of Bremen and Constructor University is organized by the “unifreunde” Association. The association has the goal is to support science.

From 2026 to 2028, the University of Bremen will continue four previously funded partnerships: with Tbilisi State University (Georgia), Kyiv National Economic University (Ukraine), Nazarbayev University (Kazakhstan), and the Kazakh Institute of Management, Economics, and Forecasting. In addition, four other existing partnerships have been newly included in the funding program: with Ilia State University (Georgia), Yuriy Fedkovych National University of Chernivtsi (Ukraine), Yerevan State University (Armenia), and the Armenian National Agrarian University.

Projects Ranging from PhD Colloquiums to Master's Theses Abroad

The collaborations cover the subjects of chemistry didactics, math, media studies, business administration and economics, history, European studies, and public health. Planned measures include stays abroad in Kazakhstan for students from the Institute of European Studies, participation by lecturers and doctoral students in doctoral colloquiums in Georgia, and stays abroad in Armenia for teaching staff members. Short stays for doctoral students or for master's students writing their theses are also in the works.

University of Bremen Continuously Involved in Eastern Partnership Program Since the 1980s

The University of Bremen has been participating in the Eastern Partnership Program since the 1980s, initially focusing on Central European countries such as Latvia, Poland, and Romania. In the 2000s, partnerships with Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia were added. Due to Russia's war-induced isolation since 2022, the partnerships in Novgorod, Moscow, and St. Petersburg have been put on hold. New partnerships were subsequently established with two universities in Kazakhstan and two in Armenia.

Further Information:

https://www.daad.de/de/infos-services-fuer-universities/weiterfuehrende-infos-zu-daad-foerderprogrammen/ostpartnerschaften/ (only available in German)

Contact:

Silke Prangemeier
International Office
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-60364
Email: silke.prangemeier@vw.uni-bremen.de

Courses for Getting Started and Refreshing Your Skills

Beginner courses in Italian, Polish, and Russian, as well as English courses at B1 level, are officially recognized under the Bremen Educational Leave Act (Bremisches Bildungszeitgesetz). They are designed for students, prospective students, and external participants from Bremen and the surrounding area. For English at levels B2 to C1, the focus is on developing academic language skills. Prospective students can obtain proof of language proficiency for admission through these intensive courses.

Independent Learning

In addition to course formats, flexible learning opportunities are available, such as the tutoring program, a range of offers in self-study centers, and year-round online support for tandem learning. The Writer’s Help Desk provides support for writing English-language texts. All of these services are free of charge for students at the four public universities in Bremen State. 

The semester-long language program for the 2026 summer semester begins on April 7, 2026.

Further information: 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb

Contact: 

szhb@uni-bremen.de

Highlights from Three Days of Film Festival
 

The festival kicks off on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, with films by students, who open the event with a variety of perspectives. These include a look at social inequalities in education, inclusion in public spaces, and questions about the political present and belonging.
On Wednesday, January 21, 2026, the program will focus in particular on Ecologies and Futures, with three films screening on this day that shed light on the topic in different ways and examine sand mining in Sierra Leone, the oldest tree in Athens, and nature spirits and environmental destruction in Mongolia. The two other films on that day focus on cultural resistance in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir and the work of undertakers in Vietnam.
The festival will conclude with a special evening at Kino City 46 on Thursday, January 22, 2026.
 

The feature film “Empathy for Concrete Things” will be shown, which looks at life and work in concrete prefabricated buildings from the Soviet era. This will be followed by the film “Bride of Aravan,” which accompanies the protagonist during a transgender festival in southern India.
 

Platform for Discussion and Exchange
 

This year, numerous filmmakers will once again come to Bremen for the Days of Ethnographic Film to engage in conversation with the audience after the screenings. Guests who are unable to attend in person will be connected digitally and be available for discussion.
 

All Information at a Glance
 

Tuesday, January 20, and Wednesday, January 21: 6 p.m. in the Small Lecture Hall (HS 1010) at the University of Bremen (free admission)
Thursday, January 22: 8 p.m., Kino City 46, Birkenstraße 1, 28195 Bremen (entrance fee is 10 euros, concessionary rate is 5 euros)
All films will be shown in their original language with German or English subtitles.
 

Further Information:
 

Bremen Days of Ethnographic Film website: https://blogs.uni-bremen.de/ethnofilmtage/en/home-2/

Bremen Days of Ethnographic Film on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ethnofilmtagebremen/

Contact:
 

Would you like to attend the Bremen Days of Ethnographic Film or are you interested in an interview? We would be happy to put you in touch with the filmmakers or the organizers of the film festival. Please contact us with any questions: filmtage@uni-bremen.de

During the event, the student participants will present their findings on the questions posed by their industry partners: Airbus Aerostructures, TÖNNJES INTERNATIONAL GROUP GmbH, POLARIS Spaceplanes, BUHLMANN Group, endless webservices, freibeik GmbH, studio-chitangala, and cocoloo GmbH.

At the same time, eight student teams will present their business ideas and validated prototypes, which were developed in the “Start-Up Management” module within future concepts bremen.

future concepts bremen – An Opportunity for Students and Companies

future concepts bremen is a hands-on teaching format offered by the Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX) at the University of Bremen. Each semester, students, industry partners, and researchers come together to address various issues in business practice and develop solution concepts within 100-day projects.

Students are given the opportunity to apply their university knowledge in real-world situations, gain initial business experience during their studies, and establish contacts with potential employers. Whilst Practical partners are supported in the development of innovative business and organizational concepts to strengthen competitiveness and gain access to future skilled workers. In addition, students are given the opportunity to develop and validate their own business ideas and turn them into prototypes in the “Start-Up Management” module, as well as connect with various players in Bremen’s start-up ecosystem.

The project is run by the Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX) at the University of Bremen in collaboration with the Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports, and Transformation.

Students from all disciplines can participate in future concepts bremen. Students of Business Studies, Management and Engineering, and Information Systems and Management can have their participation credited as part of their regular studies, while all others can have it credited as part of General Studies courses.

The project is also open to other companies, start-ups, and non-profit organizations from the Bremen metropolitan region that are interested in collaborating with students. The projects start in April and October and last approximately three to four months. Interested companies can contact “future concepts bremen” at any time with a project outline.

Further Information:
 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/lemex/transfer/future-concepts-bremen
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/lemex
https://digitalhubindustry.de/en/

Contact:

Leon Marquardt
Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218–66873
Email: leon.marquardt@uni-bremen.de

The library's director, Maria Elisabeth Müller, is delighted with the accolade: “It is important to me that we do not limit the family-friendly orientation of SuUB's workplaces to good childcare options, but also include caring for relatives or other family obligations. For us, the focus is on designing the workplace in such a way that these areas of life are compatible – with respect for the fact that life situations can change.”
 

The seal officially provides confirmation of what the library has long been committed to: A working environment in which career and family go hand in hand – with flexible working hours, opportunities to work from home, and a collaborative atmosphere based on understanding and support. The focus is on all employees in their different life situations. A broad definition of family is supported: It is not only about parents with children or one’s own relatives, but also about responsibility for and support of an extended group of people, both today and in the future.
With these measures, the library is boosting the motivation, health, and performance of its employees and visibly positioning itself as a family-friendly employer.
 

Further Information:
 

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/

Questions answered by: 
 

Maria Elisabeth Müller
Director of the State and University Library Bremen (SuUB)
Phone: +49 421 218-59400
Email: direktion@suub.uni-bremen.de

In his lecture, Achim Truger will provide exclusive insights into the German Council of Economic Experts' economic policy analysis and recommendations on topics such as structural change, corporate taxation, German trade policy, and special funds. There will be an opportunity to ask questions after the lecture.

Achim Truger has been a member of the German Council of Economic Experts since March 2019 and has held a professorship in socioeconomics, with a focus on government activity and public finance, at the University of Duisburg-Essen since April 2019. He has conducted research and published in numerous areas of macroeconomic policy and public finance, and is active in providing scientific policy advice to governments, parliaments, trade unions, and NGOs at both the international and local levels.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Johannes Paha
Faculty of Business Studies & Economics
University of Bremen
Email: office-paha@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-66632

 

Significant Deficits: One in Five Facilities Does Not Offer Any Access to Education

The results reveal significant shortcomings. Thirty-eight facilities (19 percent) did not provide any access to education, even though children and adolescents lived in half of them for several months at a time. In 82 centers (40 percent), access to education consisted exclusively through of out-of-school educational measures or German language courses. These programs were mostly offered within the facilities, varied greatly in quality, and were not always accessible from the outset. Eighty-three facilities (41 percent) provided access to regular schools but often with restrictions, such as waiting periods or restricted to certain age groups. Notably, federal states that do not exclude asylum seekers from the German compulsory schooling regulations tend to provide better educational conditions overall than states that temporarily exempt refugee children and adolescents from these regulations.

Ruptures in School Biographies Persist in Germany

The study concludes that prolonged residence in refugee arrival centers without swift access to high-quality schooling endangers the future educational prospect of children and young adults. Thus, ruptures in school biographies arise not only during flight, but also in Germany. The study emphasizes that a more inclusive approach to compulsory schooling is key to reliably implementing the right to education. Providing compulsory schooling for all, regardless of residence status, strengthens the federal states' responsibility and requires corresponding investments in education, including financial, personnel, and structural resources.

Further Information:

doi.org/10.26092/elib/4985 

Contact:

Dr. Johanna Funck
University of Bremen
Faculty 12: Pedagogy and Educational Sciences
Education in a Migration Society working group
Email: funck@uni-bremen.de
Phone: 0421-21869128

As a publicly funded research program, the KD²School opens up a field that has so far been dominated by economically or politically motivated actors. This research focuses, among other things, on technical and neuroscientific cross-cutting topics, individual everyday decisions, team decisions in the digital world of work, group decisions in online participation, and the limits of adaptive systems.

Collaboration Between the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg at the Interface of Neuroscience and Computer Science

Professor Alexander Mädche, director of the Human-Centered Systems Lab at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, serves as the spokesperson for the KD²School. The University of Bremen has been a key partner in the research training group since its inception, with Tanja Schultz, a cognitive systems professor, serving as co-spokesperson. The University of Oldenburg (Principal Investigator: Christiane Thiel, biological psychology professor) will be added in the new funding phase. One objective of the KD²School is to work together at the interface between neuroscience and computer science, using MRI scanners to analyze the brain activity of two people during an economic interaction. From this, they would like to gain knowledge about inter-brain synchronicity and the neural mechanisms during social interaction and perception. 

The cooperation in the KD²School complements the diverse collaborations between the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg. The two universities work closely together in areas such as marine, polar, and climate research; computer science; health sciences; and energy research. In January 2025, they founded the Northwest Alliance, and in November, they submitted an application entitled “Northwest Alliance: Connecting for Tomorrow” to the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat) to become a University Excellence Consortium. 

Further Information:

https://kd2school.info/

https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

Contact:

Tanja Schultz
Professor of Cognitive Systems
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64270
Email: tanja.schultz@uni-bremen.de

Support from the Federal Government and Civil Society

As part of the Deutschlandstipendium, the federal government, companies, associations, foundations, and private individuals currently support over 33,000 high-achieving students nationwide. In this way, civil society is taking responsibility for talented young people. The scholarship holders receive 300 euros per month for one year. Half of the money is provided by the federal government, and the other half by private sponsors. Sponsors can sponsor one or more scholarships over a period of at least one year. The contribution of 1,800 euros per scholarship is tax deductible.

Not only academic or university achievements count, but also social or community involvement. The scholarships are awarded by a scholarship council made up of university students and teaching staff members. The scholarship also includes non-material support. For example, it includes workshops that provide guidance on life and career matters, and the sponsors provide insights into working environments and valuable networks. 

Erdem Galipoğlu told us what the funding means for the students in concrete terms. He received a scholarship at the University of Bremen during the initial 2011/2012 funding year and is now a professor of business administration with a focus on business informatics and digital transformation at Bremen City University of Applied Sciences.  “The Deutschlandstipendium not only honors outstanding achievements, but also takes into account voluntary commitment and the different realities of student life. Many are the first in their families to study, others have to overcome linguistic or structural hurdles. Through the Deutschlandstipendium, they not only receive financial support, but also appreciation and encouragement,” he said.

Why Former Professor Eva Rieger Supports the Deutschlandstipendium

A total of 64 companies, private individuals, associations and foundations sponsored the scholarships, including eight new sponsors. These include Professor Eva Rieger. Why do they support the Deutschlandstipendium? “From 1990 to 2000, I was a professor of musicology at the University of Bremen, and was able to organize, among other things, seminars on female composers. The students enjoyed participating, it was fun. The atmosphere in Bremen was relaxed and I liked it. I was fortunate to inherit some money, and now want to share part of it with the university and have students benefit through the Deutschlandstipendium,” she says.

Who Makes the Scholarships Possible?

The University of Bremen would like to thank the following persons, foundations, and companies:

AES Aircraft Elektro/Elektronik System GmbH | University of Bremen Alumni Network| Anheuser-Busch InBev Germany | AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven | Prof. Dr. Gerhard Bach and Isabella Bach | Dr. Christine Backhaus | Baumeister Foundation for Equal Opportunities | Brede Foundation | Bremen Evangelical Church | COLLEGIUM Vermögensverwaltungs AG | CONXPERT GmbH & Co. KG | datenschutz nord GmbH | Deutschlandstipendium cohort 24/25 | Carl Dolle GmbH & Co. KG | Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler | Dr. Bärbel Ehrmann-Köpke | EUROPA-CENTER Uwe Heinrich Suhr Foundation | Ursula und Manfred Fluß | Manfred und Ursula Fluß Foundation | GESTRA AG | Prof. Dr. Rita Groß-Hardt | Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther | Hanseatische Waren Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG | Stefan Hefter | Dr. Heines Foundation | Barbara Hoffmann-Gabel | Karin und Uwe Hollweg Foundation | IPSEN LOGISTICS HOLDING GmbH & Co. KG | KELLNER & STOLL Foundation for the Climate and Environment | KIESERLING Foundation | Pranjal Kothari | Monika und Gerd-Rüdiger Kück | Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Lautmann | Luers Foundation | MLP Finanzberatung SE | Conrad Naber Foundation | Peter Franz Neelmeyer Foundation | OLB Foundation | POELLATH | Wolfgang Ritter Foundation | Rosenxt Group | Rotary Club Bremen-Hansa | Rotary Club Syke | Rotary Club Bremen-Weser | Fabian Rühlicke | Schopf Family Foundation | Nancy and Dr. Geza Schrauf | Seifert Logistik Bremen GmbH | Sparkasse Bremen AG | University of Bremen Foundation | Tandler Foundation | team neusta GmbH | Prof. Dr. Eva Rieger | Reinter Thöle | Ute Treptow | Bremer Umweltstiftung GmbH | VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH | Gerda-Weßler Foundation | Frits and Dorothea Witte Foundation | Veronika and Karsten Zill Family

…and several donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/cooperation/grants-and-sponsorships/the-deutschlandstipendium
https://www.deutschlandstipendium.de/de/english-1700.html

Contact:

Dr. Jasmin Overberg
UniTransfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 / 218-60333
Email: jasmin.overberg@vw.uni-bremen.de

Application for Excellence: “Northwest Alliance: Connecting for Tomorrow”
 

The universities of Bremen and Oldenburg have been working together for decades. Earlier this year, they formed the Northwest Alliance (NWA) and in November submitted the joint application for excellence entitled “Northwest Alliance: Connecting for Tomorrow.” Their vision is to develop the Northwest into a vibrant scientific region, creating ideal conditions for future-oriented cutting-edge research and teaching, and redefining the relationship between university and society. 
 

“With the submission of the application for a network of excellence of our two universities, an important milestone has been reached,” emphasizes Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen. “Now that this first step has been taken, it is time for the process to take shape. For this, we need all members and status groups of our universities. The different perspectives are very important to us, because it is about strategically positioning the universities for the next generation of scientists.”
 

“Our two universities complement and strengthen each other in an excellent way – this also benefits the entire northwest region. Now it is important to further expand our network and convince international experts of the high quality of our cooperation,” says Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder, President of the University of Oldenburg.
The members of the two Academic Senates intensively discussed the next steps: the further development of the Excellence Consortium as well as the inspection of the Northwest Alliance by the experts of the German Council of Science and Humanities in April. 
 

Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg important partner of the Northwest Alliance  
 

The two universities regularly choose the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst as the location for strategic consultations, but this is not only due to geographical considerations. The HWK plays an important role in their shared history and in the Northwest Alliance. Its internationally oriented fellowship and postdoctoral programs promote both existing scientific focuses and new areas of research.  
If the application of the Northwest Alliance is successful, Bremen and Oldenburg will receive funding for their strategic future concept beginning in 2027. A decision will be made in October 2026.
 

Further Information:
 

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/profile/mission-statement

https://uol.de/en/excellencestrategy  
https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

https://www.exzellenzstrategie.de/en/

The DAAD Prize for outstanding achievements by international students at German universities is awarded annually by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), with the goal of helping to put faces to the many international students at German universities and to connect them with stories.

Helena Montalvo has been studying Hispanics and Art – Media and Aesthetic Education at the University of Bremen since 2020. She wrote her bachelor's thesis on the lesser-known autofictional novel “Huaco Retrato” by the Peruvian author Gabriela Wiener. She has also worked with Julia Borst on various projects as a student assistant since 2022.

Commitment to the Immigration Office and the Feminist Collective

In addition to her studies, Helena Montalvo worked at the Bremen Immigration Office, where she was particularly committed to the interests of other immigrants. In addition, she is co-founder of the feminist collective “La Cigarra Kollektiv” in Bremen, which is made up of young people from Abya Yala (the indigenous term for the American continents). The collective organizes regular events with a focus on feminism, transnational solidarity, and migration.

“Especially in troubled times, we need individuals who take responsibility and promote cohesion – across cultural and social boundaries. Helena Montalvo embodies these values in an impressive way. The DAAD Prize makes her great commitment visible,” said Mandy Boehnke, Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity.

The DAAD Prize was awarded as part of the Christmas Jamboree, organized by the International Office. International students and researchers were invited to a year-end reflection that included singing Christmas carols and networking. 

Further Information:

https://www.daad.de/en/the-daad/what-we-do/prizes-awards/daad-prize/

Contact:

Maife Wandemberg
International Student Marketing and Advisory Services for International Students and Prospective Students
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60378
Email: maife.wandemberg@vw.uni-bremen.de

Panel speakers include:

• Sarah-Lee Heinrich (social justice activist, author, political educator)
• Dr. Petra Kodré (Director of the Department of Social Affairs and the State Welfare Agency in Bremen)
• Christoph Seelmann (IG Metall Bremen)
• Prof. Dr. Patrick Sachweh (RISC, Bremen Section)

Moderator: Rebecca C. Schmidt

The event is part of RISC’s nationwide series “Cohesion is...” The institute has been conducting interdisciplinary research on social cohesion since 2020, is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and operates its own research data center.

Following the discussion, there will be a meet & greet with an opportunity for exchange and networking. Entry is free, but please register on the website to secure a spot: https://db.intranet.fgz-risc.de/forms/nkkQqp9VUSynWDVjZeJ2Uj/4

Further Information:

https://fgz-risc.de/en/

https:www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Kristin Voigtländer
Press & Public Relations
The Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC)
Tel. +49 341 97-37762
E-Mail: presse@fgz-risc.de

Tests on 3D Networks at Bremen's Drop Tower

At the University of Bremen, the Communications Engineering research group within the Faculty of Physics/Electrical Engineering, headed by Professor Armin Dekorsy, was involved in the project. Researchers conducted specific tests to determine how a three-dimensional network could function. The team installed satellite hardware on the 146-meter-high Drop Tower, along with base stations and rovers on the ground and drones in the air. Dekorsy's team was able to show that a drone automatically takes over communication with a rover when the rover loses its connection to the terrestrial base station.

Research partners were also able to demonstrate that edge computing is possible in non-terrestrial networks. This means, for example, that autonomous vehicles can transfer their data to flying objects such as drones or satellites for processing or storage, thereby reducing the complexity of the autonomous vehicles. 

Close Cooperation with Mobile Communications and Aerospace Industries

Another aspect that two research partners focused on concerns the connection between drones and the ground-based core network. To this end, the partner team developed and tested new antennas that are particularly good at bundling, are lightweight, and can be easily moved. They also developed methods to ensure that the ground station antennas are automatically aligned with the drones as they move.

"In the 6G-TakeOff project, we not only developed numerous innovative technologies, but also validated their practical suitability using a wide variety of demonstration models. Thanks to close cooperation with the mobile communications and aerospace industries, we have laid the necessary groundwork for the technologies developed to be implemented in products and systems, with a view to improving service continuity, resilience, and capacity where needed using a future 6G system," says Armin Dekorsy.

The 6G-TakeOff closing event took place at DHI in Bremen on November 26 and 27. Numerous presentations and demonstrations provided representatives from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and the two Bremen ministerial offices of economics and science, as well as numerous guests from industry, with information about the project's results and important insights for future strategic orientations.

Further Information:

https://www.6g-takeoff.de/

Contact:

Prof. Armin Dekorsy
Head of the Communications Engineering research group
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62400
Email: dekorsy@ant.uni-bremen.de

Professor Maren Petersen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies, warmly congratulated the laureates: “Good teaching has a long-term impact, is vibrant, and remains a formative experience for students throughout their educational journey. It is creative and adaptable – and enriches the University of Bremen with sustainable learning impulses and a lively academic community.”
The competition was particularly strong this year: 172 nominations were submitted in the Good Teaching category and 113 in the Student Prize category. The selection committee consisted of teaching staff members, university staff, and students.

Good Teaching: Barbara Aehnlich Teaches in a Practice-Oriented and Appreciative Manner

The jury emphasized that the seminars led by linguist Barbara Aehnlich are practice-oriented, transparent, and cross-disciplinary, and that the concept is well thought out for the long term. The students stressed that she “is constantly refining her seminars and exams.” Barbara Aehnlich is a university lecturer who is always approachable for all students and very keen to receive feedback. Criticism is something she is open to. “She creates a pleasant seminar atmosphere in which learning together is central,” commented the students. They also praised her appreciative treatment of students. The university lecturer also devotes herself to a subject that tends to be underrepresented in schools: historical linguistics. “She tackles the subject head-on and works with students to develop possible topics for lessons and lesson sequences that can be used in schools.”
 

Student Prize: Ulrike Flader Promotes Creative Learning Through Dialogue

The jury was impressed by how Ulrike Flader “reduces fears and promotes dialogue." Her understanding of good teaching is based on the fundamental idea that creative and sustainable learning is a collective process. The cultural scientist supports dialogue and encourages students to engage in conversation without fear. The jury was also impressed by how she addresses the topic of internationalization and implements it in her teaching in a practical way. The students, who perceive their university lecturer as very committed, particularly highlighted the cooperation with Rojava and Kurdish students, which opens up beneficial perspectives. The opportunity for exchange by means of digital teaching was rated particularly positively. Ulrike Flader thus supports “international exchange on an academic and personal level.”

Student Prize: Julia Stern Combines Professional Competence and an Appreciative Attitude

The jury was impressed by the fact that all students assessed Ms. Stern's teaching with the top grade. In her classes, she takes an international approach and makes use of full accessibility. The students emphasized how structured the courses are and how flexible their university lecturer is in her teaching. “Julia Stern combines outstanding teaching skills, innovative teaching methods, and a high level of professional competence with an open and appreciative attitude toward her students,” praised the jury. Her teaching is clearly structured, hands-on, and interactive. She creates a trusting learning atmosphere and contributes to a positive academic experience.
 

About the Berninghausen Prize

Since 1991, the University of Bremen and the “unifreunde” Association of the Friends of the University of Bremen and Constructor University have awarded the prize, donated by the Berninghausen family, annually to honor special achievements in university teaching. The prize is endowed with 6,000 euros and is distributed across several categories. All members of the university can nominate teaching staff members for the Good Teaching prize; only students are eligible to nominate teaching staff members for the Student Prize. 
 

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/preis-fuer-gute-lehre/the-award

During the demonstration in the Technology Park, the project members were able to show how sensors, communication, and mathematical control work together to create a safe, networked system.

Professor Christof Büskens, project leader at the University of Bremen, says, “In the MUTIG-VORAN project, we ourselves took a courageous step forward by successfully implementing interdisciplinary research in a practical, application-oriented manner. Bremen thereby connects science and practice for the mobility of the future and creates theories that propel progress instead of hindering it.”

What is special about this is that the algorithms were adapted so that they don’t only work on a specified test platform, but can be transferred to other areas, such as other research vehicles, rovers, or lawnmowers.

Successful Test Drive Through the Technology Park

One of the things the test drive demonstrated, was successful communication with modernized traffic light signals. The signals are now equipped with V2X technology (vehicle-to-everything), which allows vehicles to read the current status of traffic lights in real time. The drive also presented the connection to the recently completed safety control center – a further step in creating safe, networked mobility.

The project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, combined expertise from industrial mathematics, artificial intelligence, and communications engineering. The collaboration between the participating partners impressively demonstrated how interdisciplinary research can lead to practical solutions.

Combining Expertise to Create Highly Complex Solutions

The University of Bremen’s Department of Communication Engineering (ANT) focused on mobile communication and developed new methods to improve 5G systems for use in automated vehicles. This included researching methods to collectively localize and communicate as well as building a portable campus network that can be used in other test areas in the future. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Bockelmann, research group leader at ANT, explains, “Uninterrupted connectivity is mandatory for self-driving cars in the future. 5G, and in the future 6G, can ensure the connection to the remote control center and facilitate data transfers between cars. In addition, the communication system will in the future offer localization services and thereby support self-driving cars.”

The TOPAS Industriemathematik gGmbH was responsible for building the test drive vehicles. The researchers also contributed their expertise in creating digital twins for safety and testing purposes and were responsible for controlling the cars. They transferred the theoretically developed control procedures into functioning systems that operate safely and reliably in real-world conditions. “Mathematical optimization is the key to enabling vehicles to make correct, split-second decisions. The combination of simulation, modeling, and practical testing was particularly exciting,” said Dr.-Ing. Mitja Echim, managing director of TOPAS.

Sensors Detect Obstacles in Road Traffic

For a vehicle to truly understand its environment, it must be able to intelligently combine data from multiple sensors. This was the focus of the University of Bremen’s Cognitive Neuroinformatics working group in this project. In addition, the researchers developed procedures for localization, mapping, recognizing other road users, and strategic decision-making. “Sensor fusion and strategic decision-making are two central components of autonomous driving,” emphasized Dr.-Ing. Joachim Clemens from the Cognitive Neuroinformatics working group. “Sensor fusion determines the position of the vehicle and provides information about the environment, such as obstacles and other road users. It forms the basis for all the vehicle’s actions. Strategic decision-making takes over the high-level planning.” This includes, for example, intelligent route planning and optimal processing of transport orders.

The Optimization and Optimal Control research group at the University of Bremen brought their expertise in the field of tactical decision-making to the table which involves short-term decisions during the journey, such as choosing a lane, braking, or avoiding obstacles.

Further Information:
 

Project video: https://youtu.be/XD2Ky4FAENM?si=HEM98DfWULkSjnHZ

Press release about the Safety Control Center and modernized traffic light system: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/university-communication-and-marketing/all-news/details/intelligent-safety-for-autonomous-shuttles-safety-control-center-project-celebrates-successful-completion-feiert-erfolgreichen-projektabschluss

Contact:
 

Prof. Dr. Christof Büskens
Center for Industrial Mathematics
Optimization and Optimal Control Research Group 
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218 63861
Email: bueskens@uni-bremen.de

If you cannot attend the show or would like to see even more experiments afterwards, you can look forward to a physics advent calendar. From December 1 to 24, Justus Notholt will present additional physics experiments every other day on the university’s YouTube channel.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/faculty-1-physics-electrical-engineering/transfer-for-schools/pre-christmas-physics-show

https://www.youtube.com/user/Universitaetbremen

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Justus Notholt
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-62190
Email: jnotholt@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de

“We are thrilled about this outstanding success for our university and its partner institutions,” commented Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen. “Over the past eight years, CRC 1342 has established itself as a renowned institution that will now continue to be able to make an important contribution to its interdisciplinary research area for another four years.”

Collaborative Research Centers are among the largest and most important research networks supported by the DFG. CRC 1342 began its work in 2018. In addition to SOCIUM as the anchor institute, CRC 1342 involves other research institutes and facilities at the University of Bremen, Constructor University Bremen, Bielefeld University, Marburg University, the University of Bamberg, the University of Mannheim, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. Several non-university research institutes are also participating, including the Research Centre for East European Studies and the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM).

In 13 subprojects, around 80 researchers from the fields of political science, sociology, history, geography, law, and computer science are investigating the global effectiveness of state-sponsored social policy. The two funding phases have so far resulted in hundreds of publications in international, peer-reviewed journals, in the form of monographs, anthologies, and policy briefs.

In the third phase, which will begin in January 2026, two project areas will examine how social programs contribute to improving social living conditions and support political integration. In project area A, six subprojects will investigate how social policy affects social and political structures worldwide. In area B, six further subprojects will analyze the social and political consequences of social policy measures in selected countries and regions of the world. The Information Infrastructure Project (INF) will further expand the Global Welfare State Information System (WeSIS). The web-based, interactive system went online in the second funding phase and has been available to researchers and the public free of charge ever since.

Further Information:

www.socialpolicydynamics.de/en/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Markus Tepe
University of Bremen
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Phone: +49 421 218-58520
Email: markus.tepe@uni-bremen.de

Research with Large Datasets – A Multidisciplinary Phenomenon

Researching with large datasets is no longer limited to fields such as statistics and computer science, but has become a common practice in language and cultural sciences, history, and other fields as well. This is due to the role of modern technologies and digitalization in making increasing amounts of data from various sources available, including mobile networks, location data, open government city data, and health apps.

To sustainably strengthen data-intensive and digitally supported research, researchers are advocating for reliable and long-term funding for central institutions such as data and digital science centers. Currently, financing for these centers is often project-based, as seen in the eleven data competence centers supported by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

Researchers are urging policymakers to explicitly consider data and digital science in federal and state-funded research, digital, and innovation strategies, and to provide support through long-term funding programs.

Stronger Focus on Digital and Data Science in Research and Teaching

To supplement these political considerations, researchers are advocating for a stronger focus on digital and data science in research and teaching. This includes equipping digital and data science centers with the resources they need. The researchers believe that this would enable the provision of data and digital science services, including consultations, data management, and data analysis support, as well as facilitate collaborations between centers at different locations.

Furthermore, the researchers are emphasizing the importance of teaching data and digital literacy, which involves the ability to work with large datasets. They recommend providing broad support for this effort, including didactic and expert support for teachers, to ensure that competent use of data is taught in interdisciplinary courses across various degree programs. This would require collaboration between technical and non-technical disciplines.

Data and Digital Science at the University of Bremen

Since 2019, the University of Bremen has had its own interdisciplinary institute for data-based research, the Data Science Center (DSC). The university’s data-related competence and activities are bundled and developed here. The center aids in networking researchers across disciplinary boundaries, strengthening their data skills, and creating the requirements for sustainable, data-based research in all academic areas.

In its role as a central contact point, the DSC offers a range of services for researchers, including consultations, training, financial support, and computing resources, and serves as a partner in data-based research projects. The DSC is also home to the competence center DataNord, which is led by the University of Bremen in collaboration with other Bremen partner institutions, with Rolf Drechsler as one of the spokespersons. Since 2023, DataNord has received over 3.5 million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space.

Further Information:

Link to Position Paper: https://zenodo.org/records/17475528 (in German only)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/data-science-center

https://dadisc.org/ (in German only, under construction)

https://www.bremen-research.de/en/datanord    

Contact: 

Dr. Lena Steinmann
Data Science Center Coordinator
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (421) 218 - 63941
Email: lena.steinmann@uni-bremen.de

During their welcoming speeches, Dr. Henrike Müller (Senator for Environment, Climate, and Science), Professor Michal Kucera (Vice President for Research and Transfer at the University of Bremen), and Dr. Georg Mecke (unifreunde chairperson) praised the laureates’ notable achievements.

“Excellent research thrives on a diversity of perspectives. This diversity helps us avoid distortions and blind spots because even academia is not immune to bias. In light of this, I am particularly pleased about the diversity of our laureates today, in terms of their topics, disciplines, personal backgrounds, and university affiliations. This diversity is an asset, and it is much needed. In today’s complex world, we must tackle the multiple challenges with a diverse range of knowledge, innovative approaches, and the boldness to ask new questions,” said Michal Kucera.

Henrike Müller added: “The current era of rapid change demands that science play a more prominent and influential role than ever before. It provides guidance and develops solutions for a future worth living. Excellent science is the result of dedicated, curious, and motivated people. You, dear laureates, are among the most outstanding young researchers that our universities have produced. You are shaping this time of change, serving as a compass and providing new impetus. My sincere congratulations on your outstanding work.”

Georg Mecke emphasized: “Dear laureates, you have demonstrated what excellence means through your work. Rather than settling for the obvious, you delved deeper into your respective topics, thought further, combined new ideas, and reflected critically. Academic success is never a coincidence. We know the path you took was not always easy. Often, it required you to go the extra mile. These qualities are important far beyond academic life and will serve as a valuable foundation for your future.”

The winners of the Bremen Thesis Award are:

Dr. Sarina Niedzwiedz from the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry at the University of Bremen – dissertation entitled “The Dark Side of Polar Day – The influence of coastal run-off on Arctic kelp communities”'

Enna Gerhard from the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer at the University of Bremen – master’s thesis entitled “Solving the Directed Feedback Vertex Set Problem in Theory and Practice”                                          

Dr. David Karpa from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Bremen – dissertation entitled “The Political Economy of Digital Repression”

Paul-Frederik Siemer from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bremen – master’s thesis entitled: “Kommunismus im Nebensatz: Gedenkstätten auf TikTok zwischen Emotionalisierung und Tabuisierung” (Communism in Subordinate Clauses: Memorial Sites on TikTok: Between Emotionalization and Tabooization)

Dr. Jan David Brüwer from the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry at the University of Bremen – dissertation, “Using fluorescence in situ hybridization to study intracellular properties", special prize from Bruker Daltonics GmbH & Co. KG

Dr. Thomas Eßmeyer (formerly Mildner) from the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science at the University of Bremen – dissertation entitled "MITIGATING DARK PATTERNS THROUGH RESPONSIBLE DESIGN – Ethical Design Consideration for User-Centred Technologies”

Chukwuemeka Achugo from Constructor University – master’s thesis entitled  “Generating Test Oracles with Generative AI”

Dr. Tridib Banerjee from Conctructor University – dissertation entitled “Numerical mixing across density surfaces in ocean modelling”

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/forschung/foerderangebote-service/ausschreibungen/zentrale-forschungsfoerderung-zf/bremer-studienpreis (in German only)

Contact:

Julia Böttjer
Central Event Management
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218 60118
Email: Julia.boettjer@vw.uni-bremen.de

Five Climate Types

The researchers have identified five groups: the determined (18%), the concerned (18%), the agreeable (31%), the indifferent (25%), and the rejecters (8%).
The rejecters criticize climate policy and fear economic consequences. The determined are convinced of the urgency of comprehensive measures. In between stand the concerned. They share the climate awareness of the determined – and the economic concerns of the rejecters. This makes them a key group.

Climate Policy Must Take Social Inequalities into Account

The concerned could support the transformation – if their social concerns are taken seriously. The willingness among the population is there: 53 percent are convinced that a fundamental change in the economic system is needed to combat climate change. The determined and the concerned are united in their demand for redistribution and social equality.

Small Group, Big Impact

The 8 percent who reject climate policy are politically active. Their positions are disseminated on social media – often with misinformation. This could be one reason why 70 percent fear that climate policy will exacerbate social conflicts. “If the attitude of those who reject climate policy is considered widespread, ambitious climate policy appears to be a threat to social cohesion,” says Olaf Groh-Samberg.

Unique Dataset

The Cohesion Report uses various data sources to analyze social cohesion. The representative study “German Social Cohesion Panel” (SCP) is based on a survey of over 8,000 people throughout Germany, which was conducted at the end of 2022. The results reflect key social constellations, the development of which are continuously monitored and evaluated. Current data provides confirmation that climate protection continues to be a high priority for the population. "Our data allows us to analyze attitudes toward climate change among the population not only in relation to the socio-demographic background of the respondents. We can also link them to socio-political attitudes, experiences of cohesion in everyday life, and trust in political institutions," explains co-editor Dr. Nils Teichler from the University of Bremen. 

About the Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ)

The Research Institute Social Cohesion (FGZ) is an interdisciplinary, knowledge-transfer-oriented, and geographically distributed institute. It was established in 2020 and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). The FGZ combines basic research on social cohesion with application-oriented research on current challenges from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. To support its work, the FGZ has set up its own research data center (FDZ), which collects, documents, and disseminates data.

Further Information: 

The complete Cohesion Report is available for download (in German only) here: https://fgz-risc.de/zweiter-zusammenhaltsbericht

Climate Type Calculator: The FGZ offers a climate type calculator: What climate type are you? What connects you to others? www.fgz-risc.de/klimatypenrechner
https://fgz-risc.de/en/

Contact:

Kristin Voigtländer
Press and Public Relations
Research Institute Social Cohesion
Phone: +49 341 97-37762
Email: presse@fgz-risc.de

Business Concepts Category

The prize in the Business Concepts category, worth 7,500 euros, was won by the M-Shunt team consisting of Sven Clausner, Hauke Lutzen, and Vladimir Polezhaev (University of Bremen). The M-Shunt team is raising power engineering to the level of modern power electronics with a patented sensor that records extremely fast switching processes precisely and without interference – for use in networks, converters, and test benches for quality assurance, predictive maintenance, and early fault detection in the production process.

Business Ideas Category

In the Business Ideas category, first place and a prize worth 2,500 euros went to Marta Backowska, Maik Bleckmann, and Oskar Glenz (Bremen City University of Applied Sciences). The Fiber Motion fiber winding machine enables cost-effective and flexible production of complex carbon fiber components with only two axes. It is aimed at development departments and research institutes and saves weight, costs, and development time through the use of 3D-printed molds.

Second place, worth 1,500 euros, was awarded to Thomas Schweizer (University of Bremen) for ApisKeep, which is a newly developed device for controlling Varroa mites that enables precise, automated formic acid treatment of bee colonies. Thanks to real-time sensor technology and controlled evaporation, it is significantly more effective, safer, and more user-friendly than conventional methods.

Impact Award Category

The prize in the Impact Award category, worth 2,500 euros, went to the Neurodiversity AI team – Timm Bölke and Bianca Holtschke (University of the Arts Bremen). Neurodiversity AI is an individualized AI assistant for neurodivergent adults – developed by individuals on the autism spectrum. As a “translator,” Neurodiversity AI makes subtext visible, prepares meetings, and structures to-do lists into manageable steps. This creates space for authentic participation in work, study, and everyday life.

Audience Award

The Audience Award, worth 500 euros, was won by the Electra Sweep team. Arathy Rajendran Nair and Divin Raj Sundararaj (Bremen University of Applied Sciences) use innovative electrostatic technology to actively remove small, hard-to-detect space debris and protect satellites from collisions in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.

The award ceremony took place on November 12 in the Banking Hall at Domshof. Prizes totaling 14,500 euros were awarded. The first two places in the Business Ideas category and first place in the Business Concepts, Impact Award, and Audience Award categories were honored. The Impact Award was presented for the first time in 2025 to a start-up project that has developed innovative solutions to social challenges.

About CAMPUSiDEEN 2025

CAMPUSiDEEN is one of the most successful idea competitions at German universities and has received over 900 start-up ideas in 22 years. In 2025, CAMPUSiDEEN is supported by the following partners: AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven, Bremer Aufbau-Bank, Bremen Chamber of Commerce – IHK for Bremen and Bremerhaven, Nachtwey IP, Sparkasse Bremen, and Stiftung Bremer Wertpapierbörse.

About BRIDGE

BRIDGE is the central point of contact for students, alumni, and members of Bremen's universities when it comes to starting a business. The BRIDGE university network is sponsored by the University of Bremen (office in the UniTransfer Unit), Bremen City University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, the University of the Arts Bremen, Constructor University, and Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH. BRIDGE has set itself the goal of improving the start-up climate at all participating universities and supporting promising ideas with business potential at an early stage.

Further Information:

https://bridge-online.de/en/campusideen

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/cooperation/business-start-up

Contact:

Meike Goos and Fabian Oestreicher
BRIDGE
UniTransfer Unit
University of Bremen
Email: meike.goos@vw.uni-bremen.de
fabian.oestreicher@vw.uni-bremen.de

The comparatively young University of Bremen and University of Oldenburg have developed in a remarkable way: Founded in the early 1970s as reform universities, they are now among the strongest German universities in terms of research – especially when measured by their size. They were recently very successful in the first part of the federal and state governments' current Excellence Strategy funding line: A total of four Clusters of Excellence will be based at the two universities over the next seven years – including the “The Ocean Floor” cluster, a joint research project. Now Oldenburg and Bremen want to impress in the second Excellence Strategy funding line and are applying as a University Excellence Consortium. To be eligible, a consortium must have at least three approved Clusters of Excellence.

In addition to the two federal states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, the excellence consortium will also uniquely connect two countries: Germany and the Netherlands. This is made possible by the strategic partnership with the University of Groningen, with which both universities already have a long-standing and trusting relationship.

"Our strengths in research, but also in teaching and knowledge and technology transfer, complement each other perfectly. This creates great potential for us to better explore today's profound social, cultural, and technological upheavals and develop solutions. We want to explicitly combine academic expertise with practical knowledge from a wide range of areas of society," says Prof. Dr. Ralph Bruder, President of the University of Oldenburg. With this approach, the alliance aims to become a model for dynamic and sustainable universities.

The universities of Bremen and Oldenburg have been working closely together for 25 years. Last year, the senates of both universities met jointly and unanimously voted in favor of submitting the proposal. “We took advantage of this momentum,” says Prof. Dr. Jutta Günter, President of the University of Bremen. "We want to contribute to solving global challenges through excellent research and social responsibility. In a world in transition, we are placing our focus on cohesion and networking – in the northwest and with our partners worldwide. ‘Connecting for Tomorrow’ is both a daily task and a mission for us," says Günther.

The two universities recently renewed their cooperation agreement, thereby extending their long-term strategic collaboration in areas such as teaching, research, and knowledge transfer. They also founded the Northwest Alliance (NWA) at the beginning of the year, creating an additional framework for a shared research and knowledge transfer space. The goal is to raise the international profile of the cutting-edge research concentrated in the northwest, providing important impetus for the region.

Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science Henrike Müller commented: “The northwest is an important scientific location. Four Clusters of Excellence in the region are already proof of this. Together, we want to achieve even more and are breaking new ground to do so. With this joint proposal, we are not only connecting two federal states in the northwest, but also integrating exceptional partners from the neighboring Netherlands in the form of the University of Groningen. The scientific community is finding the answers for a worthwhile future and by joining forces, we will be able to find the most effective solutions.”

Lower Saxony's Minister of Science, Falko Mohrs, emphasized: “The universities of Oldenburg and Bremen have enjoyed a close and successful partnership for many years. Research and teaching complement each other perfectly and the fact that these strengths are now to be combined in a joint excellence consortium is a strong signal that I – and the state of Lower Saxony – wholeheartedly support. The planned intensification of international cooperation will further strengthen the northwest as a scientific hub and create significant added value for the entire region."

Numerous Participants from Both Universities and States

Numerous employees from both universities, from the academic and administrative sectors, have worked intensively for around a year on the proposal. Speaking with students also played an important role in this process. Günther and Bruder agree that a joint proposal as a consortium comprising two universities in different federal states was a challenge, but also a huge opportunity. “We mastered it so well because we were able to build on the strengths of our long-standing partnership and because there is widespread support at both universities. Everyone involved has done an excellent job – for which we owe them our sincere thanks.” 

Background: Federal and State Excellence Strategy

The federal and state Excellence Strategy is divided into two funding instruments that build on each other: the promotion of internationally outstanding cutting-edge research as Clusters of Excellence and the institutional funding of universities that are home to several Clusters of Excellence as Universities of Excellence or University Excellence Consortia.

The decision regarding the funding of 70 Clusters of Excellence nationwide was made on May 22. Starting January 1, 2026, a total of four Clusters of Excellence will receive seven years of funding at the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg: Hearing4all.connects (hearing research / University of Oldenburg, MHH, and Leibniz University Hannover), The Martian Mindset (materials and production research / University of Bremen), NaviSense (animal navigation research / University of Oldenburg), and The Ocean Floor (marine research / University of Bremen and University of Oldenburg).

Universities and consortia that can demonstrate a convincing overall strategy for improving their position in the regional, national, and, in particular, international environment have a good chance of achieving the status of University of Excellence or University Excellence Consortium. This applies not only to research, but also to teaching, knowledge transfer, and research infrastructures.

The federal and state governments are providing a total of 208 million euros annually for the upcoming University of Excellence / University Excellence Consortium funding phase. The increase of 60 million euros compared to the current funding phase will make it possible to support up to 15 locations from 2027 onwards, instead of the previous 11.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/profile/excellence

https://uol.de/en/excellencestrategy

https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

https://www.exzellenzstrategie.de/en/

With the project “From baptism until death. Personal occasional writings at Bremen State and University Library (16th until 19th century). Indexing and digitisation” the DFG is supporting the indexing and digitization of occasional writings related to Bremen’s history. The project will run from 2025 to 2028, and the documents will be made available gradually. Some titles are already available within the SuUB's digital collection: https://brema.suub.uni-bremen.de/?lang=en

Documents as Windows into the Past

Most of the people mentioned in these documents lived and worked in Bremen. “These writings are like windows into the past that we can open to learn about life in Bremen long before our time,” says Anne Harnisch, who is head of the project. This type of source contains a wealth of material, especially on the lives of women about whom there are otherwise few written records.

The prints and manuscripts are stored in the library’s historical collections and as part of the project being processed, scanned, and made available to the public in the SuUB’s digital collections. In this way, they complement the existing range of full texts. In addition to meta data, an index of persons, and a calendar search, further filter options will be available in the future for more convenient searching.

Further Information:

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/catalogs-and-collections-/rare-books/

Contact:

Anne Harnisch
Head of the DFG project on Personal Occasional Writings (16^th-19^th Century)
State and University Library Bremen
Phone: +49 421 21859573
Email: anne.harnisch@suub.uni-bremen.de

Of the problem gamblers surveyed in outpatient gambling addiction counseling in Lower Saxony, almost one in three people who had multiple counseling contacts reported that advertising had a rather strong to very strong influence on their decision to start gambling (147 out of 529 valid responses). A similarly high proportion stated that advertising had a strong influence on their continued participation in gambling (126 out of 378 valid responses). “These figures speak for themselves,” states Tim Brosowski, one of the study’s authors. “Many of those affected experience advertising not only as an entry point, but also as a decisive factor in the continuation of harmful gambling behavior.”

Digital advertising channels were particularly influential. Among those who felt (rather) strongly influenced, most named internet advertising (63 percent), followed by social media campaigns (51 percent) and personalized advertising (44 percent). "It is precisely this digital communication that many experience as a key factor in maintaining problematic gambling behavior," emphasizes Tobias Hayer, head of the Gambling Research Unit at the University of Bremen.

According to the authors, the correlation with educational level is also striking. People with a higher level of formal education reported significantly more often that advertising – especially on social media, the internet, or in the form of personalized offers – played a role in both their initial involvement and their continued participation. Among other things, TV advertising was also cited as an influencing factor more often than average by those with a higher level of education.

Online formats play a particularly important role here: Those who say they feel encouraged to gamble by gambling advertising report problems with online gambling services significantly more often – especially with online slot machines, poker, sports betting, or classic casino table games like roulette and blackjack. Classic slot machines in arcades or restaurants, on the other hand, are mentioned less frequently. Video games involving money, such as loot boxes, virtual treasure chests with random contents, also play a greater role in this context.

“From an addiction prevention perspective, this is highly relevant,” explains Tobias Hayer. “Regulations on advertising should not only address initial contact and prohibit any enticing offers, such as opaque bonuses, but also take the influence on the risk of relapse and the continuation of problematic gambling seriously.”

The “Client Documentation of Outpatient Gambling Addiction Counseling in Lower Saxony” is a data compilation from outpatient gambling addiction counseling. The current evaluation is based on 876 documented cases from 2024, which were systematically recorded by specialists at 24 counseling centers in the state – including both people with their own gambling problems and their relatives. The documentation is compiled annually on behalf of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sport and Digitalisation and provides a comprehensive snapshot of the situation regarding outpatient gambling addiction counseling. When interpreting the results, however, it should be noted that the information is based on self-assessments made during counseling sessions, that the individuals surveyed represent a specific clientele, and that the analysis cannot prove any direct cause-and-effect relationships.

Further Information:

https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/entities/publication/275dc049-6c9f-4b65-adfe-27bd2013d769

https://www.uni-bremen.de

Fragen beantwortet

Dr. Tim Bastian Brosowski
Gambling Research Unit
University of Bremen
Email: timbro@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-68710

The Synergy Grant is part of the EU’s Horizon Europe funding program for research and innovation and is one of the highest honors for excellent international research that brings great visibility to projects worldwide. FireSpace will receive around 14 million euros in funding, 5.3 million euros of which will go to the University of Bremen. The funding, which will be distributed over six years, will enable the implementation of several research positions, the acquisition of technical equipment, the use of experimental infrastructures, and face-to-face scientific exchange between the participating institutions.

Success After Intensive Application Process

The FireSpace consortium consists of Bart Merci (principal investigator) from Ghent University, Serge Bourbigot (corresponding principal investigator) from Centrale Lille Intitut, Guillaume Legros (principal investigator) from Sorbonne Université and Florian Meyer (principal investigator) from the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen. Florian Meyer is the head of the Combustion Engineering research group at ZARM. Since June 2023, he has been collaborating with colleagues from France and Belgium on an application for a Synergy Grant. Upon completion of the complex application process, the team traveled to Brussels in September 2025 to present the project and the intensive cooperation between the participating institutes in person. "The amount of work involved was enormous and the probability of being selected out of 712 applications was low," says Meyer. "Today, of course, we are glad that we believed in our project and we are incredibly proud to receive such a prestigious award."

Joint Research for Greater Safety in Space

FireSpace focuses on combustion processes and fire safety strategies under space conditions. The ZARM team has conducted experiments in previous projects, for example in the Bremen Drop Tower, some with support from the German Space Agency at DLR. They were able to prove that an increased oxygen concentration in spacecraft atmospheres, as planned for future space missions, can significantly increase the risk of fire. The international partners further this research by developing new types of fire-retardant materials and investigating innovative fire mitigation methods, for example with the use of acoustic waves. They are also conducting detailed numerical simulations to scale the results to the dimensions of spacecraft and various habitats. Thanks to the funding, the team will now be able to conduct additional experiments in the Bremen Drop Tower, on parabolic flights, and on sounding rockets. This project is unique because the close cooperation between the partner institutions will ensure that the results are directly comparable and transferable. "With the Synergy Grant, we will achieve results that would not have been possible in individual projects," Meyer emphasizes. “Our long-term goal is to establish a secure basis for an improved fire safety strategy for astronautical exploration.”

Contact: 

Scientific Contact: Dr.-Ing. Florian Meyer
Email: florian.meyer@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Press Contact: Jasmin Plättner
Phone: +49 421 218-57794
Email: jasmin.plaettner@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Under the title “From Freedom to Security? The Third Refounding of the EU,” ("Von der Freiheit zur Sicherheit? Die dritte Neugründung der EU") Patel argues that the European project has changed dramatically over the last four decades. He compares two periods: the first from the mid-1980s to the end of the 2000s and the second to the present. While European integration in the first period was primarily aimed at liberalization and freedom, since the end of the 2000s, a comprehensive security concept has come to the fore. This concept encompasses both securing existing institutions against internal and external threats and ensuring security in an increasingly dangerous and unpredictable world. This approach and the risks, problems, and opportunities it entails can be discussed afterwards.

On Friday, leading experts from academia, business, politics, and civil society will explore the issues raised within closed-door panels and discussions. The focus will be on developing practical solutions that are relevant to both academia and society. The open exchange of different perspectives is central to this and the results of the discussions provide impetus for further debate on the topic.

Since 1988, the Bremen University Talks have promoted dialogue on current social issues. Forum at Domshof as a venue and the public kick-off event help to bring science out of the academic sphere and closer to the public.

Program

Thursday, November 13, 2025

Opening lecture at Forum at Domshof

Admission at 5:30 p.m.

“From Freedom to Security? The Third Refounding of the EU” (in German)

Prof. Dr. Kiran Klaus Patel, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/bug/bug-2025 (only available in German)

https://wolfgang-ritter-stiftung.de/2025/09/25/37-bremer-universitaetsgespraeche-wissenschaft-gesellschaft-und-praxis-im-dialog/ (only available in German)

www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Dr. Christina Jung
University of Bremen
UniTransfer
Phone: +49 421 218-60336
Email: christina.jungvw.uni-bremen.de

Monday, November 10, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Performance lecture at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art by Phoebe Boswell (London). Topic: We Are Memory and Earth and Freedom and Hope (in English)

Tuesday, November 11, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Lecture at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art by Eva Fodor (Vienna). Topic: Gender Justice under Soft Authoritarianism (in English)

Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.: Panel discussion and reception at the House of Science. Topic: 10 Years of Worlds of Contradiction: On the Topicality of Contradiction with Onur Erdur (Berlin, WOC visiting professor 2025), Stephan Lessenich (Frankfurt), and Rozena Maart (Durban), moderated by Ehler Voss (WOC) (in German). Please register at woc@uni-bremen.de

Thursday, November 13, 2025, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.: Book discussion at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art. Onur Erdur (Berlin, WOC visiting professor 2025) in conversation with Karen Struve and Ehler Voss (Bremen) about his book "Schule des Südens: Die kolonialen Wurzeln der französischen Theorie" (School of the South: The Colonial Roots of French Theory) (Matthes und Seitz 2024) (in German)

Friday, November 14, 2025, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: Early-Career Networking Workshop at the House of Science. Topic: Contradiction Studies: Relevance, Adaptations, and Perspectives (in German). Please register at woc@uni-bremen.de

Friday, November 14, 2025, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.: Panel discussion at the House of Science. Topic: How Contradictory Is Solidarity? With this year's winner of the Bremen Solidarity Award, Meseret Hadush (founder of the aid organization Hiwyet (Healing) in Tigray, Ethiopia), the members of the Board of Trustees of the Bremen Solidarity Award, Ernesto Harder (Bremen), Shalini Randeria (Vienna), Bernd Schleich (Bremen), and Ranabir Samaddar (Calcutta). Moderator: Alisha M.B. Heinemann (WOC) (in German)

Admission is free for all events.

WOC is organizing the festival in cooperation with the Bremen DFG Research Training Group 2686 Contradiction Studies; the Berlin DFG Research Training Group 2638 Normativity, Critique, Change; the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS); the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research (IfS); and the Bremen Senate Chancellery.

About WOC

Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research platform. Its goals include developing and conducting research projects, promoting early-career researchers, and transferring knowledge. With Contradiction Studies, WOC has developed its own research paradigm: Researchers examine concepts of contradiction in a series of different research projects. The aim is to go beyond the normative idea that contradictions must be resolved. Instead, WOC pursues an empirical approach to investigating the social and cultural productivity of contradictions. Among other things, WOC explores how and for what purpose contradictions are used, staged, and strategically addressed.

WOC is supported by five faculties at the University of Bremen: Law, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, Linguistics and Literary Studies, Pedagogy and Educational Sciences.

WOC regularly welcomes international visiting professors, including as part of the WOC Contradictions Festival: In November, Onur Erdur will be in Bremen as a 2025 WOC Visiting Professor. The historian and cultural scientist is currently a fellow in the “Applied Humanities” DFG Research Unit at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Onur Erdur is investigating questions of global intellectual history, with an area of focus on colonialism and migration. In 2024, he published his highly acclaimed book “Schule des Südens. Die kolonialen Wurzeln der französischen Theorie” (School of the South: The Colonial Roots of French Theory), which appeared on several non-fiction bestseller lists, including the “‘hotlist’ of the 10 most popular books from independent publishers. He will present this book at the WOC Contradictions Festival on November 13.

Further Information:

https://www.woc.uni-bremen.de/projects/10-jahre-woc-contradictions-festival/

Contact:

PD Dr. Ehler Voss
Director
Worlds of Contradiction (WOC)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68499
Email: ehler.voss@uni-bremen.de

The TEACH-AI project seeks to answer these questions. It will run for eleven months starting in November 2025 and is funded by the Foundation on German-American Academic Relations. Participants include Dr. Neli Heidari, lecturer of geography didactics at the University of Bremen, Dr. Arya Karumanthra, recent graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, and Dr. Asli Sezen-Barrie, professor of climate and environmental education at UC Irvine. The researchers are conducting the project with 20 teacher education students from both universities who are studying geography and environmental education for high schools.

Project Combines Strengths of Both Countries

The researchers are first analyzing how AI is currently being integrated into teacher education. They are also asking the prospective teachers what potential and challenges they associate with the use of AI in the classroom and what resources they need. The team will then develop digital teaching and learning modules to strengthen the AI literacy of teacher training students in specific subjects. These will be evaluated by students and integrated into teacher training in the long term.

“The project combines the strengths and potential of both countries in terms of the role of AI from a didactic perspective,” explains Neli Heidari. “In the US, AI education already has a high priority in the higher education system. At the same time, aspects such as education for sustainable development and climate change education are given greater priority in Germany. This transatlantic networking is particularly valuable in this respect, as our project allows both sides to benefit from each other.”

Contact:

Dr. Neli Heidari
Didactics of Geography
Institute of Geography
University of Bremen
Email: nheidari@uni-bremen.de
Phone:+49 (0)421 218-67111

The Foundation and Its Awards

The foundation of former HARIBO co-owner Dr. Hans Riegel is particularly committed to promoting education – always with the aim of helping young people shape their future. The Dr. Hans Riegel Awards are endowed with 600 euros each for first place, 400 euros for second place, and 200 euros for third place. Moreover, the schools of the first-place prize winners receive a non-cash prize of around 250 euros as a recognition of the teaching staff supervision of the pupils’ papers. The awards are awarded in cooperation with 15 German universities. Depending on the university, papers on natural sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics can be submitted.

Attracting Excellent Young Talent

The award winners from Bremen and Bremerhaven were honored at the award ceremony at the University of Bremen. Dr. Mandy Boehnke, Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity, congratulated them warmly and stated: “It is impressive to see so many innovative and future-oriented projects today, and we would be delighted to welcome you to our university as students. Be sure to maintain the curious spirit and critical attention that are essential for understanding an increasingly complex world and actively shaping a positive future.”

“The outstanding research projects impressively demonstrate the curiosity, diligence, and enthusiasm for research with which our pupils approach scientific questions. Congratulations to all the award winners!” commented Mark Rackles, Senator for Children and Education. He also emphasized the importance of the long-standing cooperation between the partners: “My thanks go to the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation and the University of Bremen for their support – they recognize the potential of young talent and thus make an important contribution to the future of our next generation of scientists. Of course, this successful cooperation between schools and the university would also not be possible without the commitment of teachers and university lecturers – they also deserve our special thanks.”

Beginning of Sustainable Support

Mareike Wolber, project manager at the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation, added: "I consider the Dr. Hans Riegel Awards to be an excellent example of the potential that young people possess and how valuable their perspective is on current and future challenges – whether that be sustainable energy supply on a large scale or more efficient exam planning at schools on a smaller scale. The award brings together young people with interests in a wide variety of STEM disciplines. They become part of the MINT TANK network, a long-standing, non-material support program that follows on from the Dr. Hans Riegel Awards. In this way, former award winners are encouraged to think outside the box and find guidance for their careers in STEM through networking and new ideas. The Dr. Hans Riegel Awards build bridges – between schools and universities, between teachers, students, and scientists. A big thank you goes to the University of Bremen, with whom we have had the privilege of organizing the competition for the ninth year in a row."

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/kooperationen/transfer-mit-schule/schuelerinnen-und-schueler/begabungsfoerderung/dr-hans-riegel-fachpreise

Contact:

Dr. Hanne Ballhausen
University of Bremen
Administrative Unit 16, UniTransfer
Phone: +49 421 218-57106
Email: hanne.ballhausen@vw.uni-bremen.de

Peter Laffin
Program Leader – Dr. Hans Riegel Awards
Phone: +49 228 227 447 15
Email: peter.laffin@hans-riegel-stiftung.com

Madeleine Breuer
Head of Public Relations
Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation
Phone: +49 228 227 447 23
Email: madeleine.breuer@hans-riegel-stiftung.com

The magazine is aimed at those involved in politics, business, science, and anyone who drives innovation in Bremen. It is now available at https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/kooperationen/UniTransfer/Dateien_zum_Download_bzw._PDF__s/Transferbericht_2025_WEB-barrierefrei.pdf and will be distributed in print to central figures in the state of Bremen.

How Researchers Become Founders and Citizens Become Researchers

The magazine guides readers through the various phases of the transfer process in a modern magazine style – from the initial consideration of new research ideas, to the launch and implementation of specific projects, all the way to their impact on society. The spotlight is on the people behind the projects: researchers, companies, start-ups, and cooperation partners who work together to develop new solutions.

For example, industrial mathematician Maximilian Schmidt explains how he and his team developed an AI-supported diagnostic tool for skin diseases and used it to found the start-up aisencia. And two professors share their stories: Karen Struve communicates literary research to the public through a variety of formats, while Rita Groß-Hardt successfully applies her discovery that plants can have three parents to plant breeding.

The Magazine: A Conversation Starter, Point of Reference, and Source of Inspiration

The magazine provides many examples of how diverse transfer can be – from studies on the hidden aspects of racist violence to collaborations with partners in the field to further develop long-term care. The magazine highlights that not only researchers, but also schoolchildren and citizens are involved in research: for example, in a citizen science project on social cohesion at the Center of Labor and Politics (zap) and an educational project on climate change at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences.

The magazine also outlines the wide range of opportunities and locations available for knowledge transfer at the university and in the city – from the House of Science to the Forum at Domshof Banking Hall and the open-air laboratory in Bremen's Bürgerpark.

The Transfer Magazine serves not only as reading material, but also as a conversation starter, point of reference, and source of inspiration – both for those within the university and for external partners and the media. It aims to initiate new collaborations, increase the visibility of the University of Bremen as a powerful science and innovation hub, and provide impetus to the nationwide transfer scene.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/kooperationen/UniTransfer/Dateien_zum_Download_bzw._PDF__s/Transferbericht_2025_WEB-barrierefrei.pdf

https://www.uni-bremen.de/kooperationen/unitransfer-transferstelle-der-universitaet-bremen

Contact:

Anne-Kathrin Guder
Head of UniTransfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60330
Email: anne-kathrin.guder@vw.uni-bremen.de

The team conducted a comprehensive analysis of twenty popular mHealth apps available in Germany. Such apps have become an integral part of many people's everyday lives. They help with fitness training, cycle monitoring, and taking medication – and in doing so, they process particularly sensitive health data. But how secure and transparent are these applications when it comes to handling this information?

To find out, the researchers used static and dynamic analysis methods to examine app behavior and data flows. They also examined the privacy policies and consent dialogs in detail. “We wanted to see not only whether data is shared, but also when and where it is sent – and whether users are even informed,” explains Dr. Mehrdad Bahrini. “Our goal was to combine the technical perspective with legal and user-centered aspects.”

Serious Problems: Data Transfer Without Consent, Manipulative Tricks, Linguistic Ambiguities

The study reveals several serious problems with regard to data protection and transparency. For example, several apps transmitted personal data such as advertising IDs even before users had given their consent. All twenty examined apps also sent data to third countries, particularly the US. Around 40 percent additionally communicated with servers in Ireland, which often serves as a European data hub. Connections to servers in Australia, Sweden, China, and Singapore were also detected – an indication of the global distribution of data flows in mHealth apps. In order to obtain users' consent to data transfer, all apps contained at least one manipulative design trick (“dark pattern”) that misled users into hastily accepting all terms and conditions.

There were also language and comprehensibility issues: In 10 out of 16 apps with a German interface, the privacy policies were available exclusively in English. And even with German privacy policies, some things remained unclear. For instance, many apps only named data recipients in general categories such as “partners” or “service providers” instead of listing specific companies

“Legal compliance alone is not enough if users cannot understand what is happening to their data.”

The study reveals a significant gap between the stated data protection practices and the actual conduct on the part of the apps. Even though many applications formally meet the requirements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), there is often a lack of genuine transparency and comprehensibility.

“Legal compliance alone is not enough if users cannot understand what is happening to their data,” emphasizes Bahrini. “Trust is crucial, especially when it comes to sensitive health data – this is as much a matter of ethics as it is of regulation.”

The results highlight the need for clearer guidelines for transparent data protection information and for design standards that prevent manipulative consent dialogues – especially in the field of digital health applications.
 

In future projects, the team plans to develop automated procedures for analyzing data flows and detecting dark patterns. The aim is to support developers and regulatory authorities in evaluating and improving digital health applications.

Further Information:

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07901-5_1

Contact:

Dr. Mehrdad Bahrini
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Email: mbahrini@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-64404

PD Dr. Karsten Sohr
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Email: sohr@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-63922

Tropical rainforests play a central role as carbon sinks. However, carbon flows into and out of these forests are still very uncertain, particularly due to deforestation and progressive global warming. Nowhere are these uncertainties greater than in the Central African Congo Basin, the second-largest tropical rainforest area in the world.

New Institute Seeks to Shed Light on Global Carbon Cycle

As part of the newly founded Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC), the philanthropic organization Schmidt Sciences is providing 45 million US dollars to close fundamental knowledge gaps in the global carbon cycle.

The funding program supports four international research teams. One of these teams, Congo-Flex, brings together world-leading experts in the fields of the carbon cycle, Earth observation, and Central African ecosystems. The aim is to fundamentally improve our understanding of the role of the Congo Basin in the global carbon cycle. For the first time, a comprehensive, data-driven estimate of the net carbon flux in the Congo Basin will be made directly on site.
The study will examine how various processes - such as deforestation, reforestation, and the preservation of intact forests - contribute to the region's total net carbon flux.

Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen are playing a key role in setting up innovative measuring stations to record atmospheric CO₂ concentrations in the Central African Congo Basin. These measuring stations provide crucial data for regional estimates of carbon flows and serve to validate important satellite-based observations.

Further Information: 

Link to the Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC): https://www.schmidtsciences.org/vicc/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Bösch
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
Institute of Environmental Physics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62777
Email: hboesch@uni-bremen.de

As the new director of the iaw, Timur Ergen wants to remain true to the institute's existing profile and develop it further: "Our times are characterized by major upheavals in the world of work, politics, and the economy – in particular by geopolitical shifts, climate change, and accelerated technological change. With its interdisciplinary profile in political, social, and economic research, the iaw can make an important contribution to understanding these upheavals. The iaw's research has not only contributed to expert debates, but has also placed great emphasis on transferring its expertise to society, often in close cooperation with partners from society, politics, and business. It is this tradition of interdisciplinary research with a sense of social responsibility that I would like to continue at the iaw.”

Among other things, the iaw has made a name for itself with its poverty reporting specifically for Bremen. Other topics include the minimum wage and collective bargaining policy, fiscal equalization between the federal states, and various analyses of the nursing professions. Numerous studies on the regional economy and urban development have also met with widespread acclaim. In addition, the sustainable design and organization of work in companies are particularly important topics. 

The departing director believes that there will continue to be a great social need for research institutes such as the iaw, which address the future of work, the problems faced by workers, and the organization of work: “In uncertain times like these, it is important to inform the public through well-founded analyses of the causes of crises and the possible or actual effects of political measures. In this way, we can help to refute populist simplifications relating to the transformation of the working society.”
The iaw's move to the Forum at Domshof building in the city center also took place during Irene Dingeldey's term in office. “I was delighted about the move. We had already been working closely with the Chamber of Employees beforehand, and now we are also physically closer together, which is a great plus for everyone. We are now right in the middle of things and closer to the urban community.” 

Specialized English Courses

A broad selection of subject-specific English courses is available. Participants can focus on improving their English skills in fields such as natural and engineering sciences, law, or economics. Many of these courses also offer the opportunity to earn a B2 or C1 certificate.

Language Pairings, Compact and Intensive Courses

Multilingual course formats and targeted preparatory courses are also part of the program. For example, Croatian and Polish can be learned together in a paired format. Many courses also provide preparation for academic stays abroad. Compact and intensive courses offer the opportunity to develop language skills efficiently in a short period of time.

To promote academic multilingualism, the SZHB offers courses in heritage languages such as Kurdish, Polish, Russian, and Turkish. These courses are aimed at students who wish to develop their family-acquired language skills for academic purposes. These courses are free of charge, as are writing and presentation workshops for students with German as a second language.

Independent Learning and Individual Support

The SZHB’s self-study area offers numerous flexible supplementary options, including language cafés, mini-strategy workshops, and an online platform for arranging language tandems. In the tutoring program, language enthusiasts can pursue their individual learning goals with support from student tutors. The Writer’s Help Desk provides personalized guidance to students when writing texts in English.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb

Contact:

szhb@uni-bremen.de

Hübner-Kunath continued to pursue her passion into old age and was for a time Germany's oldest pilot. Her personal effects, which include numerous photographs, letters, certificates, ID cards, and reports, are kept at the State and University Library (SuUB) in Bremen.

Hanna Hübner-Kunath's bequest was fully cataloged by history students as part of a seminar. Previously unexplored documents were found and made available for further research. The seminar participants reviewed, described, and organized all the materials, gaining intensive insights into the history of women and aviation in Bremen. 
“The students were particularly enthusiastic about working with the originals,” explains Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch, lecturer of the seminar and head of the Historical Collections Department at the SuUB.
The approximately 250 documents are now listed in the Kalliope Union Catalog, and the originals are available for research and study in the SuUB's manuscript reading room.

Further Information: 

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/

Contact: 

Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch
Head of Historical Collections, State and University Library Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-59571
Email: hermes@suub.uni-bremen.de

A total of 32 exhibitors will be present, including universities, higher education institutions, German-French organizations, and associations – for example, “Campus France / Institut Français Allemagne”, “Chambre Franco-Allemande de Commerce et d'Industrie” (Paris), and the “Pädagogischer Austauschdienst” (PAD) of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK). In addition, 15 different micro-trainings and presentations will be offered. For instance, students will share their experiences of voluntary service or working abroad as language assistants. Institutions such as the “Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk” (DFJW), Leipzig University, and the “Institut français d’Allemagne” will provide short talks on study and exchange opportunities.

Zukunftsmesse Nord is organized by the Association of Teachers of French (VdF), Campus Nord for France & Francophonie (CaNoFF), “Deutsch-Französische Hochschule” (DFH), the “Institut français Allemagne” / French Embassy in Berlin, and the Association of Franco-German Societies for Europe (VDFG).

Further Information:

https://www.dfh-ufa.org/news/zukunftsmesse-nord-in-bremen-am-01-und-02-oktober-2025 (only available in German)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Karen Struve
Professor of French Romance Literary Studies
Spokesperson for CaNoFF – Campus Nord for France & Francophonie
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68423
Email: struve@uni-bremen.de

Religious Practice in the Digital Transformation

“Can non-human actors such as AI systems have, obtain, or be granted religious authority? In what ways do notions of the relationship between humans and God change when machines intervene?” These are the kinds of questions that the participating researchers will be addressing in the coming years.
The network's main goal is to develop a common theoretical basis for conceptualizing agency in the context of religion and digitalization. The results will be published in a handbook comprising three parts: disciplinary perspectives, interdisciplinary dialogues, and central concepts such as authority, power, and empowerment. 
Additionally, CARD serves as preparation for a larger international research project planned for the end of 2028. “We are creating the conceptual basis for the next generation of research on religion and digitalization,” state the two scholars.

International Cooperation and Support for Early-Career Researchers

The CARD network is bringing together researchers from 13 different disciplines, including theology, religious studies, philosophy, sociology, media studies, computer science, and psychology. In addition to German universities, international partners from the US, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands are also involved. 
“One particular area of focus is supporting early-career researchers,” emphasizes Professor Radde-Antweiler. Six early-career researchers are integrated into the network as full members and are actively involved in shaping the work being undertaken. The project also aims to raise the profile of German-language research in this international field. To this end, the network is planning workshops where renowned international experts will contribute as guests. 
Prof. Dr. Karsten D. Wolf (Educational Sciences) from the University of Bremen is also involved.

Further Information: 

https://zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/religionswissenschaft

Https://www.ev-theologie.uni-wuerzburg.de/religionspaedagogik/prof-dr-ilona-nord/forschungsprojekte/ (only available in German)

Contact: 

Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler 
Institute for the Study of Religion and Related Didactics 
Faculty of Cultural Studies 
University of Bremen 
Phone: +49 421 218-67911
Email: radde@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Ilona Nord 
Faculty of Human Sciences 
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg 
Phone: +49 931 31-89790
Email: ilona.nord@uni-wuerzburg.de

The four additional authors, Anna Odone, Chiara Barbati, Silvia Amadasi, and David B. Resnik, conduct research in the fields of public health, medicine, and bioethics. In general, the journal is aimed at professionals in these fields. In information boxes, Tanja Schultz explains the technical terms used in the articles and background information on AI, such as machine learning, deep learning, and computational linguistics, to the interdisciplinary specialist audience.

Further Information:

https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1lnbB5E-UokLDW

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/home

Contact:

Tanja Schultz
Professor of Cognitive Systems
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64270
Email: tanja.schultz@uni-bremen.de

Those interested in offering accommodation in Bremen can fill out the following form (in German): www.uni-bremen.de/wohnraum Offers for Bremerhaven can be sent to the email address internationals@hs-bremerhaven.de.

The following information is requested in the form or should be provided in the email:

•           Availability (from when to when)

•           Type of offer (room / apartment, size)

•           Costs (including utilities) and included additional costs

•           Location (address and district)

•           Furnished (preferred) or unfurnished

The International Offices of the University of Bremen and Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences will then contact interested students and assist with the placement. All other matters, such as the tenancy agreement, key handover, payments, and communication, are handled directly between the landlord and the tenant.

Further Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/
https://www.hs-bremen.de/en/
https://www.hs-bremerhaven.de/en
https://www.hfk-bremen.de/en
 

Contact:

University of Bremen
Dr. Marejke Baethge-Assenkamp
International Office
Phone: +49 421 218-60361
Email: marejke.baethge@vw.uni-bremen.de

Bremen City University of Applied Sciences (HSB)
Robert Campbell Rennie
International Student Advisor
International Office / Staff Unit for Academic Success and Internationalisation
Phone: +49 421 5905-2361
Email: Robert-Campbell.Rennie@hs-bremen.de

Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences
Veronika Pril
International Office
Phone: +49 471 4823-361
Email: vpril@hs-bremerhaven.de

University of the Arts Bremen (HfK)
Kerstin Finkel
Press/Public Relations
Phone: +49 421 9595-1030
Email: kfinkel@hfk-bremen.de

Data: 1,667 women

The study is based on data from the German family panel pairfam. Data was evaluated from 1,667 women who separated from their partner since the last interview. In the context of all observed separations, eleven percent (more than one in ten) reported physical confrontations. Women who were unemployed or were worried about their financial stability were particularly at risk of physical violence.

The way a person perceives their own financial position also plays a role. “Women who were very dissatisfied with their household finances reported violence at a significantly higher rate than women who were very satisfied. The risk increases when women see their financial situation as burdensome,” Abramowski points out.

Women with Children Particularly at Risk

Women with children are particularly at risk, as Minkus explains. “Whereas women without children were significantly less likely to report violence, the risk was about ten percentage points higher for mothers with one child.” This rises even more for those with two or more children (13 percentage points).

In addition to the academic relevance, the authors also emphasized the political consequences. “Targeted efforts for financial support can prevent violence. We need measures that reduce financial dependence and empower women,” says Abramowski. The study “Economic deprivation and intimate partner violence in Germany” was published in the academic journal PLOS One.

pairfam Database 

The pairfam relationship and family panel (Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics) was a multidisciplinary, longitudinal study for researching couple and family dynamics in Germany. Over 12,000 people from many birth years have been annually surveyed since 2008 as part of a cooperation project between the University of Bremen, the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München (LMU), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, and the University of Cologne.

Further Information

Minkus, L. & Abramowski, R. (2025): Economic deprivation and intimate partner violence in Germany. PLOS One. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0329930

https://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/departments/dynamics-of-inequality-in-welfare-societies/working-groups/en/?

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact

Dr. Ruth Abramowski
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421/218-58550
Email: ruth.abramowski@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Lara Minkus
Europa-Universität Flensburg
Phone: +49 461/ 805 2325
Email: lara.minkus@uni-flensburg.de

Determining how well a robot reacts to a situation requires first understanding why it makes certain decisions or acts a certain way, and can only be achieved once the robot is given the ability to disclose information about its behavior. This requires combining new methods from robotics, artificial intelligence, and software engineering, since these are necessary for making reliable statements about how safely and dependably robots perform tasks. How well these robots are received and integrated into various application settings largely depends on such skills.

CAVEVORE Connects Nine Partners from Six Countries

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Networks are transnational doctoral programs with several academic and non-academic participating institutions and are formed with the intention of enhancing the researchers’ career development through international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral mobility while strengthening the transfer of knowledge between the institutions. The networks are financed by the European Union as part of the Horizon Europe program.The application process is particularly demanding, and this year only 9.8 percent of the proposals were approved.

The University of Bremen project coordinator is Nico Hochgeschwender; Bettina von Helversen is also involved. Three of the fifteen doctoral researchers will work directly at the University of Bremen, while two additional doctoral researchers will be employed by industrial partners in Bremen.

Network partners include PAL Robotics (Spain), Cellumation (Bremen), EIVA (Denmark), the IT University of Copenhagen, Bielefeld University, the University of York, the Cyprus University of Technology, and LNE (Laboratoire national de métrologie et d’essais, the French counterpart to the German National Metrology Institute (PTB)).

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Nico Hochgeschwender
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64330
Email: nico.hochgeschwender@uni-bremen.de

Researchers from the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes at the University of Bremen can initiate project funding together with the Matena innovate! Center through a multi-stage application procedure. The Matena innovate! Center steering group has selected four new transfer projects that have successfully completed this process. This means that seven research projects are currently being supported: Three transfer pilot projects on the production of environmentally friendly zinc-ion batteries, sustainable feed in aquaculture, and novel hydrogen sensors have been running since the beginning of 2025.

Overview of the New Transfer Projects

The goal of the Use Swarf project is to upcycle grinding sludge – a waste product generated during grinding work, especially in metal processing. In Germany, almost 200,000 tons of this waste are generated annually. The participating researchers are developing a process to reuse grinding sludge as a high-quality resource, namely in the manufacturing of wear-resistant coatings.

Use Swarf is coordinated by Dr. Anastasiya Tönjes from the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT. Project partners are PD Dr. Daniel Meyer, Dr. Nils Ellendt, and Dr. Lasse Langstädtler from Leibniz-IWT and the University of Bremen.

The Twinspace project is developing a novel robot system for manufacturing lightweight components in the aviation industry. The process involves automatically laying carbon fibers on top of each other, thereby reducing production costs and increasing energy efficiency. The robot system will also be used to simulate time and material-intensive test runs through simulations and processes in real time. This can be achieved with so-called semantic digital twins. These are digital models of the production plant that combine physical models with data-based AI technologies. In this way, the system combines artificial intelligence with the latest findings from materials science and manufacturing technology.

Twinspace is coordinated by professor Michael Beetz at the AICOR Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Bremen. The project partner is Faserinstitut Bremen e.V. (FIBRE) under the direction of Professor David May.

The Ostenit project is dedicated to a novel optical sensor designed to improve quality and resource efficiency in the surface treatment of steel products. Energy-intensive nitriding processes are the industrial standard for hardening steel surfaces and are essential for many applications in the automotive and aerospace industries. In this project, the scientists are developing a sensor that will, for the first time, enable the layer growing during the nitriding process to be detected directly on the component in the furnace and actively adjusted. Thanks to the new in-process sensor technology, the quality of the surface treatment can be significantly improved. At the same time, direct edge zone monitoring on the component will result in considerable energy savings.

The project is based on close, interdisciplinary collaboration between Professor Andreas Fischer from the Bremen Institute for Metrology, Automation and Quality Science at the University of Bremen (BIMAQ) and Dr. Jérémy Epp and Dr. Matthias Steinbacher from the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT.

The Sustainable Gas Treatment in Steelworks project addresses the immense amount of CO₂ produced during steel production and the problem of treating it. Carbon dioxide-containing gases produced during steel production can be converted using catalytic gas treatment. This produces substances that can then be reused as energy sources or raw materials. The project aims to use this catalytic gas processing in combination with hydrogen to produce synthetic fuel. It seeks to prove that this approach makes a clear contribution to CO₂ reduction.

The project is coordinated by Professor Jorg Thöming, head of the Chemical Process Engineering department in the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen.

“Make a social contribution to a more sustainable future”

Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen, emphasizes: “Research into sustainable materials and technologies is a focus of excellence at the University of Bremen. However, our top researchers not only aspire to conduct ambitious research, but also to contribute to solving social problems. This is exactly what the Matena innovate! Center promotes. We are delighted about the new projects and partnerships.”

“We are excited about the outstanding project ideas in the field of materials, technology, and sustainability, and will work with the teams and partners to bring this excellent research to market maturity. We look forward to working together to master the technology transfer to an industry-ready solution and thus also make a social contribution to a more sustainable future,” says professor Kurosch Rezwan, Scientific Director of the Matena innovate! Center and chairperson of the steering group.

"With the projects we are now launching, the teams and Matena are demonstrating how excellent research can be translated into concrete solutions for key challenges – from material upcycling and AI-supported production to energy and CO₂ reduction. With Matena, we are creating the structures to provide targeted support for this approach – at the intersection of laboratory, application, and market," adds Dr. Jan Wedemeier, Managing Director of the Matena innovate! Center.

"Relevant solutions to very specific contemporary problems in the areas of climate protection and resource efficiency are currently being developed in Bremen. The findings on new materials and technologies as well as the sustainable recycling of raw materials are not limited to basic research, but are on their way to market maturity. This is exactly what we want to achieve with our funding for the common good," says Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. Sabine Kunst, Chair of the Board of the Joachim Herz Foundation.

Further Information:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/matena-innovate-center

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/mapex-center-for-materials-and-processes

https://www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/en/research/innovate-center

Contact:

Prof. Dr. sc. ETH Kurosch Rezwan
JHS innovate! Zentrum MaTeNa gGmbH
Phone +49 421 218-64930
Email: krezwan@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Jan Wedemeier
JHS innovate! Zentrum MaTeNa gGmbH
Phone +49 160 1625207
Email: matena@uni-bremen.de

Sponges are among the oldest multicellular organisms on Earth and can be found in all types of bodies of water, from canals to lakes, rivers, and deep sea environments. Like carbon, nitrogen has two stable isotopes that can be used to determine an organism’s position in the food web. However, there has been a lack of in-depth understanding of nitrogen cycling processes in the various classes of sponges. Most sponges feed by filtering water. “We have an idea of what their chemical profile should look like,” says Stratmann. “But in reality the profile of glass sponges was even more extreme than we had previously assumed and did not necessarily align with their feeding habits.” Although there are hundreds of taxonomically described species of glass sponges, their function in their ecosystem remains unclear.

Due to the large biomass that sponges reach at some locations and their filtering capacity, they can significantly influence local biogeochemical cycles. Throughout Earth’s history, sponges have formed symbiotic communities with microorganisms that sometimes contribute to nitrogen supply and alter conditions in their immediate surroundings, as Dr. Stratmann notes in her project description.

For her project, Dr. Stratmann will use incubation chambers in the deep sea, which she has previously employed off the coasts of New Zealand and in the Central Pacific. “Glass sponges living at a water depth of about 4,000 meters cannot be studied on the surface, only in their natural habitat,” explains the scientist. Data will be collected over three to four days, after which the incubation chambers will be removed.

In the coming years, Stratmann will also study fossil sponges using a new method: extracting nitrogen-containing compounds from ancient sponges and determining their isotope patterns. “It’s not about the age of the organisms, but about the nitrogen cycle,” she emphasizes. To this end, she collaborates with natural history museums across Europe that have extensive collections to decode the function of sponges in their past ecosystems.

Determining Past Environmental Conditions

“Studying the nitrogen cycle in fossilized sponges allows us to infer how sponges and their symbionts processed nitrogen during their lifetimes. Based on these results, I will gain valuable information about the marine environmental conditions that existed when the sponges were formed,” Stratmann explains.

Her return to the University of Bremen, where she completed part of her biology degree, marks an exciting new chapter in her research career. After a stint in Denmark, she earned her doctorate from the NIOZ – Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Ghent University in Belgium. In 2021, she received the prestigious Veni scholarship in the Netherlands, enabling her to investigate the metabolic activity of individual benthic animals in deep-sea habitats over a three-years period. Her decision to bring her grant to the University of Bremen is rooted in MARUM’s excellent facilities: “The wide range of equipment for biogeochemical methods is not available everywhere.”

She will be based at MARUM from February 2026.

MARUM Director Kai-Uwe Hinrichs is delighted about the prestigious project: “With Tanja Stratmann, we are gaining an exciting and innovative project of great importance for life in the deep sea. At the same time, she strengthens our expertise in biogeochemistry and ecology of benthic organisms – inhabitants of a habitat increasingly threatened by human influences.”

About the ERC Starting Grant

This year, the ERC Starting Grant will be awarded to 478 top early-career researchers from across Europe, selected from 3,928 applications. This prestigious grant recognizes excellent researchers two to seven years after they have completed their Ph.D.s. The grant funds groundbreaking basic research with up to €1.5 million over five years, enabling recipients to independently implement their research ideas with their teams.

About MARUM

MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen generates fundamental scientific knowledge about the role of the ocean and the ocean floor in the Earth system. Dynamic interactions between the geological, physical, biological, and chemical processes at and with the ocean floor significantly influence the entire Earth system. These dynamics affect the climate system and the global carbon cycle, creating unique biological systems. MARUM is committed to fundamental and open-ended research, conducted with a sense of responsibility toward society, for the benefit of the marine environment, and in alignment with the United Nations’ sustainability goals. It publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific data, making it freely accessible to all. MARUM informs the public about new discoveries in marine environmental science and engages in dialogue with society to provide actionable knowledge. Collaborations between MARUM and companies or industry partners are pursued while upholding its commitment to protecting the marine environment.

Further Information:

About the ERC Starting Grant: https://erc.europa.eu/homepage

ERC press release: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/erc-2025-starting-grants-results

Contacts:

Dr. Tanja Stratmann
Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ)
Department of Ocean Systems (OCS)
Email: Tanja.Stratmann@nioz.nl

Utrecht University
Department of Earth Sciences
Email: t.stratmann@uu.nl

Prof. Kai-Uwe Hinrichs
Director of MARUM− Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Organic Geochemistry
Email: khinrichs@marum.de

Drebitz: "Until now, it was unclear how this survival-critical mechanism of selecting relevant information is controlled. When you cross a street and a car suddenly appears from the side, the brain immediately focuses its processing on this one piece of visual information – the movement of the vehicle. Other impressions, such as signs, passersby, or billboards, fade into the background as they distract our attention and slow down our reaction. It is only through this targeted prioritization that we are able to react quickly and take evasive action."

Timing: The Key to Information Processing

The team led by neuroscientists Andreas Kreiter and Eric Drebitz has now provided first causal evidence of how the brain transmits and processes relevant information: “Whether a signal is processed further in the brain depends crucially on whether it arrives at the right moment – during a short phase of increased receptivity of the nerve cells,” explains neuroscientist Drebitz: “Nerve cells do not work continuously, but in rapid cycles. They are particularly active and receptive for a few milliseconds, followed by a window of lower activity and excitability. This cycle repeats itself approximately every 10 to 20 milliseconds. Only when a signal arrived shortly before the peak of this active phase did it change the behavior of the neurons.” This temporal coordination is the fundamental mechanism of information processing. Attention makes targeted use of this phenomenon by aligning the timing of the nerve cells so that relevant signals arrive precisely in this time window, while others are excluded.

In order to prove the cause of this fundamental mechanism of our brain, selective stimulus transmission was studied in rhesus monkeys – a species that is very similar to humans in the organization of the cerebral cortex. The animals performed a visual task on a screen while very weak electrical stimuli were generated in an early section of the visual processing pathway (area V2). These artificial signals were unrelated to the task and served solely as test stimuli. The team then analyzed how these signals affected a downstream area (area V4). "The artificially triggered signals only influenced the activity of the nerve cells in V4 when they arrived during a short phase of increased receptivity. If the same signal arrived too early or too late, it had no effect. If it arrived within the sensitive time window, it not only changed the activity of the nerve cells, but also the behavior of the animals: they reacted more slowly and made more mistakes – from which it can be concluded that the test signal, which contained no information for the task, became part of the processing and thus interfered with the performance of the actual task," explains Drebitz.

Important for Understanding the Brain and Treating Alzheimer's and ADHD

“The results provide a basis for developing more precise models of the brain. They show how information is selected and prioritized before it leads to perception, learning, and behavior,” says Drebitz. However, this knowledge is not only important for foundation research, but also for the field of medicine, “since diseases such as Alzheimer’s and ADHD are associated with problems in the selective processing and storage of relevant information. And also for new technologies such as brain-computer interfaces that communicate directly with the brain." For such systems to work reliably, they must feed in information at precisely timed intervals and correctly read the nerve cell patterns. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) could also benefit from these principles, as they could serve as a template for particularly flexible and efficient processing.

Further Information:

Drebitz, E., Rausch, LP. & Kreiter, A.K. Gamma-band synchronization between neurons in the visual cortex is causal for effective information processing and behavior. Nat Commun16, 7380 (2025).

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62732-8

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62732-8

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/brain

https://uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Dr. Eric Drebitz
Cognitive Neurophysiology
University of Bremen
drebitz@brain.uni-bremen.de

Field Experiments in Sweden

In field experiments, the scientists transferred butterflies from their populations in southern Sweden to locations both within and outside the current population range. Animals collected in the south (Skane County) and north (Södermanland and Uppland provinces) were released in outdoor enclosures in Skane, Södermanland, and southern Dalarna, the latter being an area not yet colonized by the wall brown butterfly. The aim of the study was to find out whether the butterflies had adapted evolutionarily to the new conditions through characteristics such as faster growth, adapted timing of hibernation, or increased cold resistance – traits that could enable them to survive in previously uninhabited habitats.

In fact, the butterflies from the north grew faster in the field cages – presumably an adaptation to the shorter summers at higher latitudes. They had also adapted the timing of their hibernation as caterpillars to the more northern conditions. It was striking that almost all animals – regardless of their origin – entered hibernation at the right time. This suggests a possible genetic stability or a pronounced plasticity of this trait. Nevertheless, almost no caterpillars survived the cold winters north of their current range. Winter mortality was high overall – and particularly drastic beyond the distribution range boundary.

Evolutionary Potential for Better Cold Adaptation Exhausted

“Understanding these limits is crucial for predicting where species – including pests and disease carriers – will move in the wake of climate change,” explains Nielsen. The researchers suspect that repeated natural selection due to harsh winter conditions may have already exhausted the evolutionary potential for better cold adaptation at the edge of the distribution range.

The results suggest that evolutionary changes can occur on timescales comparable to the speed of current climate change, but do not necessarily affect all traits that are critical for survival. For the wall brown, this means that further spreading will require milder winters. In order to reliably predict future changes in species distribution, it is necessary to know both the traits that change under new environmental conditions and those that define a species' ecological limit. Evolutionary biologist Nielsen: “As many species shift their range in response to global warming, this finding is crucial for better predicting future changes in biodiversity and the spread of species that could affect agriculture and human health.”

Further Information:

The publication in PNAS: Winters restrict a climate change-driven butterfly range expansion despite rapid evolution of seasonal timing traits. DOI:10.1073/pnas.2418392122. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2418392122

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Matthew Nielsen
Insect Ecology in Changing Environments
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-50290
Email: nielsenm@uni-bremen.de

The transformation of energy and industrial systems with the goal of net zero emissions, as well as the relationship between climate change and health are among the main topics of the collaboration. The Bremen Research Center for Energy Systems (BEST) has been working with the Wuppertal Institute for several years in these areas. In addition to research, the teaching and academic qualification of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers will also play a central role. Joint courses and joint supervision of master’s and doctoral theses are planned as well.

“We are very excited to now formally confirm our previous successful collaboration with the University of Bremen through a collaboration agreement,” Manfred Fischedick emphasizes, and adds, “The complementary strengths of both institutions – the application-oriented research of the Wuppertal Institute and the academic excellence of the University of Bremen – provide an ideal basis for developing innovative solutions for the major transformation tasks of our time. Our concerted efforts will help to provide concrete contributions to implementing these in a world characterized by uncertainty, fluctuation, and complexity.”

Jutta Günther underlines the importance of the contract for the University of Bremen, “The Wuppertal Institute is one of the top locations in Germany when it comes to sustainability research. The newly solidified collaboration combines the applied, policy-advising research expertise of the Wuppertal Institute with our foundational and outreach-oriented research as well as our teaching and academic qualification. The latter is a particularly important task with great societal importance given the high demand for technical experts in energy and ecological transformation fields. This collaboration also emphasizes the goals of our university-wide sustainability strategy – research and teaching for sustainable development.”

The newly signed collaboration agreement is intended to create the framework for future-oriented research projects and innovative teaching beyond the existing collaborations. One specific example of research that is already underway is the joint project Hydrogen for Bremen’s Industrial Transformation – hyBit for short. This focuses on industrial decarbonization, particularly within the energy-intensive steel production. The hyBit project consortium is supported by 19 academic and industrial partners, including the Wuppertal Institute and the University of Bremen with BEST. Incorporating examples of policy-related aspects and policy consulting practice into the courses has already greatly enriched the teaching; project-related teaching by colleagues from the Wuppertal Institute using specific practical examples is also planned.

Further Information:

Project hyBit: https://wupperinst.org/en/p/wi/p/s/pd/2093
hyBit website: https://hybit.org/en/
University of Bremen website: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/
University of Bremen’s Sustainability Strategy: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/sustainability
Website of the Wuppertal Institute: https://wupperinst.org/en/index/

Contact:

Wuppertal Institut für Klima, Umwelt, Energie gGmbH 
VisdP: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Manfred Fischedick, President and Scientific Managing Director
Press contact: Luisa Lucas, Deputy Press Officer
Tel: +49 202 2492-292
Email: luisa.lucas@wupperinst.org

University of Bremen
Contact: Administrative Unit for University Communication and Marketing - KOMMA
Tel: +49 421 218-60150
Email: presse@uni-bremen.de

Open enrollment does not apply to master's degree programs; however, individual master's degree programs do have an extended application deadline until September 15, 2025. For more information, visit https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/master.

Anyone who is still unsure and needs help making a decision can take advantage of the advisory services offered by the Central Student Advisory Service: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zsb.

Over 22,000 Applications Received from First-Semester Students

The University of Bremen received over 12,000 applications for a first degree (bachelor's degree) in the winter semester application period, including almost 1,000 applications from prospective international students. The most popular degree programs are Psychology, Teaching Profession at Secondary Schools, Business Studies, and Law. Given the essentially unchanged number of applications for a first degree, the university expects over 3,000 first-year students, as was the case last year.

The university has received over 10,000 applications for master's programs, which is 25 percent more than last year. In addition to Psychology, the degree programs Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems and Management Information Systems are particularly popular. How many prospective students actually intend to or are able to enroll will only become clear in the next two months. The university expects to welcome at least as many master's degree beginners as in the 2024 winter semester, when the figure came to around 1,350.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/applying-for-studies/study-places-still-available
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/master
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zsb

Press Contact:

Christina Vocke
Head of Administrative Department 6 – Student Affairs
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-61000
Email: christina.vocke@uni-bremen.de

“After three successful funding phases, we are delighted to be entering the fourth,” says Maria Elisabeth Müller, Director of SuUB and project lead. "The reviewers have confirmed the technical and information expertise that we have demonstrated with great success to date: 'The applicant team is well-coordinated and established, and the infrastructural and institutional conditions of the participating organizations are very good.'"

Professor Betina Hollstein, head of the Qualiservice Research Data Center, added: “We are extremely pleased to be able to continue our successful collaboration with the FID Political Science and, within this framework, to create opportunities for the further use of qualitative political science data for the first time – for example, for expert interviews, which form an important basis for evidence-based policy advice.” 

The areas of focus for the fourth funding phase (2025 to 2028) are:

•    Expansion of the POLLUX research portal, which currently comprises over 13 million documents, including research data, gray literature, abstracts, and citations
•    Further development of the PoliCorp analysis tool for structured political text data (text corpora)
•    Expansion of open science activities, in particular open access
•    Strengthening research data management for qualitative political science data
•    Optimization of internal work processes and quality assurance
•    Increased public relations work to raise awareness of the service in the professional community

Further Information:

Https://pollux-fid.de/ (only available in German)
https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/
https://www.gesis.org/en/home
https://www.qualiservice.org/en/

Contact: 

Dr. Michael Czolkoß-Hettwer 
Project Coordination
Specialized Information Service for Political Science – POLLUX
State and University Library Bremen
Phone: + 49 421 218-59586
Email: kontakt@pollux-fid.de

In addition to his duties as dean, Professor Malaka will remain at the TZI as head of the Digital Media Lab. “We are extremely grateful to Professor Malaka for the extraordinary commitment with which he has driven forward the TZI’s further development over the past 16 years,” emphasizes Prof. Zachmann. “Under his leadership, third-party funding has risen steadily. The high number of doctorates and the successful acquisition of graduate schools also attest to the high quality of research and teaching during his tenure. Last but not least, the preliminary work from various projects is also feeding into the EASE Collaborative Research Center and the new "The Martian Mindset" Cluster of Excellence.”

From Basic Research to Start-Ups

With its research topics, the TZI is at the center of the ongoing digitization of all areas of life. On the one hand, this involves basic research: What questions need to be answered in order to constructively shape the information technologies of the next ten to twenty years? At the same time, however, the TZI also serves as a knowledge transfer partner for companies and organizations that want to tap into current research findings for their own areas of activity. The institute has already collaborated with a wide range of partners from sectors such as healthcare, IT, retail, logistics, and the creative industries. At the same time, numerous start-ups have emerged from the research projects, which now employ hundreds of highly qualified staff. In addition, the TZI trains many urgently needed specialists within the framework of its research-based teaching.

Professor Zachmann sees one of the TZI's key strengths in its ability to identify new topics that will be relevant in the future at an early stage. Intensive interdisciplinary cooperation plays an important role in this – the institute even spans two faculties, Mathematics / Computer Science and Physics / Electrical Engineering. “There is a culture of cooperation here. The TZI brings together researchers who work well together.” This enables the institute to continually generate innovations from within its structure and respond to new challenges in the extremely dynamic world of IT.

People at the Heart of Technology

Zachmann expects technologies such as extended reality (XR), everyday robotics, and artificial intelligence to become even more important in the coming years and to raise many new research questions. This could also open up opportunities for collaboration with other disciplines such as sports science, psychology, and health research. “We are looking for scientists who want to play an active role in shaping new technologies,” says Zachmann. “They can come from completely different faculties.”

A principle that applied under Professor Malaka's leadership will continue to apply: “People remain at the heart of everything we do. We investigate how technology can best support people, rather than restricting, manipulating, or replacing them.”

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/tzi

www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact:

Professor Gabriel Zachmann
Phone: +49 421 218-63991
zach@cs.uni-bremen.de

The RoboCup

The RoboCup is one of the largest and most prestigious competitions for robots in the world.It aims to support the development of robots and their artificial intelligence so that they are able to operate without direct human control. Organized by the non-profit RoboCup Federation, the tournament has been held every year since 1997. The participating teams usually come from universities and research institutes, but also from industry.

One Tournament, Many Competitions

Robots not only play soccer at RoboCup, but also compete against each other in other disciplines: RoboCupRescue, for example, simulates rescue scenarios in which robots find and rescue victims. RoboCup@Home, on the other hand, pits robots against each other in household tasks. There are five different sub-leagues within the Soccer League, which differ according to the type of robot used. B-Human took part in the Standard Platform League where all teams use the same type of robot with the same hardware. The main focus is therefore on skillful software development.

A Special RoboCup

The 2025 RoboCup was a special tournament in two respects. B-Human succeeded in winning a competition on the American continent for the first time. Despite many world championship titles, previous attempts in Mexico City (2012, 2nd place), João Pessoa (2014, 3rd place) and Montreal (2018, 2nd place) had not been successful. This negative streak has now been broken. It is a double success, as B-Human also won the technical competition, which involved shooting rolling balls and innovations for the future of the league.

This was also the last competition in the Standard Platform League. Starting in 2026, there will be a new competition for humanoid soccer robots, in which different robot models will be used. B-Human will once again be at the starting line.

Further Information:

https://2025.robocup.org

www.b-human.de

Contact:

Dr. Thomas Röfer
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Cyber-Physical Systems Research Group
Phone: +49 421 218-64200
Email: Thomas.Roefer@dfki.de

Dr. Tim Laue
University of Bremen
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
Phone: +49 421 218-64209
Email: tlaue@uni-bremen.de

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Team Communication & Media Bremen
Phone: +49 0421 178 454180
Email: communications-hb@dfki.de

The BlueDOT citizen science project, coordinated at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, is working to better understand these changes by collecting temperature data in the upper 40 meters of the Mediterranean Sea. The goal is to more accurately track marine temperatures and monitor marine heatwaves, helping to improve our understanding of how climate change is affecting the ocean. 

Divers at the Heart of the Project

Scuba divers are at the heart of the BlueDOT project. By uploading the profiles from their dive computers onto the Divelogs portal and consenting to share these to the BlueDOT scientific database, divers make a valuable contribution to marine research. The project team uses this citizen-sourced data, in compliance with data-protection regulations, to monitor and record temperature changes across different parts of the Mediterranean Sea and from coastal regions worldwide. Dr. Christophe Galerne and Prof. Achim Kopf, both from MARUM at the University of Bremen, Dr. Rebecca Zitoun from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, and Arne Schwab from Schwab Research Technology are leading the project. 

Data Extends from Spain to Heligoland

To improve the quality of the collected data and ensure that temperature readings from the different dive computers are comparable, BlueDOT has installed permanent high-precision temperature sensors at selected reference dive sites on the Costa Brava, Heligoland, and the Maltese island of Gozo. These permanently deployed sensors record the temperature at various depths, allowing scientists to calibrate the data collected from dive computers against consistent, high-resolution measurements. To support this effort, BlueDOT is collaborating with two diving centers in Spain and Malta. These centers play a key role in engaging the diving community, raising awareness about the project, and helping to test and maintain the sensors. 

According to Christophe Galerne, the use of the sensors increases the accuracy of the database, “which creates a more reliable basis for research and helps to develop an optimal approach for the global expansion of the project in the long term.” The diver-sourced data is an important complement to existing ocean-monitoring platforms such as satellite observations, Argo floats, and hydrographic surveys. “With an estimated six million active scuba divers worldwide, this citizen science initiative represents huge potential for enhancing climate research through widespread, community-driven observations of ocean temperature.”
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), began in December 2024, and is initially scheduled to run for about 18 months. This serves as a test phase to develop the best approach for a possible global expansion.

Initial Findings: Ocean Temperatures Are Rising

The team has already evaluated diving data from the Mediterranean Sea. As Galerne expected, these indicate that average ocean temperatures are rising steadily. The water masses of the oceans act as heat reservoirs that interact with the atmosphere and thus influence the climate. If this system becomes unstable with the continued warming of surface water, it could lead to intensified evaporation and, ultimately, regionally limited extreme precipitation events in the surrounding areas. Galerne explains that the associated rain belt has continuously shifted farther northward over the past 20 years, leading to sporadic droughts as well as heavy rainfall and flooding. 
“The constant warming and increasing frequency of marine heatwaves also have significant implications for biodiversity and the ecosystem services our oceans provide, making these phenomena a critical factor to consider in both research and management. There presently exists what is known as sampling bias in the data. This is exhibited by a clear predominance of data obtained during the warmer months and the holiday seasons. In order to be able to establish an average value, we would like to encourage divers to enter their data – including older data – into our portal and also to record and upload data from cooler seasons,” says Galerne.

By filling these seasonal gaps, divers can play a crucial role in building a more complete and accurate picture of how ocean temperatures are changing throughout the year.
The project is now also endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade. 

Further Information: 

https://www.marum.de/en/BlueDOT-2.html

How to share your dives for science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke_jejs9A3c&ab_channel=divelogs

Contact:

Dr. Christophe Galerne
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Bremen
Email: cgalerne@marum.de

Prof. Achim Kopf
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Bremen 
Email: akopf@marum.de

Dr. Rebecca Zitoun
GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
E-Mail: rebecca.zitoun@utas.edu.au

Arne Schwab
Schwab Research Technology (SchwaRTech)
Email: aschwab@schwartech.de

The MTOR initiative does not seek to question university rankings in principle. Rather, it wants to take a critical look at these rankings and highlight that the institutional achievements and contributions of universities go far beyond the aspects reflected in the respective rankings.
“Reducing academic achievements to a single number does not do justice to the diversity of universities. Focusing too much on rankings can create false incentives. In our view, a shift in perspective is necessary. We need more cooperation instead of competition,” Professor Kucera states. “We need new, alternative evaluation approaches that focus on parameters such as social impact and sustainability. We are more than happy to participate in international comparisons. However, these should be based on diverse, transparent criteria. They should not be driven by commercial interests. Universities should be encouraged to highlight their individual strengths and unique circumstances.”

Participating Organizations

Since its inception, many leading higher education policy organizations have joined the MTOR initiative. These include the European University Association (EUA) and the YERUN network (Young European Research Universities), of which the University of Bremen is a member.

Further Information:

https://inorms.net/more-than-our-rank/

https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera
Vice President for Research and Transfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60021
Email: kon1@uni-bremen.de

Gottfried Menken was born in Bremen in 1768 and was one of the most famous theologians of the period. After studying and working in various parishes, he returned to his hometown in 1802. He initially worked in the St. Pauli parish in the Neustadt district, then from 1811 to 1825 as Pastor primarius at St. Martini, which was the smallest parish in Bremen at the time.

Up to his death on June 1, 1831, he devoted himself exclusively to scriptural interpretation. During his lifetime, he became known far beyond his hometown through the publication of collections of sermons and scriptural interpretations and was highly regarded in theological circles.

Further Information:

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/

Contact:

Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch
Head of Historical Collections, State and University Library Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-59571
Email: hermes@suub.uni-bremen.de

Marzia Wafaee studied and earned her doctorate in Tehran, Iran. She worked as a lecturer at Kabul University and, in the two years before Afghanistan’s collapse, as the director of the Research Department at Afghanistan’s Ministry of Higher Education. After the Taliban seized power in 2021, she came to Germany, where she has been conducting research at the University of Bremen since 2022; Initially, through a VW scholarship, then as part of a bridge scholarship from the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, and now as part of a Philipp Schwartz Fellowship. Together with Professor Tim Neudecker, she is working on the development of novel polymers that exhibit both conductive properties and mechanochromic activities when stretched. Mechanochromic activities refer to the ability of a compound to change color under mechanical stress. This property is particularly important in the construction and transportation industries, where color changes can serve as warning signals when materials are subjected to excessive load.

“We are truly delighted for Marzia Wafaee with regard to the fellowship, which will enable her to continue and advance her research at the University of Bremen,” said Dr. Mandy Boehnke, Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity. It was the University of Bremen that submitted an application for funding for Marzia Wafaee. The decisive factors for approval are not only the researcher's academic achievement, but also the commitment of the universities. Essential aspects include, in particular, supervision by academic mentors and comprehensive support from the International Office in conjunction with the services offered by the Welcome Center.

Further Information:

https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/philipp-schwartz-initiative

Contact:

Kirsten Beta
Coordinator of Programs for At-Risk Researchers
International Office
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60376
Email: kirsten.beta@vw.uni-bremen.de

The registration fee is a one-time payment of 40 euros for female students and non-working participants for a three-week period. Both summer universities can be combined. For women in employment, the participation fee is 40 euros per day (if possible). Female students can also apply for travel grants and free childcare is available throughout the entire program. Those interested can register by July 31 at https://www.ingenieurinnen-sommeruni.de/eng/home-en/ and https://www.informatica-feminale.de/eng/home-en/.

Small Group Classes with International University Lecturers

Informatica Feminale and the International Summer University for Women in Engineering see themselves as networks for women. Participants have the chance to share their experiences of the technical and social changes they encounter every day, which they also help shape as female engineers. Classes are held for small groups by international university lecturers from academia and industry. Participants can attend several half-week courses and earn certificates of achievement and credit points and classes are taught in German or English.

Trips to research institutes, technical companies, and cultural institutions offer interesting insights into the state of Bremen and northwestern Germany. In addition, companies and institutions will introduce themselves during the three weeks and seeks to establish contacts with committed female students or new employees.

Further Information:

https://www.ingenieurinnen-sommeruni.de/eng/home-en/
https://www.informatica-feminale.de/eng/home-en/

Contact:

Henrike Illig and Veronika Oechtering
Center of Excellence for Women in Science and Technology
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64469
Email: ifis-summerschools@uni-bremen.de

The University of Bremen is a pioneer in the use of alternative platforms, emphasized President Jutta Günther: “We recognized the consequences of the fatal developments at X (formerly Twitter) early on, and we were one of the first universities to leave X in 2023.” Since then, the university has been using the decentralized microblogging service Mastodon as an alternative.
Björn Staschen, media researcher, journalist, and co-initiator of the Save Social campaign, believes this is the right way to limit the power of tech companies: "If a few super-rich individuals determine who in the world receives what information and when, our democracies are in danger. We should be the ones to determine the rules for our digital debates. We find it extremely encouraging that the University of Bremen is now the first university to join this growing movement that wants to preserve the democratic power of social media."

The initiative's supporters include scientists, artists, and media professionals. It is also endorsed by “Deutscher Journalisten-Verband (DJV)”, “Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalisten-Union,” and the environmental protection organization Greenpeace.

The European Union and the German federal and state governments are being called upon to invest more in the development and user-friendliness of alternative platforms. They should also create opportunities for such platforms to be operated on a non-profit basis. The signatories see an urgent need for action by everyone, including companies, associations, social institutions, and politicians, both at the national and European level. For this reason, institutions across Europe are being asked to lend their support.

Further Information:

https://savesocial.eu/en/

Educational Leave: Officially Recognized Language Learning

As always, beginner courses in Italian, Polish, and Russian, as well as English courses with a target level of B1 are recognized as educational leave under the Bremen Educational Leave Act. In addition to students and prospective students, these courses are also open to employees and interested members of the public.

For advanced learners, the summer program offers two-week intensive English courses (levels B2 to C1). What makes these courses special is that they enable students to obtain officially recognized language certificates for university admission (UNIcert). Detailed information on content, dates, and registration options is available on the Language Centre’s website.

Individual Learning with Professional Support

The Language Centre also supports independent learning outside of courses with its Language Resource Centre, tandem program, and Writer's Help Desk, which is available year-round and offers students feedback on English-language texts and support with academic writing. All of these services are free of charge for students.

The accompanying language program for the 2025 summer semester will begin on October 13, 2025.

Further Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/szhb

Contact

Anika Müller-Karabil
Language Centre of the Universities in the Land of Bremen
szhb@uni-bremen.de

“Always with our well-being in mind”

In his speech honoring Professor Gesine Mollenhauer, winner of the award in the natural sciences and engineering, her former doctoral candidate Dr. Manuel Ruben said: “One of the qualities that makes Gesine Mollenhauer truly outstanding is her ability to adapt her supervisory style to the individual needs of her doctoral candidates. Instead of expecting us to follow a uniform approach, she tailors her support to each individual – always with our well-being in mind." Gesine Mollenhauer is a professor of organic sedimentology within the University of Bremen's Faculty of Geosciences. She has been researching and teaching at the University of Bremen since 2011 and is the scientific director of a laboratory for radiocarbon dating at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven.

“Exceptional supervision leaves its mark”

The prize in the humanities and social sciences went to Professor Klaus Schlichte, who has been a professor of international relations and global society within the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bremen since 2010. He is also the spokesperson for the Institute of Intercultural and International Studies. Currently, he is conducting research on three topics: knowledge in German security policy, social dynamics in African societies, and armed conflicts. “Exceptional supervision cannot be measured in numbers,” stated his former doctoral candidate Dr. Ahmed Elsayed. “You can feel it in the growth of self-confidence, in the clarity gained, and in the personalities that are shaped as a result. Those who guide others with understanding and care leave their mark on people, not just in manuscripts.”

About the Prize

The University of Bremen's Award for Outstanding Doctoral Supervision is presented every two years to one person from humanities and social sciences and one from the natural sciences and engineering. The jury is comprised of the Bremen Early career Researcher Development Center (BYRD) advisory board and one representative of the prize sponsor, the Alumni Network of the University of Bremen. Young scientists who completed their doctorate at the University of Bremen no longer than four years ago can enter nominations. The University of Bremen’s Alumni Network donated the prize money of 2,000 euros per person. The money is restricted in its use and is available exclusively for projects that support doctoral candidates.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/byrd/doctoral-researchers/doctoral-supervision/award-for-outstanding-doctoral-supervision-1

Contact:

Dr. Marie Saade
BYRD (Bremen Early Career Researcher Development)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60327
Email: marie.saadevw.uni-bremen.de

At the event, the students will present their findings on the issues raised by the current industry partners BalsoTech, braendz, Casmue, QuantumPrime, and OHB Digital Connect GmbH. The event will begin with a keynote speech from William Chitangala, who will provide insights into future thinking and show how companies can respond strategically to scenarios of the future.

“future concepts bremen” – An Opportunity for Students and Companies

“future concepts bremen” is a practice-oriented teaching format offered by the Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX) at the University of Bremen. Every semester, students, industry partners, and researchers come together to address various issues in business practice and develop solution concepts within 100-day project phases.

Students are given the opportunity to apply their university knowledge in a practical setting, gain initial entrepreneurial experience during their degree, and establish contacts with potential employers. In turn, industry partners are supported in the development of innovative business and organizational concepts to strengthen their competitiveness and gain access to future skilled workers.

The project is run by the Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX) at the University of Bremen in collaboration with the Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports, and Transformation.

Bachelor's students from all disciplines can participate in “future concepts bremen.” Students of Business Studies, Management and Production Engineering, and Information Systems and Management can have their participation credited as part of their regular degree program, while all others can have it credited as part of “General Studies.”

The project is also aimed at other companies, start-ups, non-profit organizations, and public institutions in the Bremen metropolitan region that are interested in collaborating with students. The projects start in April and October and last approximately three to four months. Interested companies can contact “future concepts bremen” at any time with a project outline.

Further Information:

• www.uni-bremen.de/lemex/transfer/future-concepts-bremen (only available in German)
• https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/lemex
• https://digitalhubindustry.de/en/

Contact:

Leon Marquardt
Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship (LEMEX)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-66873
Email: leon.marquardt@uni-bremen.de

Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen, stresses: "The hyBit research project, coordinated at the University of Bremen, is conducting in-depth research into climate-neutral production in the steel industry as part of a large network of academic institutions and companies. The project team has set itself the task of supporting the transition to green steel production with data, analysis, and innovation. This is what hyBit stands for, and strong cooperation between science, industry, and politics is still needed to complete this industrial transformation toward sustainability."

Early Intervention: Green Steel in 2040 Requires Decisions Now

The importance of Bremen as a location is evident when you look at the international pressure to compete: The focus is on efficiently linking energy and material flows. The development of industrial symbioses is becoming increasingly essential in the face of global competition, for example in terms of electricity prices and skilled workers. hyBit studies on hydrogen transformation in Scandinavia, the Middle East, and North Africa indicate that although relocation appears attractive in theory, it is usually not feasible within the necessary time frame, or would not be expedient from the perspective of resilient value chains. Stührmann: “This makes it all the more important to push ahead with local solutions.” The aim of the 30 million euro hyBit research project is to analyze the optimal conditions for successful transformation and translate them into specific recommendations for action.

“Long-term transformation requires decisions to be made early on. Green steel from 2040 onwards depends on investment now, as well as the development of a reliable hydrogen infrastructure. This cannot be achieved by ArcelorMittal alone," states Torben Stührmann. It would be short-sighted to reject the billions in funding promised by the federal government and the state of Bremen just because hydrogen is not expected to be used until the coming years. “The transformation of the steel industry is a key challenge for climate policy – both locally and globally.”

The hyBit Project

The Hydrogen for Bremen's Industrial Transformation (hyBit) project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR), has been supporting the transformation of Bremen's industrial port into a climate-neutral, sustainable, and resilient industrial location since the end of 2022. The aim is to provide a sound database and specific decision-making criteria for politics, business, and society.

19 partners from academia and industry who work together in a strong spirit of cooperation support the hyBit project consortium. Project partners include the Wuppertal Institute, the Bremen Institute for Production and Logistics (BIBA) at the University of Bremen, Fraunhofer IFAM (Bremen), Fraunhofer ICT (Karlsruhe), and Bremen City University of Applied Sciences, as well as other key players in Bremen's industry such as ArcelorMittal Bremen, swb, and BLG. Eleven research groups from the fields of technology, humanities, and social sciences are represented at the University of Bremen.

Degree Programs Available at the University of Bremen

There are over a hundred degree programs at the University of Bremen – from natural sciences and engineering to mathematics, languages, and humanities and the liberal arts. The university also offers teacher education courses.

Last year, the university added the teacher training program in physical education and the English-language bachelor’s degree program in Natural Sciences for Sustainability to its range of study programs. This year, the subject Educational Sciences, which focuses on learning environments beyond traditional classrooms, is being added as an additional subject. Within the context a two-subject bachelor’s degree, a major must always be combined with a minor subject. Until now, Educational Sciences was only offered as a minor, but it can now be chosen as a major, accounting for two-thirds of the program.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/study-orientation/student-orientation-events

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zsb

Contact:

Betina da Rocha
Central Student Advisory Service
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-61152 (61160)
Email: darocha@uni-bremen.de

A central component of the project is the development of a cloud-based platform that enables demand-driven signal preprocessing, condition monitoring, and data transformation. This helps to close the gap between large amounts of data from test bench environments and real-world field data. “By using transfer models and machine learning, known transmission characteristics can be transferred to new applications. This reduces dependence on extensive field data and makes the system economically attractive,” says Julia Scholtyssek, a research assistant at the ITEM research institute at the University of Bremen.

The project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWK), combines the expertise of ANEDO GmbH, SEGNO Industrie Automation GmbH, and the ITEM research institute at the University of Bremen.

The aim is to enable reliable and economical monitoring of drive units in mobile machines through an integrated edge measurement system, a cloud-based analysis platform, and an AI building block system. “Drive systems in mobile machines are exposed to enormous stresses, and wear and tear can lead to costly breakdowns. Our system is designed to detect damage at an early stage through intelligent, self-learning analysis,” comments Matthias Terhaag, project lead at ANEDO.

As mobile machines are often used in safety-critical areas such as ports, data security plays a crucial role. The solutions developed in the project therefore rely on modern encryption technologies to prevent unauthorized access. At the same time, a user-friendly app is being developed that enables intuitive control and monitoring of the systems. “Our solution increases machine availability, reduces operating costs, and contributes to digitalization in industry,” emphasizes Vasco de Freitas, head of sales at SEGNO.

Further Information:

Https://masterki.uni-bremen.de/ (only available in German)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/ae (only available in German)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/ae/team (only available in German)

Contact:

Professor Karl-Ludwig Krieger
University of Bremen
Faculty 01: Physics / Electrical Engineering
ITEM – Angewandte Elektronik- und Softwaresysteme
Phone: +49 421 218-62550
Email: krieger@uni-bremen.de

Call for Ideas for Shaping Heat-Adapted Urban Development

In order to find suitable partners, the project team has published its first call for ideas: We are looking for innovative, creative, and practical approaches to health-promoting, equitable, and heat-adapted urban development. Funding will be provided to networks from academia and industry in the State of Bremen or the Ruhr region.
The Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research is further expanding its research and transfer activities in the field of environmental and climate justice and health-promoting urban development with the joint ICUH project: “The InnovationsCommunity Urban Health provides an opportunity to develop and test social innovations in order to help shape healthy and equitable cities for all and achieve greater environmental justice,” explains Professor Gabriele Bolte, Managing Director of the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen. “In order for the socio-ecological transformation to succeed, it is important to reduce social inequalities in health.”

A total of around three million euros in project funding will be available for innovative solutions within the framework of the ICUH over the next three years. The call focusing on climate justice and heat-adapted urban development will be followed by a second call focusing on the promotion of active mobility.

"With our call for ideas, we invite everyone to contribute their suggestions and become part of the InnovationsCommunity Urban Health. Together with strong partners from the fields of research and practice, we offer a unique platform for exchanging ideas, developing solutions, and implementing them. Applicants will benefit from valuable networks, practical expertise, and the opportunity to turn their ideas into reality and overcome existing barriers to implementation of a socio-ecological transformation," says Thomas Altgeld, Managing Director of the Landesvereinigung für Gesundheit und Akademie für Sozialmedizin Niedersachsen Bremen e. V., a non-profit professional association for health promotion and prevention.

InnovationsCommunity Urban Health in the State of Bremen and the Ruhr Area

ICUH will receive a total of five million euros in funding from 2025 to 2028 as part of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space's (BMFTR) DATIpilot initiative. ICUH was selected from almost 500 applications from across Germany and is one of only 20 initiatives nationwide to receive funding, together with another project in Bremen. The joint project is being implemented in the State of Bremen by the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP) at the University of Bremen and Landesvereinigung für Gesundheit und Akademie für Sozialmedizin Niedersachsen Bremen e. V. (LVG & AFS). The cooperating partners in the Ruhr area are the Bochum University of Applied Sciences (Department of Health Sciences), the TU Dortmund University (Urban and Regional Planning), the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, and the NRW Centre for Health.

Further Information:

Information on the call for ideas and on application and selection criteria can be found here: https://urbanhealth-digispace.de/call-for-ideas/ (only available in German)

Questions about the ICUH project can be answered by:

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Bolte
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68820
Email: gabriele.bolte@uni-bremen.de

Questions about the call for ideas can be answered by:

Dirk Gansefort
Landesvereinigung für Gesundheit und Akademie für Sozialmedizin Niedersachsen Bremen e.V.
Phone: +49 511 3881189-303
Email: dirk.gansefort@gesundheit-nds-hb.de

A key result for Bremen: As part of the project, five traffic light systems in the Bremen Technology Park were modernized and now enable communication with vehicles via V2X (vehicle-to-everything) technology. This allows autonomous vehicles to receive information directly from the traffic light system – an essential step for safe and connected driving in urban areas. The research project was supported by the Bremen State Department for Roads and Traffic.

"The modernization of the traffic infrastructure in the Technology Park is a milestone: It enables direct communication between traffic light systems and vehicles for the first time – and makes Bremen a real-world laboratory for autonomous driving," says Dr. Mitja Echim, Managing Director of TOPAS Industriemathematik gGmbH.

Thanks to the newly deployed technology, traffic data can be received and used in real time in the future – not only within the scope of the project, but also by all road users.

“This exciting research project is making an important contribution to the mobility of the future. As a project partner, we have been able to gain valuable insights into traffic planning and control and jointly demonstrate what will be possible in the future,” says Tim Campen, Head of Transport Technology at the Bremen State Department for Roads and Traffic.

The research contribution from Bremen is a first step toward an intelligently networked infrastructure that will enable greater safety, efficiency, and sustainability in road traffic.

At the Digital Hub Industry Bremen, a prototype safety control center was set up at the same time and linked to an autonomous shuttle bus. The system not only allows remote status monitoring, but also remote control functions that can be used to control the vehicle from a distance if necessary. “The safety control center builds an ideal bridge between research and practical application. It clearly demonstrates how autonomous driving functions can be made safer and more efficient through intelligent control center systems. For us researchers, it offers a valuable opportunity to test our developments under real operating conditions and refine them in a targeted manner,” explains Professor Büskens from the University of Bremen.

The following partners from science and industry are involved in the project:

TOPAS Industriemathematik Innovation gGmbH is responsible for project management and the technical connection of the vehicle to the safety control center, as well as for testing the autonomous shuttle.

The University of Bremen is contributing its expertise in the field of autonomous driving functions through its “Optimization and Optimal Control” and “Cognitive Neuroinformatics” working groups. Technologies that have already been successfully tested in other research projects have been further developed specifically to fulfil the requirements of interaction with the safety control center.

The Department for Roads and Traffic in Bremen coordinated the conversion of the traffic light systems. The main challenge was to modernize existing traffic light technology and make it suitable for the requirements of connected driving.

The companies CGI Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG from Bochum and Verified Systems International GmbH from Bremen are focusing on real-time communication, cybersecurity, and the development of automated test procedures for verifying the algorithms used.

The project is being supervised by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) as the project management agency.

The successful completion of the project has created a forward-looking infrastructure that will make the use of autonomous vehicles in public transport systems more realistic, safer, and, in Bremen, a tangible experience.

Information for Press Representatives:

Press representatives who would like to learn more about the Safety Control Center project as part of their reporting are welcome to contact us. We would be happy to give a presentation on the central functions of the safety control center upon request.

Contact:

Dr. Mitja Echim
TOPAS Industriemathematik gGmbH
Phone +49 421 52632510
Email: mitja.echim@topas.tech
 

Prof. Dr. Christof Büskens
Center for Industrial Mathematics
Optimization and Optimal Control Working Group
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-63861
Email: bueskens@uni-bremen.de

The aim of the project is to develop the existing open space into a lively spot where people enjoy spending time, based on the guiding principles of exercise, play, experiencing nature, and socializing. The park will be open to university members and guests from the Technology Park.

Director of Finance and Administration Frauke Meyer: “With the new multigenerational park, the University of Bremen is creating an innovative open space that supports health, community, and environmental awareness in equal measure.”

The design is based on an ideas workshop held in February 2023 under the direction of the planning office naturspielraum. In a participatory process, the wishes and needs of different user groups were noted and incorporated into the final designs.

The multigenerational park will be developed and maintained in stages and will continue to be supported by civic engagement and funding in the future. Currently, for example, native trees and shrubs are needed to plant along the fence facing the street. Donations of suitable shrubs can contribute to the ecological enhancement of the area.

Funds are currently being acquired to purchase additional exercise, play, and seating equipment. The focus is on the following elements: benches and tables, a volleyball court (especially the net and net holders), and other play facilities.

Interested institutions, initiatives, or sponsors can contact the project coordinator: inae.kim-frommherz@vw.uni-bremen.de

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/mehrgenerationenpark (only available in German)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Inae Kim-Frommherz
Administrative Unit 08: Central Administrative Affairs / Organizational Development
University of Bremen
Email: inae.kim-frommherz@vw.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-60107

The three-day program consists of workshops and lab exercises in various STEM fields, discussion rounds with female university students, campus tours, as well as field trips to companies within Bremen. Participants will benefit from the insights into degrees in natural sciences and technology.

The participation fee is 10 euros and includes drinks, snacks, and a meal in the university dining hall (Mensa). Female school students can register at https://www.schnupperstudium.uni-bremen.de (website is in German only). The registration deadline is June 25, and spots are limited.

This introductory course is part of the collaborative MINTsteps project, which has received funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since May 2024 as part of the third funding period of the regional clusters for youth education in STEM. The goal of MINTsteps is to break with stereotypical gender norms, create access to STEM fields, and empower young women by offering opportunities to connect with female students, researchers, and professionals.

“We want to create spaces where girls can ask questions, try new things, and rediscover themselves and their interest in STEM fields – independent of ascribed social roles,” says Inessa Ulrich, MINTsteps collaborative project coordinator.

Further Information:

Https://www.schnupperstudium.uni-bremen.de/ (in German only)

Contact:

Inessa Ulrich
MINTsteps Joint Project Coordinator
Center of Excellence for Women in Science and Technology
University of Bremen
Email: mintsteps@uni-bremen.de
Phone: 0421 421 218-64471

Since 2000, the university archive has been preserving everything produced by the University of Bremen in the areas of administration, research, and teaching. Today, it comprises over 55,000 items, of which more than 38,000 have been catalogued, including around 12,000 files, 2,670 posters, 3,720 leaflets, more than 5,100 theses, and around 9,500 brochures, newspapers, and magazines. With around 2,200 meters of shelf space – of which around 1,545 meters are already occupied – the archive is a central repository of university knowledge.

University Archive Open House

On June 18, 2025, the university archive will open its doors to curious visitors. Between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., visitors to GW1 Building, Wing A (ground floor) will get an exclusive look behind the scenes of the archive. In addition to guided tours of the storage rooms, staff will provide insights into ongoing projects such as the Bremen Professor Catalog, the oral history project on the history of the university, the digital timeline of the university, and the online documentation of campus art.

Further Information:

Open House at the university archive

June 18, 2025, 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location: University of Bremen, GW1 Building, Wing A, ground floor

Program:

Contact:

Sigrid Dauks (Archive Director)
University of Bremen Archive
Phone: +49 421 218- 60390
Email: archiv@uni-bremen.de

Students, alumni, and employees of the University of Bremen, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, Bremen University of the Arts, and Constructor University, as well as their institutes and research institutes, are eligible to participate.

From the first flash of inspiration to the fully developed business concept – start-up ideas can be submitted at any stage. The application deadline ends on August 17, 2025.

About CAMPUSiDEEN

CAMPUSiDEEN is a joint competition hosted by the University of Bremen, Bremen City University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, Constructor University, University of the Arts Bremen, and Bremer Aufbau Bank. The competition is organized by the BRIDGE university initiative, which is part of the UniTransfer unit at the University of Bremen. This year, CAMPUSiDEEN is supported by the following partners: AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven, Bremer Aufbau-Bank, Bremen Chamber of Commerce, Nachtwey IP law firm, Sparkasse Bremen, and Stiftung Bremer Wertpapierbörse.

Further Information:
https://bridge-online.de/en/campusideen

Social media (https://www.instagram.com/bridge.bremen/ and https://www.linkedin.com/company/bridge-gruendenausbremerhochschulen).
www.uni-bremen.de/kooperationen/unitransfer-transferstelle-der-universitaet-bremen (only available in German)

Contact:

Fabian Oestreicher
BRIDGE - Foundations from Bremen Universities
UniTransfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60343
Email: fabian.oestreicher@vw.uni-bremen.de

Soloists:

Agnes Lipka, soprano
Gabriella Guilfoil, mezzo-soprano
Hany Abdelzaher, tenor
José Gallisa, bass

Further Information:

Tickets are available from the Glocke and via Eventim, as well as at the University of Bremen's campus dining hall (Mensa) from July 2 to 4.
www.glocke.de/tickets-programm/ (only available in German)
www.uni-bremen.de/konzerte/semesteruebersicht/sommersemester-2025/sonntag-6-juli-2025-verdi-messa-da-requiem (only available in German)

A Look at the Atomic Level

This is where TRR 420 comes in: The aim of the research program is to decipher the molecular and microbial processes that lead to the stabilization of glycans in the ocean. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the research team combines laboratory experiments with measurements in natural marine habitats. The focus is on the interactions between algae, bacteria, fungi, their glycans, and proteins – down to atomic resolution in the Ångström range (i.e. length scales in the range of about 0.1 to 1 nanometer, or 0.1 to 1 billionth of a meter).

“We want to understand which biotic and abiotic mechanisms influence the stability of glycans and how these processes occur temporally and spatially in the ocean,” explains spokesperson Prof. Dr. Thomas Schweder, Professor of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology at the University of Greifswald. The consortium is focusing in particular on the sun-exposed surface ocean – the main site of glycan production by algae – and is investigating time scales ranging from days to years.

Research for the Climate: New Insights into Natural Carbon Storage

“In the long term, TRR 420 aims to provide a mechanistic understanding of why sugar structures from algae contribute to carbon storage,” adds co-spokesperson Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann, head of the Carbon Sequestration and Glycobiochemistry research group at the University of Bremen. The findings could make important contributions to the fight against climate change by opening up new perspectives on natural carbon sequestration processes.

“The establishment of TRR 420 is a major success for the University of Greifswald and underscores our international visibility in marine research,” stated President Prof. Dr. Katharina Riedel. “Research into the natural processes of carbon sequestration in the oceans is both highly relevant scientifically and of great social importance in the context of climate change and due to the biotechnological and pharmaceutical properties of algae sugar compounds.”

“I congratulate the two spokespersons and all participating researchers of the TRR 420 – they are conducting passionate research in an extremely promising field. The funding approval marks another major milestone in marine research for the University of Bremen and strengthens sustainability-related research topics,” commented Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen. ”This success not only reflects our expertise in marine research, but also the added value of scientific cooperation.”

The following institutions are involved in the consortium: University of Greifswald, Universitätsmedizin Greifswald, University of Bremen, Technische Universität Berlin, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces Potsdam, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen.

Contact at the University of Greifswald

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schweder
TRR 420 CONCENTRATE Spokesperson
Institute of Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 3, 17489 Greifswald
Phone: +49 3834 420 4212
schweder@uni-greifswald.de

Contact at the University of Bremen

Prof. Dr. Jan-Hendrik Hehemann
TRR 420 CONCENTRATE Co-spokesperson
Faculty 02: Biology / Chemistry & MARUM: Carbon Sequestration and Glycobiochemistry Research Group
Leobener Strasse 8, 28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-63072

The results are alarming: Even without further global warming – that is, if global temperatures were to stabilize at today's level of 1.2 degrees Celsius – 39 percent of the world's glacier mass would disappear. This is due to the glaciers' delayed reaction to climate change. This already certain glacier melt will contribute over ten centimeters to global sea level rise and every additional 0.1 degrees Celsius of warming will lead to about two percent more loss of glacier ice, according to the international team's forecast.

Professor Ben Marzeion from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen is involved in the study. “The results underline the fact that current climate policy plays a decisive role in how glaciers will develop in the future. Not just concerning the coming decades, but also in several hundred years' time. It illustrates the responsibility we carry for generations to come,” emphasizes Marzeion.
“Our study makes it painfully clear that every fraction of a degree matters,” says co-lead author Dr. Harry Zekollari from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. “The choices we make today will resonate for centuries, determining how much of our glaciers can be preserved”.

In all scenarios, glaciers lose mass rapidly over decades and then melt more slowly for centuries, even if it does not get any warmer. This means that the current warming will continue to affect the glaciers for a long time before they have retreated to higher altitudes and reached a new equilibrium.

"Glaciers are good indicators of climate change because their retreat allows us to see with our own eyes how climate is changing. However, since they adjust over longer timescales, their current size vastly understates the magnitude of climate change that has already happened. The situation for glaciers is actually far worse than visible in the mountains today," says co-lead author Dr. Lilian Schuster from the University of Innsbruck.
Glacier retreat not only affects sea levels, but also has far-reaching consequences for the availability of fresh water, increases the risk of glacier-related hazards, and threatens glacier-based tourism. These changes are already making themselves felt in many regions and underline the importance of a global climate policy.

Contribution to the International Year of Glacier Preservation 2025

The study is an important contribution to the United Nations International Year of Glacier Preservation (2025) and underlines the urgent need for global climate action to save the world's glaciers. The research was conducted as part of the Glacier Model Intercomparison Project (GlacierMIP), coordinated by the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project of the World Climate Research Program WCRP.

Original Publication:
Harry Zekollari, Lilian Schuster, Fabien Maussion, Regine Hock, Ben Marzeion, David R. Rounce, Loris Compagno, Koji Fujita, Matthias Huss, Megan James, Philip D. A.
Kraaijenbrink, William H. Lipscomb, Samar Minallah, Moritz Oberrauch, Lander Van Tricht, Nicolas Champollion, Tamsin Edwards, Daniel Farinotti, Walter Immerzeel, Gunter Leguy, Akiko Sakai (2025): Glacier preservation doubled by limiting warming to 1.5°C versus 2.7°C, Science. DOI: doi.org/10.1126/science.adu4675

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Ben Marzeion
Climate Geography, University of Bremen
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67170
Email: ben.marzeion@uni-bremen.de

Involved Institutes:

•    Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
•    Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Schweiz
•    Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgien
•    Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences (ACINN), Universität Innsbruck, Österreich
•    Bristol Glaciology Centre, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Großbritannien
•    Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Norwegen
•    Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA
•    Institute of Geography, University of Bremen, Germany
•    MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany
•    Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
•    Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), bâtiment ALPOLE, Sion, Schweiz
•    Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd (Swiss Re), Zürich, Schweiz
•    Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Japan
•    Department of Geosciences, University of Fribourg, Schweiz
•    Department of Geography, King’s College London, Großbritannien
•    Department of Physical Geography, Utrecht University, Niederlande
•    NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA
•    WSL-Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF, Davos, Schweiz
•    Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, ETH Zurich, Schweiz
•    Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (IGE), Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, Frankreich

Results Reveal High Density of Tobacco Outlets

The study concludes that each school in Bremen has an average of 7.46 tobacco outlets within walking distance (500 meters) and 1.27 outlets within the distance that can be covered during a break (200 meters).
The figures vary greatly depending on location: While some elementary schools are surrounded by up to 32 outlets within walking distance, there are also other schools that have no outlets within walking distance. A total of 992 outlets selling tobacco products were identified in Bremen, including 264 cigarette vending machines, 169 kiosks, 55 tobacco shops, and 129 supermarkets. Tobacco products are legally allowed to be advertised at all of these outlets except for cigarette vending machines. Professor Benjamin Schüz from the University of Bremen, who led the study, emphasizes: “Tobacco advertising and easily available tobacco products in young people's everyday lives play a decisive role in making smoking seem normal.”

Tobacco Advertising Normalizes Smoking among Young People

Current research suggests that tobacco advertising and the placement of tobacco products alongside other everyday goods, such as sweets at checkouts, normalizes smoking for children and young people – even when sales are restricted by law. The Bremen study fills an important research gap, as it is the first time that data on tobacco sales outlets in the school environment has been collected for an entire German city. The results can serve as a basis for further prevention measures.

Germany Lagging Behind in Tobacco Prevention in European Comparison

This is important because Germany is one of the countries in Europe with an above-average smoking rate – among both adults and young people. Current European comparative data from 2020 shows that only Hungary (28.6 percent) has more young people aged between 15 and 19 who smoke than Germany (20.6 percent).
The situation is particularly critical in the state of Bremen, where, according to data from the 2021 microcensus, more adults (20.7 percent) smoke than the national average (18.9 percent). Only in the states of Thüringen and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the percentage even higher. “These figures show that we can still do more to combat smoking, which is the biggest preventable health risk of all,” stresses Professor Benjamin Schüz.

No Official Data on Tobacco Outlets Available

A secondary finding of the study concerns the data situation. The researchers had to extract the geo-coordinates and addresses of tobacco outlets from online map services (Google Maps) as neither the authorities responsible for trade or health nor the customs authorities were able to provide the locations of cigarette vending machines or shops selling tobacco products. This was either down to data protection reasons or because there is simply no systematic record of such outlets, which is not only the case in Bremen. The relevant trade associations were also unwilling to provide information. “This highlights a fundamental problem in research on legal addictive substances. We have hardly any well-documented data on points of sale in Germany, neither for tobacco nor for alcohol,” explains Professor Schüz.

Researchers Call for More Consistent Health Protection

The researchers are calling for effective tobacco control measures to finally be implemented in Germany. These include restricting the availability of tobacco products based on the Dutch model, where cigarettes are not sold in supermarkets and, from 2030, will only be available in specialist shops. Further measures include better data on tobacco consumption and sales, consistent regulation of product placement, including e-cigarettes, in shops, and a consistent ban on advertising, including in retail outlets, especially those that can be accessed by children and young people. The Bremen experts also believe that getting rid of cigarette vending machines and creating more smoke-free zones, including outdoors, would be helpful ways to stop smoking from being seen as normal. This could better protect kids and teens from smoking. “Bremen could become a pioneer in many of these measures,” Professor Schüz is convinced, ”and thus transform itself from one of the states with the highest smoking rates into a role model for others.”

The following people contributed to the study:

Nourat Noemi Alazza, Marie Horn, Benjamin Schüz (Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen)
Annika Nolte, Susanne de Vogel (Data Science Center, University of Bremen)

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/fb11

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Benjamin Schüz
University of Bremen
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
Prevention and Health Promotion
Phone: +49 421 218-68833
Email: benjamin.schuez@uni-bremen.de

On June 3, a public event entitled “Critical Times: Power and Politics in Tech Governance” will also take place at 7:30 p.m. in the foyer of Forum at Domshof. Dr. Amélie Heldt (Digital Policy Officer at the Federal Chancellery), Thomas Poell (Professor of Data, Culture and Institutions, University of Amsterdam), and Nicolas Suzor (Professor of Law, Queensland University of Technology) will speak on the topic. The event will be opened by Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer at the University of Bremen. Admission is free and registration is not required.

Further Information:

https://platform-governance.org/aoir-flashpoint-symposium-2025/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research
University of Bremen
Email: katzenbach@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-67629

Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer, who has accompanied the teams in the application preparation, is also extremely pleased: “This is an absolute team effort. To steadily improve in such a competitive and long selection process, which extends over two and a half years, and to convince the evaluating bodies several times over deserves great respect. This is only possible if everyone works together and makes their contribution at the right moment.”

The German Research Foundation (DFG) announced the funding decision for the new Clusters of Excellence on May 22. From January 1, 2026, the Clusters of Excellence “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface” and “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” at the University of Bremen will receive funding.

“It was a moment of great joy,” says Bremen's Senator for Environment, Climate, and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf, who attended the selection meeting in Bonn as a federal state representative: “The fact that both MARUM and MAPEX are being supported as part of the Excellence Strategy is proof of Bremen's high caliber as an academic location. We have excellent researchers, outstanding research conditions, and a special research spirit in Bremen. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this great success possible.”

“The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface”: MARUM Delighted with Renewed Excellence Funding

For more than two decades, MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has been conducting cutting-edge research as part of the Excellence Strategy. “At MARUM we are delighted about the positive funding decision! With this success, we can continue to innovatively develop our efforts to promoting scientific discoveries and supporting early-career researchers,” says Professor Heiko Pälike, designated spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence for the second funding phase, which begins on January 1, 2026. “The result is also special because there was an exceptional field of applicants.”

The ocean floor is being studied as an interface that has far-reaching functions for the entire Earth system. This involves, for example, deciphering the processes that control the transport of biogenic particles such as algal remains, pollen, or microorganisms to the ocean floor and their transformation under changing environmental conditions, balancing the transfer of carbon and other elements between the ocean floor and seawater, or understanding how ecosystems on the ocean floor react to environmental changes. Due to the scientific and technological complexity, the implementation of the cluster's objectives requires an interdisciplinary research network. In the funding phase that has now been approved, researchers from the University of Bremen will be working together with scientists from the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. They are pooling their expertise to further decode the role of the ocean floor for material cycles and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions.

Other cooperating partners in the region are the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM), Constructor University, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), and the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst.

“We are grateful for the support of our employees, the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, and our international cooperation partners. This renewed success would not have been possible without their commitment and partnership,” emphasizes Professor Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Director of MARUM. “We look forward to continuing to contribute to society with our joint research in the future.”

“The Martian Mindset – A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm”: MAPEX Brings New Cluster of Excellence to Bremen

The scientists at MAPEX – Center for Materials and Processes are also thrilled. Professor Marc Avila, designated co-spokesperson of the cluster: “We see the funding as recognition of our four years of hard work. We now have new opportunities that will enable us to tackle the socially highly relevant and future-oriented topic of resource scarcity and the development of sustainable production technologies with all our strength. Our thanks go to Bremen State and the University of Bremen, who have placed their trust in our academic expertise in the fields of materials science, exploration research, production engineering, and space technology from the very beginning. In this respect, the funding of the Cluster of Excellence is an award for Bremen as a scientific and aerospace location."

The scientists are adopting the “Martian mindset” in order to rethink the production of materials and components from the ground up. The scarcity of resources and extreme conditions on the red planet serve as an experimental setting to develop a new paradigm of sustainability that enables innovative resource and energy-saving processes for material extraction and processing. In the long term, the cluster will thus contribute to sustainable space exploration and, above all, drive green change on Earth.

To simulate this scenario, the researchers are imposing scarcity on themselves in four dimensions, for which they are developing solutions in the cluster: Limited raw materials, limited electrical energy, limited labor, and limited information. Taking these framework conditions into account, three scientific objectives are being pursued: Firstly, the development of (bio)electrochemical methods that do not require fossil fuels and can be used to extract metals, plastics, and other (vital) raw materials such as oxygen even from low-grade starting materials. Secondly, the experimental demonstration of low-energy process chains with which a range of components of sufficient quality (“enough-to-use”) can be produced from the raw materials obtained. Thirdly, the design of novel operating concepts for production systems that are operated jointly by small teams of humans and robots under great uncertainty and with limited information.

“The Martian Mindset” is intended to create the conditions for highly automated, resource-saving production of materials and components that is independent of fossil fuels. “The cluster is thus making a contribution both to the exploration of Mars and, above all, to the development of innovative technologies for the benefit of Earth,” says co-spokesperson Professor Kirsten Tracht. “The funding will allow our interdisciplinary team to break completely new ground with a disruptive research approach. Our goal is to radically rethink sustainability and apply this knowledge not only in academia but also in practice. On the one hand, we want to work with industry to achieve this. On the other hand, together with daycare centers and schools, we will initiate a transfer of knowledge that will enable future generations to shape a sustainable future.”

The cooperating partners are the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, and the MATENA innovate! Center.

Green Light for “University of Excellence” Competition: Best Possible Starting Position for the Bremen-Oldenburg Northwest Alliance

Following the Cluster of Excellence decision, it is now also clear how the University of Bremen will proceed in the Excellence competition: “The Clusters of Excellence we have acquired are the entry ticket for the competition – together with the University of Oldenburg – for the title of ‘University of Excellence.’ We have been hoping for this all along,” explains President Jutta Günther. “As we have been working intensively with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg for some time now, we are well prepared. The great success today shows how sustainable our cooperation is. I would like to congratulate the University of Oldenburg, which was also successful across the board today!”

The aim is to develop a joint vision that is underpinned by various institutional projects at both universities. The University of Excellence applications will be submitted in November of this year and reviewed next spring. A decision will be made in fall 2026.

Further Information:

"The Ocean Floor” Excellence Cluster: https://www.marum.de/en/The-Ocean-Floor.html

“The Martian Mindset” Excellence Cluster: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

Northwest Alliance: https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

Excellence Strategy of the German federal & state governments: https://www.exzellenzstrategie.de/en/

Contact:

President

Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther
Phone: +49 421 218-60011
Email: rektorin@uni-bremen.de

Spokespersons of “The Martian Mindset” Excellence Cluster

Prof. Dr. Marc Avila
Phone: +49 421 218-57826
Email: directorate@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kirsten Tracht
Phone: +49 421 218-64840
Email: tracht@bime.de

Spokesperson of “The Ocean Floor” Excellence Cluster

Prof. Dr. Heiko Pälike
Phone: +49 421 218-65980
Email: hpaelike@marum.de

Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer, who has accompanied the teams in the application preparation, is also extremely pleased: “This is an absolute team effort. To steadily improve in such a competitive and long selection process, which extends over two and a half years, and to convince the evaluating bodies several times over deserves great respect. This is only possible if everyone works together and makes their contribution at the right moment.”

The German Research Foundation (DFG) announced the funding decision for the new Clusters of Excellence on May 22. From January 1, 2026, the Clusters of Excellence “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface” and “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” at the University of Bremen will receive funding.

“It was a moment of great joy,” says Bremen's Senator for Environment, Climate, and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf, who attended the selection meeting in Bonn as a federal state representative: “The fact that both MARUM and MAPEX are being supported as part of the Excellence Strategy is proof of Bremen's high caliber as an academic location. We have excellent researchers, outstanding research conditions, and a special research spirit in Bremen. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this great success possible.”

“The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface”: MARUM Delighted with Renewed Excellence Funding

For more than two decades, MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has been conducting cutting-edge research as part of the Excellence Strategy. “At MARUM we are delighted about the positive funding decision! With this success, we can continue to innovatively develop our efforts to promoting scientific discoveries and supporting early-career researchers,” says Professor Heiko Pälike, designated spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence for the second funding phase, which begins on January 1, 2026. “The result is also special because there was an exceptional field of applicants.”

The ocean floor is being studied as an interface that has far-reaching functions for the entire Earth system. This involves, for example, deciphering the processes that control the transport of biogenic particles such as algal remains, pollen, or microorganisms to the ocean floor and their transformation under changing environmental conditions, balancing the transfer of carbon and other elements between the ocean floor and seawater, or understanding how ecosystems on the ocean floor react to environmental changes. Due to the scientific and technological complexity, the implementation of the cluster's objectives requires an interdisciplinary research network. In the funding phase that has now been approved, researchers from the University of Bremen will be working together with scientists from the Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. They are pooling their expertise to further decode the role of the ocean floor for material cycles and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions.

Other cooperating partners in the region are the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, the Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (MPIMM), Constructor University, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), and the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst.

“We are grateful for the support of our employees, the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony, and our international cooperation partners. This renewed success would not have been possible without their commitment and partnership,” emphasizes Professor Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, Director of MARUM. “We look forward to continuing to contribute to society with our joint research in the future.”

“The Martian Mindset – A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm”: MAPEX Brings New Cluster of Excellence to Bremen

The scientists at MAPEX – Center for Materials and Processes are also thrilled. Professor Marc Avila, designated co-spokesperson of the cluster: “We see the funding as recognition of our four years of hard work. We now have new opportunities that will enable us to tackle the socially highly relevant and future-oriented topic of resource scarcity and the development of sustainable production technologies with all our strength. Our thanks go to Bremen State and the University of Bremen, who have placed their trust in our academic expertise in the fields of materials science, exploration research, production engineering, and space technology from the very beginning. In this respect, the funding of the Cluster of Excellence is an award for Bremen as a scientific and aerospace location."

The scientists are adopting the “Martian mindset” in order to rethink the production of materials and components from the ground up. The scarcity of resources and extreme conditions on the red planet serve as an experimental setting to develop a new paradigm of sustainability that enables innovative resource and energy-saving processes for material extraction and processing. In the long term, the cluster will thus contribute to sustainable space exploration and, above all, drive green change on Earth.

To simulate this scenario, the researchers are imposing scarcity on themselves in four dimensions, for which they are developing solutions in the cluster: Limited raw materials, limited electrical energy, limited labor, and limited information. Taking these framework conditions into account, three scientific objectives are being pursued: Firstly, the development of (bio)electrochemical methods that do not require fossil fuels and can be used to extract metals, plastics, and other (vital) raw materials such as oxygen even from low-grade starting materials. Secondly, the experimental demonstration of low-energy process chains with which a range of components of sufficient quality (“enough-to-use”) can be produced from the raw materials obtained. Thirdly, the design of novel operating concepts for production systems that are operated jointly by small teams of humans and robots under great uncertainty and with limited information.

“The Martian Mindset” is intended to create the conditions for highly automated, resource-saving production of materials and components that is independent of fossil fuels. “The cluster is thus making a contribution both to the exploration of Mars and, above all, to the development of innovative technologies for the benefit of Earth,” says co-spokesperson Professor Kirsten Tracht. “The funding will allow our interdisciplinary team to break completely new ground with a disruptive research approach. Our goal is to radically rethink sustainability and apply this knowledge not only in academia but also in practice. On the one hand, we want to work with industry to achieve this. On the other hand, together with daycare centers and schools, we will initiate a transfer of knowledge that will enable future generations to shape a sustainable future.”

The cooperating partners are the Leibniz Institute for Materials Engineering – IWT, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM, and the MATENA innovate! Center.

Green Light for “University of Excellence” Competition: Best Possible Starting Position for the Bremen-Oldenburg Northwest Alliance

Following the Cluster of Excellence decision, it is now also clear how the University of Bremen will proceed in the Excellence competition: “The Clusters of Excellence we have acquired are the entry ticket for the competition – together with the University of Oldenburg – for the title of ‘University of Excellence.’ We have been hoping for this all along,” explains President Jutta Günther. “As we have been working intensively with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg for some time now, we are well prepared. The great success today shows how sustainable our cooperation is. I would like to congratulate the University of Oldenburg, which was also successful across the board today!”

The aim is to develop a joint vision that is underpinned by various institutional projects at both universities. The University of Excellence applications will be submitted in November of this year and reviewed next spring. A decision will be made in fall 2026.

Further Information:

"The Ocean Floor” Excellence Cluster: https://www.marum.de/en/The-Ocean-Floor.html

“The Martian Mindset” Excellence Cluster: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

Northwest Alliance: https://northwest-alliance.de/en/

Excellence Strategy of the German federal & state governments: https://www.exzellenzstrategie.de/en/

Contact:

President

Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther
Phone: +49 421 218-60011
Email: rektorin@uni-bremen.de

Spokespersons of “The Martian Mindset” Excellence Cluster

Prof. Dr. Marc Avila
Phone: +49 421 218-57826
Email: directorate@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kirsten Tracht
Phone: +49 421 218-64840
Email: tracht@bime.de

Spokesperson of “The Ocean Floor” Excellence Cluster

Prof. Dr. Heiko Pälike
Phone: +49 421 218-65980
Email: hpaelike@marum.de

The event will provide information about the goals and further planning as well as funding opportunities for individual community projects. In addition, the kick-off meeting aims to attract as many new members as possible from and around the ports in order to grow the SPorT community and establish it as a permanent structure for knowledge transfer.

Increasing Competitiveness and Resilience of German Ports

SPorT is a joint initiative of the University of Bremen, the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL), and Bremen’s ports, which is being carried out as part of the DATIpilot federal funding program. The planned community projects will focus, among other things, on the planning, monitoring, and control of container and vehicle handling processes for piece goods and bulk cargo. The community also intends to address the question of how shipping and hinterland transport, for example by freight trains, can be linked to port operations using information technology. These technologies are not an end in themselves, but are intended to increase the competitiveness of German ports and their resilience to market fluctuations and disruptions in supply chains through cooperative and people-centered design. The new alliance does not have to start from scratch: The Smartport Strategy developed jointly with the port industry for the Bremen ports in 2024 serves as a basis. In addition, the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics) at the University of Bremen and the Institute of Shipping Economics and Logistics (ISL) are contributing their decades of academic research experience in the field of maritime logistics. The applicants and coordinators of the new SPorT community are the Bremen ports via the port management company bremenports, the ISL, and the University of Bremen.

Transfer of Knowledge into Practical Application: The DATIpilot Program

Within the framework of SPorT, science and industry will not only engage in an open exchange within a joint innovation community, but will also pull together in jointly coordinated measures and projects – in line with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's DATIpilot program. The aim is to transfer knowledge from research into practical applications, while at the same time creating scope for the implementation of innovative ideas. This is where the activities of the new SPorT community come into play, which aims to bundle the region's great creative and innovative potential in the field of maritime economy and logistics. The idea behind this is that the challenges posed by dynamic developments can be mastered more easily and effectively through close cooperation between research, industry, and authorities. In addition, developments can thus find their way into effective application more quickly. With this approach, the new project was selected from almost 500 applications from all over Germany and is now – together with another project in Bremen – one of only 20 initiatives nationwide to receive funding.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Michael Freitag
LogDynamics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-50001
Email: michael.freitag@uni-bremen.de

Courses Offered in over 20 Languages

For the past 30 years, students from the University of Bremen, Hochschule Bremen - City University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, and University of the Arts Bremen have been able to select from courses in more than 20 languages each semester – ranging from Arabic to Korean, from German as a foreign language for incoming students to Italian for outgoing students, from English for Logisticians to Polish for University and Career. In addition to curricular language courses, the SZHB also offers numerous language courses free of charge for which General Studies credits can be obtained, as well as a wide variety of self-directed language learning programs. Employees from all areas also profit from the diverse selection of courses. The SZHB assists academics with individual language coaching, including writing publications.

One of the SZHB’s features is its close cooperation with Bremen’s renowned cultural institutes. German courses for international students and visiting researchers are offered in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut; Spanish courses by the Instituto Cervantes, and French courses by the Insitut français.

An Important Contribution to Academic Mobility

The SZHB’s core mission is providing language lessons. At the same time, the SZHB’s team of more than 70 people offers much more – including curriculum development, certification of recognized language exams, and encouragement of multilingualism. As an important building block of the HEI internationalization strategy, the SZHB provides a significant contribution to the academic mobility and intercultural openness of higher education in Bremen.

“Our wide range of services, tailored to the needs of students, academics, and administrative staff, demonstrates the SZHB's important contribution to science, research, job market preparation, and international collaboration,” says Prof. Dr. Claudia Harsch, academic director of the language center.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb

Contact:

Anika Müller-Karabil
Language Centre of the Universities in the Land of Bremen
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 21861993
Email: mueller.karabil@uni-bremen.de

University of Bremen subject groups are among the top performers in three areas: Physics and education scored particularly well in acquiring third-party funding, while German studies and mechanical engineering were highlighted for their excellent support for first-year students. In Romance studies, the University of Bremen has a particularly high number of doctorates per professor.

In the “International Orientation of Studies and Teaching” category, the master's program in Space Engineering also took a top spot.

“The University of Bremen has long been at the forefront of the CHE Ranking in terms of support for students starting their degree and in acquiring third-party funding,” says Professor Maren Petersen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies at the University of Bremen. “This demonstrates that excellent research and excellent study conditions go hand-in-hand here.”

About the CHE Ranking

The CHE University Ranking is the most comprehensive comparison of universities in the German-speaking world. It offers assessments of more than 10,000 degree programs at German universities. Around 120,000 students were surveyed for the current ranking. In addition to facts about studying, teaching, and research, the ranking also assesses how students rate the practical relevance of their degree programs and career preparation activities.

Further Information:

https://methodik.che-ranking.de/ (only available in German)

https://studiengaenge.zeit.de/ranking (only available in German)

Contact:

Christoph Wieselhuber
Administrative Unit for Teaching and Studies
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60307
Email: christoph.wieselhuber@vw.uni-bremen.de

With her doctorate at the University of Bremen, Ecuadorian scientist Mariela Tapia is making an important contribution to the energy transition in her home country. She has investigated how an environmentally friendly and stable power supply can be achieved if renewable energies are used strategically. Ecuador's electricity supply is based on hydropower and fossil fuels. However, climate change is leading to unpredictable fluctuations in the availability of water. One solution could be the targeted expansion of wind and solar energy.
Mariela Tapia's research in the Resilient Energy Systems working group within the Faculty of Production Engineering is the first to provide detailed meteorological data sets with high temporal and spatial resolution for the entire country. This data includes solar radiation values over a period of 21 years as well as wind speed and wind direction data over a span of 14 years.
A key finding of her study is that wind and solar energy can complement each other optimally and balance out the seasonal fluctuations of hydropower. The methods and data developed by Mariela Tapia are designed to help planners and decision-makers develop a sustainable energy system for the whole of Ecuador.

The Caspian Sea in Danger: Dramatic Consequences of Climate Change

Climate change is having a serious impact on many ecosystems – one of which is the Caspian Sea with its five littoral states of Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Iran. In his Marine Geosciences master's thesis, Rohit Samant shows that the water level of the world's largest inland body of water could fall drastically in the coming decades.
The Caspian Sea is unique in that it has no outflow into the sea and its water level is determined solely by precipitation and evaporation. But it is precisely this delicate balance that is being disrupted by global warming. Rohit Samant developed various scenarios with the help of 15 climate models.
The results are alarming: The water level of the Caspian Sea could fall by up to 14 meters by the end of the century. Even in the best-case scenario, this would mean a drop of around eight meters, which would have devastating consequences. A quarter of the entire water surface could dry up – with serious consequences: More than 130 fish species and over 100 bird species depend on the Caspian Sea. Fishing, shipping, and tourism are vital for millions of people in the neighboring countries. Rohit Samant's work has attracted international attention. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) used his findings for a working paper at last year's Climate Change Conference in Baku (COP29).

A Sustainable Future for Tobago: How the “Blue Economy” Can Strengthen the Island

How can marine resources on Tobago be used sustainably? Niccolò Orlandi focused on this question in his master's thesis at the University of Bremen and the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT). He analyzed the possibilities of how a “blue economy,” i.e. economic activities related to the sea, can be supported on the island.
Tobago, part of the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago, is characterized by untapped natural resources. Tourism, fishing, and shipbuilding are still underdeveloped. In 2020, the northeast of the island was declared a biosphere reserve by UNESCO as part of the Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB). Niccolò Orlandi has investigated whether and how this prestigious distinction is being used to support sustainable economic development.

Working closely with local people, he drew up an assessment of the region's economic potential for the first time. This has shown that there is a lack of concepts for the targeted management of tourism and the protection of natural resources, for example. There is also a need for action in the fishing industry: Stocks are declining sharply, meaning that alternative sources of income are urgently needed for fishers. Niccolò Orlandi sees one possibility in the promotion of traditional, sustainable fishing methods. Further potential is offered by environmentally friendly aquaculture, the use of marine resources for biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, and the expansion of renewable energies. In his work, he has not lost sight of his goal of keeping the island as unspoiled as possible and opening up economic options for the people in the future. Niccolò Orlandi's study now forms the basis for further activities on the island.

The CAMPUS AWARD

The CAMPUS AWARD honors outstanding theses produced on the campus of the University of Bremen that are thematically dedicated to the sustainable use of resources and the protection of the environment, the climate, and the oceans. The award was established in 2016 and is presented annually by the KELLNER & STOLL FOUNDATION FOR CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), the University of Bremen, and the University of Bremen Alumni Network. It is endowed with a total of 3,000 euros.

Further Information:

www.campuspreis.de (only available in German)
https://www.leibniz-zmt.de/en/

www.uni-bremen.de/en/alumni

www.uni-bremen.de/en/

www.stiftung-klima-umwelt.org (only available in German)

Contact:

Dr. Rita Kellner-Stoll und Reiner Stoll
KELLNER & STOLL FOUNDATION FOR THE CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT
Email: info@stiftung-klima-umwelt.org
Phone: +49 421 230569

Andrea Daschner
Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT)
Press and Public Relations Office
Phone: +49 421 238 00-72
Email: andrea.daschner@leibniz-zmt.de

Media representatives are invited to the exhibition opening on May 14 at 5 p.m. at Bremerhaven City Library. There will be an opportunity to take photos from 4 p.m. Please register by emailing presse@uni-bremen.de.

Professor Sabine Doff from the University of Bremen has curated the exhibition. She initiated Unlock the Future in response to structural inequalities in the education system. Together with Gesine Born from the Bilderinstitut agency and twelve schools in Bremen and Bremerhaven, she developed the basis for the project with the scientific study "Expedition Bildungsgerechtigkeit" (Expedition Educational Equity). The communications and design agency GfG / Gruppe für Gestaltung was responsible for developing and implementing the exhibition, the website, and all media.

Foundation of the Exhibition: The Expedition Educational Equity Study – Understanding Practice, Making Diversity Visible

Taking lessons from good practice examples for more educational equality – this is the guiding principle of the academic study “Expedition Bildungsgerechtigkeit” (Expedition Educational Equality), which was carried out at twelve schools in Bremen and Bremerhaven.

Sabine Doff and Gesine Born have combined qualitative research through interviews with pupils and teachers with visual documentation. Virtual content creator Gesine Born took photographic portraits of the participants and developed AI-generated images of the future together with the young people.

The result is twelve school portraits that visualize concrete ways of implementing educational equity and from which four central fields of action have emerged. The combination of qualitative research and visual communication makes the study particularly accessible. It will be published as an open access publication by Verlag Julius Klinkhardt in summer 2025.

The Unlock the Future Exhibition – Educational Equity Is the Key to Tomorrow

The most important insights from the study will be presented digitally and interactively as part of the traveling exhibition – in a free-standing three-dimensional installation. Visitors can experience how educational equity can be seen, felt, and discussed.

In a quiz, they first learn about three different concepts of educational justice – recognition, threshold, and distributional justice. The focus then shifts to the twelve participating schools: Texts, photographs, and AI-generated images of the future show how educational justice is actively shaped today. QR codes lead to more in-depth information, voices from the field, and further materials. The exhibition combines theory and practice, individual experiences, and structural challenges, thus making a decisive contribution to the public discourse on educational equality.

The following twelve schools are featured:

St.-Johannis-Schule, Bremen
BBSG – Berufsbildende Schule für Gesundheit, Pflege und Soziales, Bremen Walle
Hermann-Böse-Gymnasium, Bremen
Schule an der Humannstraße, Bremen Gröpelingen
Schule an der Fritz-Gansberg-Straße, Bremen Schwachhausen
Albert-Einstein-Oberschule, Bremen Osterholz
Neue Oberschule Lehe, Bremerhaven
Neue Grundschule Lehe, Bremerhaven
Berufsbildende Schulen Sophie Scholl, Bremerhaven
Heinrich-Heine-Schule, Bremerhaven Leherheide
Pestalozzischule, Bremerhaven Lehe
Schule am Ernst-Reuter-Platz, Bremerhaven Lehe

The “Förderallianz Bildungsgerechtigkeit” funding alliance was founded to directly support Unlock the Future. It is committed to systematically strengthening educational equality by helping schools to implement tried-and-tested projects themselves – unbureaucratically and effectively.

The following organizations are part of the funding alliance: Collegium Förderstiftung, Dieckell Foundation, Dr. Heino Rose Foundation, Schütting Foundation, Bremische Volksbank Foundation, University of Bremen Foundation, Dr. Heines Foundation.

Unlock the Future is also supported by: GEWOBA Aktiengesellschaft Wohnen und Bauen, Bremerhaven City Council, Bremen Senator for Children and Education, Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Stiftungshaus Bremen, Bremen State and University Library.

Further Information:

www.unlock-the-future.de (only available in German)

Contact:

Sabine Doff
Professor of English Language Education
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68170
Email: doff@uni-bremen.de
info@unlock-the-future.de

First Priority: Historical Data Sets on Earthquakes and Hot Springs

For now, the collaboration with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is concentrating on historical data sets pertaining to earthquakes and hot springs. Among these are the Seismicity Catalog Collection (2150 B.C. to 1996 A.D.) and the United States Earthquake Intensity Database (1638 to 1985).

“We achieved the short-term goal of safeguarding the data,” Glöckner says. However, a bigger challenge will be to prevent the impending loss of services such as data processing. “We are unable to replace these complex services right away.”

“Freely Accessible Scientific Data Provide an Essential Foundation for Research”

University of Bremen President Jutta Günther emphasizes, “Without data, there can be no research – freely accessible scientific data are essential for research and innovation worldwide. We are assuming the responsibility of preserving this knowledge for the future, and strive to increase collaborations with colleagues in the USA while uniting in opposition to anti-scientific movements.”

Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer at the University of Bremen, adds, “Science thrives on exchange and requires openness. It is therefore very concerning when political decisions threaten the long-term accessibility of foundational scientific data.”

Prof. Dr. Maarten Boersma, interim director of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), adds, “The Helmholtz community has begun discussions with political leaders to create a plan to preserve data on a larger scale.”

About PANGAEA

The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the University of Bremen’s MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences host PANGAEA. Archived as an open access library, PANGAEA publishes and distributes georeferenced observational and experimental data from Earth science research. The platform guarantees long-term accessibility of data (ten years minimum) and is available for projects, institutions, and individual scientists to use.

Further Information:

Backups for the following databases have already been made.

•    National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS): Strong motion earthquake data values of digitized strong-motion accelerograms, 1933-1994
•    NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: Seismicity Catalog Collection, 2150 BC to 1996 AD
•    NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information: United States Earthquake Intensity Database, 1638-1985
•    National Geophysical Data Center / World Data Service (NGDC/WDS); Berry, G; Grim, PJ et al.: Thermal (geothermal) hot springs list for the United States

https://www.pangaea.de

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

https://www.awi.de/en/

Felden, Janine; Möller, Lars; Schindler, Uwe; Huber, Robert; Schumacher, Stefanie; Koppe, Roland; Diepenbroek, Michael; Glöckner, Frank Oliver (2023): PANGAEA – Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science. Scientific Data, 10(1), 347, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02269-x

Contact:

Frank Oliver Glöckner
Head of PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science
Phone: +49 421 218– 65592
Email: frank.oliver.gloeckner@awi.de

The lecturers are nationally renowned experts from academia and public life who address topics such as constitutional law, right-wing extremism research, racism in the media landscape, and the AfD's higher education and climate policy. The lectures, which will be held in German, are as follows:

May 21, 2025

Prof. Dr. Rita Nikolai, Professor of Education, University of Augsburg: "Die Schulpolitik der AfD"

June 04, 2025

Dr. Susanne Götze, journalist and author: “AfD, Trumpisten und neoliberale Netzwerke: Rollback beim Klimaschutz und Comeback des fossilen Autoritarismus”

June 18, 2025

Prof. Dr. Ralf Michaels, Director, Max PIanck Institute for Foreign and Private International Law, Hamburg: “Staatsraison als Ersatzverfassung?”

July 02, 2025

Prof. Dr. Katajun Amirpur, Professor of Islamic Studies and First Commissioner for Criticism of Racism, University of Cologne, in conversation with Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, Professor of Intercultural Education, University of Bremen: “Rassismuskritik als Hochschulentwicklungsaufgabe und die Auseinandersetzung mit Antisemitismus und Wissenschaftsfreiheit”

About "Profs gegen Rechts" and Worlds of Contradiction

“Profs gegen Rechts” is a newly founded network of professors from almost all faculties at the University of Bremen, which has formed in response to the rapid strengthening of anti-democratic groups. The group is committed to a respectful, confrontational, and democratic university. Academic freedom is a core issue for “Profs gegen Rechts.” Said freedom does not, however, include the freedom to discriminate. “Profs gegen Rechts” claim the term to mean a freedom in their working, learning, and development spaces that is committed to the search for truth, reason, and the preservation of democracy.

Worlds of Contradiction (WOC) is an interdisciplinary and collaborative research platform that encompasses the humanities, cultural studies, social sciences, law, and education. Its aims are to develop and carry out research projects, support early-career researchers, implement research-based learning projects and transfer projects with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary collaborative projects that serve the internationalization of the participating academic fields. WOC explores concepts of contradiction and their epistemic framings, including concepts such as difference, aporia, and paradox, in a number of different research projects.

Further Information:

https://www.woc.uni-bremen.de/projects/ringvorlesung-gefaehrdete-demokratie/ (only available in German)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
Director of the Unit for Intercultural Education
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-69020
Email: karakasoglu@uni-bremen.de

The researchers conducted interviews both in schools and with parents to find out how communication between parents and schools can be successful. “The project has shown that easily understandable, accessible, multilingual, or easily translatable information about the complex German education system and what is expected of parents is an important prerequisite for successful communication,” says Yasemin Karakaşoğlu. In addition, a relationship of trust must be established that is based on appreciation for the parents’ educational interests, expresses a culture of welcome, and proactively addresses the issue of racism and discrimination.

Based on these findings, the project team has developed its own (German-language) website. A wide range of information materials can be found at https://blogs.uni-bremen.de/isekim/. In blog posts, the team writes about its research, for example on politics and worldviews in school-parent communication. There are also explanatory videos, for example about the school system in Germany. The communication materials are aimed at both teachers and parents who want to learn more about the German education system.

Further Information:

https://blogs.uni-bremen.de/isekim/ (only available in German)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
Head of Intercultural Education
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-69020
Email: karakasoglu@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Dita Vogel
Senior Researcher - Intercultural Education Unit
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-69020
Email: dvogel@uni-bremen.de

The team collected water samples in the spring and summer of 2022 and the winter of 2023 and quantified the bacteria in each lake during the different seasons. In the lab, the researchers incubated the bacteria with six different fluorescently labeled polysaccharides that allowed them to see whether bacteria selfishly internalized the molecules or digested them externally and whether any specific polysaccharides were preferentially degraded using the selfish mechanism. They also used genetic sequencing to compare the lakes’ bacterial communities during different seasons and to identify bacterial species that used the selfish uptake mechanism.
They showed that selfish bacteria were present in both lakes, but the amount of selfish activity varied seasonally. Overall, the mesotrophic Crniševo Lake showed a greater abundance of bacteria, a more diverse bacterial community, and higher rates of selfish nutrient uptake than the oligotrophic lake.
“It’s fascinating that this mechanism, which we didn’t even know existed before 2017, is also used in freshwater systems,” says senior author and microbial ecologist Greta Reintjes of the University of Bremen.

The team was surprised to find that in the mesotrophic lake, selfish activity spiked following a phytoplankton bloom during the summer when nutrients were abundant. This was not the case for the oligotrophic Kozjak Lake, where selfish activity peaked during the nutrient-scarce winter, similar to what has been observed in marine ecosystems.   
“In Crniševo Lake, when there was higher material present, there was more selfish activity, which was completely unexpected,” says Reintjes. “We can’t explain this ecologically yet – we need to do more research to understand who are these specific organisms that are behaving differently, and why.”

The team also found that certain polysaccharides were more likely to be digested selfishly than others. For both lakes, the most commonly hoarded polysaccharide was pullulan – a sugar that is produced by fungi. Pullulan was digested selfishly up to 12% of the time in the oligotrophic lake and up to 7% of the time in the mesotrophic lake.
“One of the most unexpected discoveries was that bacteria do not degrade all polysaccharides equally,” says Čačković. “Instead, they appear to be selective, which may shape microbial community composition and influence the lake’s food web.”

These dynamics could be impacted by climate change, especially in cold lakes like Kozjak Lake. “When the lake freezes over in winter, it’s like a reset of the system, and that’s something that could be changed in the future because with climate change, these freezing moments are becoming less frequent than they were in the past,” says coauthor and microbiologist Sandi Orlić of the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Croatia. “Understanding how sugars are degraded by different bacteria will help us understand the global picture of sugar and carbon cycling and how this will be impacted by climate change.”
In the future, the researchers plan to use genomic methods to explore which genes and enzymes are behind the bacteria’s selfish mechanism. They also plan to search for selfish bacteria in other types of ecosystems.
“I can't wait to test more systems and see if these selfish bacteria are absolutely everywhere,” says Reintjes. “In the end, I would like to have a complete understanding of how important selfish organisms are globally for carbon turnover.”
This research was supported by funding from DAAD research grants, the FEMS Research and Training Grant, the German Research Foundation, and the Croatian Science Foundation.

Further Information:

Cell Reports, Čačković et al., “Selective heterotopic bacteria can selfishly process polysaccharides in freshwater lakes.” https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00186-X

DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115415

Cell Reports (@CellReports), published by Cell Press, is a weekly open-access journal that publishes high-quality papers across the entire life sciences spectrum. The journal features reports, articles, and resources that provide new biological insights, are thought-provoking, and/or are examples of cutting-edge research. Visit http://www.cell.com/cell-reports.

Contact:

Dr. Greta Reintjes
Emmy Noether Research Group
Microbial-Carbohydrate Interactions Group
Faculty of Biology/Chemistry
University of Bremen
Telephone: +49 421 2028-9710
Email: reintjes@uni-bremen.de

• Political Science
• Social Policy
• European Politics
• Professional Public Decision-Making
• International Relations: Global Politics and Social Theory

In the first part, an overview of the courses will be given: The academic advisors from the five master's programs will share information about the degree content, special features, admission requirements, and application deadlines. In the second part, students can ask questions specific to each of the master's degrees in various breakout rooms. Students from the respective master's programs will also be available for this.

When and where: Thursday, April 10, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Registration and event on Zoom.

Further Information

Registration: www.uni-bremen.de/ipw/ma-info-va (only available in German)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/ipw

www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact

Betina da Rocha
Institute for Political Science
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67401
Email: polis@uni-bremen.de

Flexible and Diverse: Courses for All Levels with Varying Formats

Beginner and advanced language learners alike can find a suitable course to fit their schedule with the semester and intensive courses, paid education leave, as well as hybrid formats offered. The university-specific language certificate UNIcert® can also be obtained in many languages. Independent learners have several possibilities for support as well.

Multi-language course formats are also being offered again – for  example, Croatian and Polish are still offered in combination as a double pack. There are special courses for those who want to prepare for an academic stay in Italy, and courses for heritage languages such as Kurdish, Polish, Russian, and Turkish, which help students to develop the language skills learned in a family setting for use in an academic context.

Specialized English Courses      

There are several subject-specific courses offered in English, among these are courses for natural sciences and engineering as well as for economics, and these often provide the chance to obtain a B2 or C1 language certificate.

In addition to the courses, the SZHB also offers a host of possibilities for independent language learning. These include guided self-learning in the tutoring program, together with others in a language tandem, or in our language cafés, as well as tutorials (e.g. on English grammar) and workshops on learning strategies in the Language Self-Study Center. Those who wish to improve their writing skills in English can take advantage of the Writer’s Help Desk, an individual, one-on-one consultation by appointment. Most of these additional services are provided to students free of charge. ECTS points can be obtained in the tutoring and tandem programs.

Further Information

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb

Contact

Email:

The event is an initiative of the German Library Association e.V. (dbv). Participating libraries in Bremen include academic, church, and specialist libraries.

Further Information:

www.suub.uni-bremen.de/ueber-uns/neues-aus-der-suub/nacht-der-bibliotheken-am-04-04-2025-wir-sind-dabei/ (only available in German)

www.nachtderbibliotheken.de (only available in German)

Contact:

Anke Winsmann
Press and Public Relations Officer
State and University Library Bremen
https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/
Phone: +49 421 218-59572
Email: winsmann@suub.uni-bremen.de

Field Campaign with Research Flights in the Bowen Basin

In September/October 2023, the research team from the University of Bremen, together with researchers from the Airborne Research Australia (ARA) institute, carried out imaging measurements with the MAMAP2D-Light methane spectrometer. The University of Bremen's innovative remote-detection sensor was attached to the wing of an ARA research aircraft for the purpose. A second research aircraft was equipped with highly sensitive measuring devices from the Australian partners. More than 40 research flights were conducted with both aircraft to detect and quantify methane emissions from various coal mines. The study now available is based on the evaluation of the measurement data obtained in Australia in 2023.

“Establishing the link between atmospheric methane measurements and the emission factors of hard coal is one of the really important breakthroughs of this study,” stated principal investigator Heinrich Bovensmann from the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen.

Konstantin Gerilowski, who developed the MAMAP2D-Light remote sensing instrument at the University of Bremen, added: “It was amazing to see how the new generation of aircraft remote-detection sensors, with their specially optimized design for methane measurements, such as MAMAP2D-Light, developed their full potential for detecting methane emissions from open-cast coal mining and were even able to determine the origin of the emissions within the mine.”

Stephen Harris, UNEP-IMEO scientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, also welcomes the study: “This study represents the first time we’ve verified an individual coal mine’s methane emissions using aircraft-based measurements in Australia.”

Manfredi Caltagirone, head of UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory, emphasizes: “The Bowen Basin is home to the majority of Australia’s met coal used in steelmaking, and this work points to significant methane emissions in the sector that need to be abated. There is so much potential for the steel supply chain to step up, rein in its methane emissions, and have a real impact on climate in the coming years. We know methane from met coal production adds a quarter to steel’s climate footprint, but we need better, verified data like those in this study to seize this mitigation opportunity.”

New Insights into Quantifying Methane Emissions from Steel Production

The Bowen Basin is considered one of the largest coal mining areas in the world, with its coal being used primarily in steel production. In Germany, about half of the imported coal is used in steel production. In 2024, Australia was the largest exporter of coal to Germany. The amount of hard coal imported from Australia doubled from around four million tons in 2020 to over eight million tons in 2024. This study highlights the significant potential for methane emissions reduction across the steel supply chain and the need for improved data to understand and reduce the sector's emissions.

Further Information:

Link to publication: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.4c01063

UNEP IMEO : https://www.unep.org/resources/other-evaluation-reportsdocuments/coal-mine-methane-science-studies-road-map

Airborne Research Australia: https://www.airborneresearch.org.au/

Additional Photo and Video Material: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1__Zbb1265gat21JR7XN-p5nHNPDXa0VI

Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen: https://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/eng/index.html

Contact:

Heinrich Bovensmann
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
University of Bremen
Email: Heinrich.Bovensmann@uni-bremen.de

Jorg Hacker
Airborne Research Australia (ARA)
Email: Jorg.hacker@airborneresearch.org.au

The contemporary and comprehensive definition of racism is specifically tailored to administrative action. In this way, the council is creating a basis for sustainable anti-racism strategies in public institutions. “The aim is to provide the administrations of the federal, state, and local governments with a tool that provides practical guidance,” explains Professor Karakaşoğlu.

“The definition describes racism not only as conscious discrimination and violence, but also as structural and institutional mechanisms that operate unconsciously. These manifest themselves, for example, in institutional processes, norms, and routines that can systematically disadvantage and exclude people on the basis of actual or perceived ethnic, cultural, religious, or national characteristics.” It is aimed primarily at employees in administration, politics, and public services to create a common understanding and enable effective measures.

The expert council emphasizes that state institutions in particular must be pioneers in the fight against racism. The definition developed is intended to help administrations at the federal, state, and municipal levels to better recognize and systematically dismantle racist structures. This includes, in particular, the review and reform of institutional routines, processes, and procedures that may unconsciously facilitate racial discrimination.
Professor Karakaşoğlu emphasizes: “Systematically combating racism is essential in order to eliminate disadvantages in the communication and work of authorities and in their dealings with the public, and to effectively implement the principles of equal treatment.”

The Expert Council

The Expert Council on Anti-Racism was established by the Federal Government Commissioner for Anti-Racism, Minister of State Reem Alabali-Radovan, and consists of twelve members from academia, administration, and practical fields. The Expert Council on Anti-Racism develops proposals for an effective, sustainable anti-racism policy and thus supports the work of the anti-racism commissioner. It advises the Minister of State on a range of issues, including developing a definition of racism for use by administrative authorities.

Professor Yasemin Karakaşoğlu

Professor Yasemin Karakaşoğlu has been teaching at the University of Bremen since 2004. Her areas of focus include educational inequality and racism-critical school development in the migration society. In 2021, she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her special commitment to coexistence in Germany.

Further Information:

Https://www.integrationsbeauftragte.de/ib-de/medien/presse/pressemitteilungen/-arbeitsdefinition-von-rassismus-fuer-verwaltungshandeln-vorgestellt-2337370 (only available in German)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Karakaşoğlu
Director of the Unit for Intercultural Education
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-69020
Email: karakasoglu@uni-bremen.de

ICAM will begin on Monday, March 16, with an opening ceremony by the Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf; and the President of the University of Bremen, Professor Jutta Günther.

“ICAM focuses on a region of the world that is marginalized on our maps," says Senator Kathrin Moosdorf. “But the Arctic region is becoming increasingly important to our planet. The consequences of the climate crisis are being dramatically felt here, affecting weather, climate, and ecosystems worldwide. International cooperation in Arctic research is therefore more important than ever. I am delighted that more than a hundred researchers from all over the world are coming together in Bremen to focus on the Arctic.”

University President Jutta Günther is also pleased to welcome you to this year’s International Conference on Arctic Margins at the University of Bremen. “Arctic research provides vital insights into the development of our planet and thus into our future. It thrives on international cooperation and the close interaction between science, politics, and society. The locations of Bremen and Bremerhaven, with their university and non-university partner institutes, form an internationally recognized hub for Arctic research,” she states.

Public Evening Lecture on Current Topics

As part of the conference, a public lecture entitled “UNCLOS: Beyond 200 Miles in the Arctic Ocean” will be held on Tuesday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in the large lecture hall of the Keksdose building. It will discuss the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the competing claims to use the Arctic Ocean, some of which are geologically defined. The lecturer, Professor David Cole Mosher from the Geological Survey of Canada, will draw on his expertise as a member of the UN Commission, to explore the complex relationships between geosciences, politics, and international law in the Arctic, which have gained additional relevance due to recent political developments. The lecture will be held in English and is open to all interested parties.

Further Information:

www.icam-x.org

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Cornelia Spiegel-Behnke
Geodynamics of Polar Regions
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218 65280
Email: cornelia.spiegel@uni-bremen.de

Warming Increases Run-off Intensities – And Influences Element Concentrations

The Arctic region is warming at a rate that is far above the global average. Consequently, snow, glaciers, and permafrost are melting – all of which are contributing to coastal run-off plumes. The run-off plumes changes water parameters drastically as large volumes of fresh water reduce the salinity, washed-in sediments reduce the light availability, and, depending on the lithogenic and organic material in the run-off, the elemental composition is changing. While many of the elements that are being washed into the fjords can act as micronutrients for kelps (e.g., sodium, magnesium, potassium), harmful elements, such as heavy metals (e.g., cadmium, lead, mercury) have also been found in higher concentrations. The researchers collected kelps exposed to different levels of run-off intensities and analyzed their elemental composition. Across all investigated elements, the team found the same pattern: As run-off intensity increases, so does element concentrations. In the case of mercury, kelps that were highly influenced by run-off were characterised by a 72 per cent higher mercury content compared to kelps from the control area.

Changing Microbiome

Further, the researchers analyzed how different run-off rates affect the kelp microbiome. The microbiome is highly important for the ecological function of kelps, such as their nutritional value or elemental cycling in the ecosystem. They found that the microbiome also changed with different run-off rates.

Both of these climate-related changes on kelps are likely to have cascading consequences for the entire ecosystem. The ingestion of metal-contaminated kelps was shown to have negative impacts, such as reduced development, growth, and reproduction, and might lead to a bioaccumulation of harmful elements across the Arctic food web. Eventually, this might also have socio-economic consequences. The high biosorption potential of kelps has to be considered in the implementation of maricultures. However, harvesting kelps in fjords with high levels of meltwater and metal contamination might be an environmentally friendly method to harvest rare earths (phytomining). Rare earths are increasingly being used in key technologies such as renewable energies and electronics.

Further Information:

Original Publication:

Niedzwiedz S, Schmidt C, Yang, Y, Burgunter-Delamare B, Andersen S, Hildebrandt L, Pröfrock D, Thomas H, Zhang R, Damsgård B, Bischof K (2024): Run-off impacts on Arctic kelp holobionts have strong implications on ecosystem functioning and bioeconomy. Scientific Reports. 14:30506. Doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-82287-w [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-82287-w]

Marine Botany at the University of Bremen: www.uni-bremen.de/en/marbot

About the project FFACE-IT: www.face-it-project.eu

Contact:

Dr. Sarina Niedzwiedz
Marine Botany
Faculty of Biology/Chemistry
University of Bremen
Email: sarina@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Kai Bischof
Marine Botany
Faculty of Biology/Chemistry
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Email: kbischof@uni-bremen.de

“The Center for Deep-Sea Research is a testament to the success of MARUM, the largest university marine science institution in Germany. For decades, scientists here have been unlocking the secrets of the oceans, tracing the history of the Earth, and explaining the connections between the climate and global warming. “Bremen State and the Federal Government have provided significant funding for this new research facility,” says Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science. “The investment is justified: only by understanding how the oceans work and what impact they have on our lives can we protect them and ensure our survival. I wish the researchers every success in their important work here at the ZfT.”

Focus On the Deep-Sea Ecosystem

In the new building, research groups from different disciplines will collaborate closely to investigate the role of the oceans and the deep sea in climate change. Biological, chemical, geological, and physical processes in the deep ocean and on the seabed interact and affect the climate system and the global carbon cycle. Many of these processes have not yet been fully explained.
“ZfT is a joint effort of the Federal Government, Bremen State, the University of Bremen, and MARUM. This partnership is a strong symbol for the future of marine and environmental sciences in Bremen,” says Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen. “The research here will not only expand our understanding of the deep sea, but also contribute to sustainable solutions for the challenges facing our planet.”
“The Center for Deep-Sea Research is poised to take marine research in Bremen to new heights. We are driving technological innovations for deep-sea observations and measurements, and our research on pressing ocean and climate issues is delivering practical solutions,” explains Professor Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, director of MARUM.

First Voyage of MARUM Quest 5000

The German Government and Bremen State jointly funded the building and provided funds to purchase a remote-controlled diving robot, which can reach depths of up to 5,000 meters. MARUM QUEST 5000 will be deployed on the upcoming METEOR M210 expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and will replace a remotely operated vehicle that has been used for more than 20 years.
The new building will house offices and seminar rooms, highly specialized laboratories for the participating academic disciplines, and an equipment hall for the development and maintenance of large marine instruments. In addition, a cold storage hall will augment the core storage facility for the International Deep-Sea Drilling Program. The design of the ZfT is the work of the Bremen architectural firm Haslob, Kruse & Partner.

Further Information:

Photo gallery of the construction of the Center for Deep-Sea Research https://www.marum.de/en/New-building-Center-for-Deep-Sea-Research-ZfT.html

Contact:

Prof. Kai-Uwe Hinrichs
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: + 49 421 – 218-65500
Email: director@marum.de

Please register at https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/study-orientation/student-orientation-events

 Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/study-orientation/student-orientation-events
https://www.hs-bremen.de/en/study/before/prospective-students/
https://www.hs-bremerhaven.de/en
https://www.hfk-bremen.de/en/study

Contact:

University of Bremen
Betina da Rocha
Central Student Advisory Service
Phone: +49 421 218-61152
Email: darocha@uni-bremen.de

Bremen City University of Applied Sciences
Dirk Busche
Central Student Advisory Service (CSAS)
Phone: +49 421- 5905 2743
Email: Dirk.Busche@hs-bremen.de

Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences
Christoph Lüders
Department 1/ Student Advisor
Phone: +49 (0)471 4823 556
Email: studienberatung@hs-bremerhaven.de

University of the Arts Bremen (HfK)
Thorrid Dalter
Department 1 – Student and Academic Affairs
Phone: +49 421 9595 1110
Email: thorrid.dalter@hfk-bremen.de

The competition is divided into different tracks. Students compete against each other in the student track. They ideally have sound programming skills in any programming language. Previous experience in the field of Big Data is not necessary. Students of the University of Bremen can also earn credit points towards their degree. The professional track is aimed at university staff, employees of partner companies, and University of Bremen alumni. Students can also participate in this category if they wish. The cash prizes for the student track are sponsored by the companies JUST ADD AI, neuland – Büro für Informatik, and Die Sparkasse Bremen. They range from 100 euros (5th place) to 500 euros (1st place). In both tracks, the winning teams will each receive a trophy, places 1 to 5 will be awarded medals, and all participants of the top 30 teams will receive attractive non-cash prizes.

The data that the participants will work with involves bank transactions in a mobile banking scenario. This data has been simulated to follow typical customer interactions, but with a twist – some customers are committing fraud! The task for the participants is to use the data to identify the fraudsters. In developing this year’s task, the Bremen Big Data Challenge (BBDC) team worked closely with Die Sparkasse Bremen to validate the concept. In addition, the BBDC is supported by the high-profile area “Minds, Media, Machines.”

Further Information:

Bremen Big Data Challenge: https://bbdc.csl.uni-bremen.de/en/
Cognitive Systems Lab: Cognitive Systems Lab: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/csl
Die Sparkasse Bremen: https://www.sparkasse-bremen.de
Minds, Media, Machines high-profile area: https://minds-media-machines.de/en/homepage

Contact:

The BBDC Team
Cognitive Systems Lab
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
University of Bremen
Email: bbdc@uni-bremen.de

In the summer semester, the University of Bremen will once again be welcoming well over 300 new international students and researchers. Many international students arrive in Bremen with only hand luggage. To support them, the FreeShop was set up in 2013 by the International Office and the Senior Citizens, a group of senior students in the Academy of Continuing Education. The traditional FreeShop is a symbol for the University of Bremen’s international campus with its welcoming culture and the university’s commitment to the sustainable development of our world.

Contact:

Julia Holz
Welcome Center / International Office
U Bremen Research Alliance
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (421 ) 218-60381
Email: welcomecenter@uni-bremen.de

The sustainability strategy marks the beginning of a transformation of the University of Bremen as a whole. This transformation will impact all areas of the university, including research, teaching and learning, campus operations, and the university’s interaction with society. The Academic Senate played a pivotal role in developing and approving the sustainability strategy, reflecting its comprehensive impact on the university. “I am delighted with the Academic Senate’s positive vote on our sustainability strategy and the many activities already underway at our university,” said Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen.

The Sustainability Strategy builds on the university’s unique and successful history of a reform-embracing university, where unconventional approaches and a sense of community have been at the heart of its ongoing development.

Ambitious Goals for All Areas of the University

The strategy outlines specific goals for research, learning and teaching, knowledge transfer, campus operations, and university life, which are closely interrelated. In research, for example, activities will have a greater focus on generating practical knowledge for society. In addition, in order to ultimately become carbon neutral, the university will also make its research more low-emission and resource-efficient.

Education at the University of Bremen is supposed to enable students to reflect on their impact and to make responsible decisions with regard to sustainable development.

“By implementing this strategy, the University of Bremen will provide important impetus for the transformation towards sustainability in society,” emphasizes President Professor Jutta Günther. The university will only be able to achieve its overall transformation if its employees and students embrace change as an opportunity to shape the socio-ecological transformation in a long-term, continuous, and joint manner. “We accept this challenge as a joint creative task and want to implement it in close cooperation with Bremen State and the other academic institutions,” the President concludes.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/sustainability

The Sustainability Strategy will soon also be available in English.

Contact:

Conny Ladenthin
Personal Assistant to the President
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60117
Email: conny.ladenthin@vw.uni-bremen.de

“Our unique research profile, which combines a historical and a global comparative perspective, requires consistent research data that covers the introduction of state social policies and their design in terms of the scope and inclusiveness of social benefits, and that reflects their development over time” explains political scientist Professor Herbert Obinger, CRC spokesperson.

Tailored to the Researchers' Needs

Accordingly, the data in WeSIS is divided into three areas: Firstly, data describing social policy programs in the various fields of social policy – from occupational health and safety and old-age security to health systems, family policy programs, and education policy. Secondly, indicators describing national conditions that social policy reacts to or that are influenced by social policies. And thirdly, data on global interdependencies, which also determine the spread and design of social policy.

“From the outset, our goal was to work with researchers in co-creative processes to develop an information system tailored to their needs. As a one-stop data shop, the data required can be accessed from a single source, eliminating the need for time-consuming data merging from different places. Early Access provides initial visualizations, analysis tools, and country profiles with relevant background information, which facilitates the work of researchers and the interested public,” says Dr. Nils Düpont, research assistant and research data manager at the CRC 1342.

Funded by the DFG since 2018

Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy” is a network of eight research institutes at the University of Bremen in cooperation with Constructor University Bremen, the University of Bielefeld, and the University of Duisburg-Essen. The CRC 1342 has been supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since 2018. The current second funding period will run until the end of 2025.

Further Information:

https://wesis.org/
https://www.socialpolicydynamics.de/en/
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Ivo Mossig
University of Bremen
Institute of Geography
Phone: +49 421 218-67410
Email: mossig@uni-bremen.de

Innovation Wins Through Cooperation

During the opening ceremony, company representatives emphasized the importance of the exchange with researchers and the resulting innovation wins
Frauke Meyer, Director of Finance and Administration at the University of Bremen, emphasized the importance of the #MOIN initiative: “The #MOIN workspace is more than just a place to work – it is a space for creativity, sharing ideas, and synergies. Flexible work areas, an open design, and an inspiring atmosphere support innovative ideas and encourage productive collaboration in this important knowledge transfer project.”
“We are very excited about our new #MOIN workspace, where science and business can work hand in hand. This not only strengthens the transfer of knowledge, but also the innovative power of the region. We would like to thank our Director of Finance and Administration, Frauke Meyer, for her great commitment in making this space a reality, and everyone who will now fill this room with life,” said principal investigator Prof. Büskens.

Making Industrial Mathematics Accessible to All

#MOIN has been supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2023 as part of the “T!Raum” - TransferRäume für die Zukunft von Regionen” sponsor program. The initiative is led by the Center for Industrial Mathematics at the University of Bremen and is being implemented in collaboration with other partners from academia, business, and administration. "#MOIN aims to show that (industrial) mathematics is accessible and full of opportunities for everyone, from schools to high technology, from business to politics," says principal investigator Professor Christof Büskens. The aim is to free mathematics from its elitist, abstract reputation and make it a vibrant and useful academic subject - for schools, industry, and society in general. To this end, #MOIN engages in a broad exchange process with society, culture, education, politics, and business. #MOIN wants to become an integral part of the economy and civil society and play a decisive role in shaping the digital transformation in the region, for example in schools, industry, and society.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/moin-model-region-industrial-mathematics

www.innovation-strukturwandel.de/strukturwandel/de/innovation-strukturwandel/t_raum/t_raum_node.html (only available in German)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Christof Büskens (principal investigator)
Center for Industrial Mathematics
Optimization and Optimal Control Research Group
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-63861
Email: bueskens@uni-bremen.de

Working Together to Attract University-Qualified Nurses to Bremen State

“Ensuring sufficient nursing staff for clinics, long-term care facilities, and home services is currently a major social challenge. The International Nursing BA program at Bremen City University of Applied Sciences is therefore particularly pleased to be a co-initiator and host at their “Campus am Brill” location this year and, together with Bremen’s other higher education institutes (HEIs), show the program’s students and graduates what attractive career prospects and opportunities for further qualification the federal state has to offer. Together, we are addressing the shortage of non-physician healthcare professionals in Bremen,” says Professor Claudia Stolle-Wahl from Bremen City University of Applied Sciences.  
“At the University of Bremen, we have two master’s degree programs that offer university graduates attractive options for further qualification. These prepare them for teaching activities in vocational training, advanced training, and further education; or for a career in healthcare research or healthcare management,” explains Professor Ingrid Darmann-Finck from the University of Bremen. “We provide an academic environment in which research is directly linked to care practice,” adds Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann from the University of Bremen.

“There are a multitude of career paths in the healthcare sector. We are therefore pleased that we can address numerous individual needs in terms of both content and organization with the extensive range of qualifications offered by Bremen HEIs. Students who study part-time at APOLLON University while working in healthcare are able to combine professional experience with the theoretical content of the degree and implement this directly in their everyday work. The Career Day not only shows nurses various qualification and career opportunities, but also brings potential employees and employers together. This is a game-changer for nursing in Bremen,” emphasizes Professor Claudia Schepers from the APOLLON University Bremen.

The Career Day for University-Qualified Nurses will take place on February 14, 2025 at Bremen City University of Applied Sciences, Am Brill 2-4 in Bremen.

Contact:

Maren Emde
Health Sciences Research and Outreach Center
Scientific Management
High-Profile Area Health Sciences
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58519
Email: emde@uni-bremen.de

Further Information:

https://www.healthsciences.uni-bremen.de/en/home.html

ISEK are control and coordination instruments for urban development in a municipality. These include a variety of measures that improve the quality of residential buildings, mobility options, or public green and open spaces, as well as social and health care structures. The development of new ideas for the use of vacant shops or for improving the image of the district can also be among the measures. So far, mainly the processes for developing and implementing integrated urban development concepts have been evaluated, but not their effects on health, social justice, and ecological sustainability.

The Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen is receiving funding of around 900,000 euros, will coordinate the SalusTransform research network, and is responsible for the evaluation, particularly with regard to social inequalities in health and the living environment. “This innovative project promises new insights into the effectiveness of integrated urban development concepts as real-world interventions. With SalusTransform, we can further expand the research focus on health-promoting urban development and environmental justice at the University of Bremen,” emphasizes Professor Gabriele Bolte, head of the SalusTransform joint project and managing director of the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Integrated Urban Development Concepts for the First Time

The aim of SalusTransform is to comprehensively evaluate integrated urban development concepts in Germany for the first time. The aim is to clarify whether the concepts as a whole lead to an improvement in health, a reduction in social inequalities, and greater ecological sustainability. To this end, integrated urban development concepts in the cities of Bremen, Bochum, and Wuppertal were selected. Together with the stakeholders from the municipal administration and from the urban districts, the project team is analyzing how the concepts were designed and the individual measures implemented. The researchers are also investigating the extent to which integrated urban development concepts can contribute to establishing health-promoting and sustainable living conditions for everyone in the urban district. To do this, one district in each of the three cities with an integrated urban development concept will be compared with a district without such a concept. In Bremen, for example, the researchers are comparing the district of Blumenthal, for which such a concept was adopted in spring 2023, with the district of Kirchhuchting.

The evaluation includes municipal data on population structure, traffic volume, noise pollution, and the quality of green spaces, among other things. On the other hand, the researchers collect extensive data by surveying residents, conducting interviews with stakeholders involved in implementing the measures, and using participatory formats such as neighborhood walks and citizen science approaches to measure air pollution.

The methodology for evaluating integrated urban development concepts, which is being developed and tested within the framework of SalusTransform, should be able to be continued in the participating municipalities and transferred to others. This aims to support the consideration of health equity in municipalities.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Bolte
University of Bremen
Faculty of Human and Health Sciences
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
Phone: +49 421 218-68820
Email: gabriele.bolte@uni-bremen.de

April 8 to 10: Workshops at the University and University of Applied Sciences

The Kids' University workshops will take place from April 8 to 10, 2025 on the university campus and in rooms at the Bremen City University of Applied Sciences – during the Bremen Easter holidays. This is where girls and boys will have the opportunity to become junior researchers themselves. They will program self-driving robots, explore the world of brain waves as mind detectives, discover new foods from the sea, and gain their first experiences with the French language. The workshops will be conducted in small groups of up to 20. The first tickets will be available online for free from 8 p.m. on February 5, 2025, via the Kids' University website at www.uni-bremen.de/en/bremen-kids-university or directly from Eventbrite. To avoid a rush for tickets, a second batch of tickets will be released for booking at 8 p.m. on February 10, 2025.

The Kids' University is organized by the University & School Outreach Office of the UniTransfer Unit at the University of Bremen. Numerous dedicated scientists from the university, the institutes in the technology park around the University of Bremen, and the Bremen City University of Applied Sciences contribute to the individual lectures and workshops. The Kids' University is financially supported by Sparkasse Bremen.
The University of Bremen is aware of its responsibility in the community and involves society as a whole with its broad understanding of research-based knowledge and technology transfer. UniTransfer is the University of Bremen's central point of contact between academia, business, and society. The experts support collaborations and projects across the entire range of subjects taught at the university. This ranges from business start-ups, to the commercialization of inventions, the placement of specialists and managers or science communication formats, the coordination of programs for schools, the management of the university foundation, and university fundraising.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/bremen-kids-university

www.technologiepark-uni-bremen.de (only available in German)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Isabell Harder
Administrative Unit UniTransfer, University & School Outreach Office
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57134
Email: isabell.harder@vw.uni-bremen.de

“I am delighted with the recognition that the DAAD is giving to teacher education in Bremen,” says Yasemin Karakaşoğlu, the faculty's dean and principal investigator of the first project phase. “It confirms our focus on reflecting diversity and inclusion, which we address not only through structural developments in internationalization, but also at the content and subject level – for example, by conducting research and teaching on diversity sensitivity and discrimination criticism.”

In the “International Teacher Education” (“Lehramtsstudium international”) project, in close cooperation with the Center for Teacher Education and Educational Research (ZfLB) and the International Office, the Faculty of Educational Sciences is working with universities in Windhoek (Namibia), Toronto and Winnipeg (Canada), and Vienna (Austria). Natascha Korff, a professor of inclusive education at the University of Bremen, leads the project.

“The international teacher education project offers a wide range of systematic and low-threshold opportunities to bring students into contact with other country contexts – while always keeping an eye on the diversity on their own doorstep. We are pleased that the project will enrich teacher education at the University of Bremen for another five years,” says Professor Maren Petersen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies at the University of Bremen.

How Student Teachers Can Gain Experience Abroad

The project aims to strengthen transcultural competencies in three areas: in teaching, in student internships, and in the exchange between researchers. In the first two project phases, international elements have been established in the teaching curriculum, such as digital cooperation seminars between different universities.

Practical placements in schools are an integral part of teacher training. “However, they are rarely used for international study visits. In particular, students training to become primary school teachers rarely go abroad during their studies,” explains Natascha Korff. This is where the project comes in: The practical semester is being opened up for stays abroad and suitable accompanying concepts are being developed in cooperation with the ZflB and the subjects in primary school teaching. In particular, the project aims to address students who otherwise have little or no experience abroad. In a pilot phase of the new concept in 2024, four students spent practical semesters in Canada and Namibia with the help of scholarships. They not only worked in schools, but also attended lectures at the local partner universities and exchanged ideas with teaching staff members at the respective universities.

The project also strengthens the exchange of specialist knowledge. At networking events such as the International Summer School Diversity and Inclusion in Teacher Education (ISSDITE) and the International Teaching Week (ITW), researchers and teaching staff members exchanged ideas on the topics of diversity and inclusion.

New Plan: International Research Seminars for Students

“In the new project phase, the existing offers will be continued. In addition, further offers will be established, especially for the final phase of teacher training studies,” says project coordinator Jenny Bredull. The aim is to enable students to take part in week-long research-related excursions abroad. In seminar groups, they will address inclusion and diversity and develop possible research topics for their master's theses. In addition, the project leaders want to establish an international research seminar for students. “In this hybrid and digital format, students can exchange ideas about the topics of their master's theses and receive guidance from teaching staff members within the international partner network. The completed theses will then be presented at student summer schools,” says Natascha Korff.

Further scholarships will be awarded for internships abroad - in addition to the existing locations, also in Winnipeg. The International Teaching Week will also continue to take place, with the next edition scheduled for May 12 to 16, 2025. The week will also include lectures on “Reflecting Diversity and Inclusion in Teacher Education” for a broader public.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/fb12/internationales/internationale-aktivitaeten/lehramt-international-reflecting-diversity-and-inclusion

https://www.daad.de/lehramtinternational-modellprojekte/en/home/u_bremen-mainstreaming-diversity-inclusion/

Contact:

Natascha Korff
Professor of Inclusive Education
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-69310
Email: nkorff@uni-bremen.de

160 workstations with modern equipment are located around the oval of the inner courtyard. Library visitors who use the group study rooms to study and work can enjoy a particularly beautiful view of the hustle and bustle of the market square. The SuUB team of five employees will supervise the services on site.

SuUB Director Maria Elisabeth Müller is delighted that the Juridicum – the central infrastructure and the heart of the faculty for students and academics so to speak – is once again an integral part of the faculty. She thanks the SuUB planning team, led by Silke Huesmann, for implementing the sophisticated, modern library concept for the new location. She notes that the move into the center of the city is actually a return to the SuUB's original location in St. Catherine's Monastery. This is where the roots of the Bibliotheca Bremensis lie. Its historical collections are still among the treasures of the SuUB today.

Further Information

https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact

Silke Huesmann
Bremen State and University Library Construction Officer
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-59550
Email: huesmann@suub.uni-bremen.de

“With the Northwest Alliance, we are opening a new chapter of cooperation between our two universities,” emphasized Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen, at the signing of the declaration. “The aim is to jointly advance excellent research that reinforces innovative teaching and transfer – not as an end in itself, but as a contribution to the transformation towards sustainability and out of a sense of social responsibility.”

President of the University of Oldenburg, Ralph Bruder, stated in Berlin: “Our collaboration already shows how science transcends regional and international borders. I am convinced that the Northwest Alliance will develop a very significant additional energy and provide important impetus for the region – in terms of academic, economic, and cultural aspects.”
The Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and the Senator's Office for the Environment, Climate, and Science of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen also expressly welcome the founding of the Northwest Alliance:

“I am delighted that the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg are joining forces in a close partnership for cutting-edge research in northwestern Germany. Both bring a spirit of optimism, outstanding scientists, and many years of joint academic work to this alliance. They have the full support of the state of Lower Saxony for this wise and strategic process,” emphasized Falko Mohrs, Lower Saxony's Minister for Science and Culture.

Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, emphasized: “The University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg have been closely connected for many years. This fruitful cooperation will now become even closer, more cohesive, and more targeted. Together with non-university research institutes and the University of Groningen, they will form the Northwest Alliance. This cooperation will help us to overcome borders, both state and national. We are creating space for innovation and the exchange of knowledge. This alliance strengthens our research location, which we have been developing regionally and internationally for a long time. We are combining academic potential and strengths, sharing networks and, of course, knowledge in order to find the best solutions for a future worth living.”

Collaboration in Research, Teaching, and Outreach

The Northwest Alliance builds on the long-standing cooperation between the universities of Oldenburg and Bremen, which have been central players in research and academic education in northwestern Germany since their foundation around 50 years ago. The aim is to create a shared research and knowledge transfer space of a new quality with both academic and non-academic stakeholders. The alliance will bring together said stakeholders, deepen cooperation, and leverage additional potential to create greater visibility.

The two universities are already working closely together, for example in marine, polar, and climate research, computer science, health sciences, and energy research. The declared goal of the alliance is to expand these central research areas in a targeted manner and to incorporate them into the social and economic development of the region.
With this intention, the two universities want to further develop their activities in research, teaching, and outreach in a way that builds their profiles. At the same time, the legal independence and autonomy of the universities will be preserved. In research, for example, further development should be achieved by expanding joint areas of focus and facilities, mutual support in acquiring resources, shared use of research infrastructures, and intensified cooperation in appointment procedures. In addition, the offers for academic qualification are to be mutually opened. Both partners are also striving for stronger cooperation in the areas of studying, teaching, and outreach activities, as well as a joint strategy for personnel recruitment.

Planned Alliance Expansions

The University of Groningen plays a special role in this regard, having enjoyed a long-standing, trusting, and strategic relationship with both universities. As a “privileged partner university,” it is to play a major role in supporting the alliance. Jouke de Vries, President of the University of Groningen, expressly welcomes the initiative: “The founding of the Northwest Alliance is of great importance for the development of our border region and sends a strong European signal. We are thus forming a strategic alliance for even more knowledge transfer. I am convinced that we, as universities, our future partners, and the people of our shared region, will greatly benefit from this.”

The Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg (HWK) in Delmenhorst, which emerged in 1995 from the research-oriented cooperation between the universities of Oldenburg and Bremen as a foundation supported by the Federal States of Bremen and Lower Saxony and the city of Delmenhorst, also plays a central role in the alliance. With fellowships for outstanding researchers from around the world, the HWK makes an important contribution to the international networking of the scientific landscape in northwestern Germany.

The Northwest Alliance is to be expanded in the future to include non-university and, in addition, social and economic actors, with whom close contact has already existed in the region; corresponding discussions with non-university institutes in the region are currently being conducted. The memorandum of understanding for the founding of the Northwest Alliance is the decisive step. In the coming months, the necessary legal, institutional, and financial framework conditions for the intensified cooperation between the universities and other participating institutions will be prepared. In this context, for example, the legal framework between the federal states is to be coordinated and the necessary contracts concluded.

Further Information:

www.northwest-alliance.de

Contact:

Dr. Maike Koschorreck
Adviser to the University Executive Board for Excellence and Strategic University Development
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60018
Email: maike.koschorreck@vw.uni-bremen.de

Dr. Corinna Dahm-Brey
University of Oldenburg
Head of Press & Communication
Phone: +49 (0)441 798-2892
Email: corinna.dahm@uol.de

As a first step, the project is investigating how political parties in six EU member states – Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria – react to EU interventions. Qualitative and quantitative research methods are being used. The aim is to analyze the political disputes between parties in states with different experiences of democratic backlashes: countries with significant democratic deficits (Hungary, Poland), those facing current challenges (Slovakia), and those without democratic backlashes (Germany, the Netherlands, Austria).

In a second step, the project will explore how parties' framing of debates on EU action influences citizens' opinions. To do this, quantitative survey experiments will be conducted in the six countries being studied.

Professor Wonka on the project's aim: “We want to understand the resistance or support that EU interventions encounter and under what conditions these interventions can strengthen or weaken parties in EU member states that are working to restore democratic rights.”

The project “The Domestic Politics of EU Action against Democratic Backsliding (DEUDEM)” is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of its WEAVE funding line. The cooperating partners are Professor Michael Blauberger from the University of Salzburg and Professor Aleksandra Maatsch from the University of Wroclaw. The project will end in 2028.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Arndt Wonka
University of Bremen
Faculty 08: Social Sciences
Institute of European Studies
wonka@uni-bremen.de

As an example of the decline in academic liberty, Günther cited the Russian Ministry of Justice's decision to classify the German Association for East European Studies (DGO) – an interdisciplinary, academic society – as "extremist." ”With disastrous consequences for all of its work here in Germany.” In her speech, she emphasized that the University of Bremen is taking responsibility for protecting academia as the backbone of an open and democratic society and is clearly committed to democracy, diversity, and open-mindedness. It is determined to make its contribution to solving global challenges.

Partial Success in the Excellence Strategy

The past year has been a pivotal one for the University of Bremen, stated the president. In addition to the follow-up application for the existing “The Ocean Floor” Cluster of Excellence, a second full proposal was submitted on the topic of “The Martian Mindset." The decision on funding is expected to be announced on May 22. The president praised the outstanding work of the teams involved and emphasized that they are laying the foundation for the planned joint proposal with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in the University of Excellence funding line. “Our two reform universities are united not only by many years of cooperation, but also by the guiding principle of sustainability and a clear sense of social responsibility. Building on this, we want to deepen our partnership in the future and expand our joint links with non-university partners, as well as with industry and society,” she explained.

Sustainability Strategy for the Entire University

The university has underscored its claim to be a transformative university by adopting a sustainability strategy. This commitment is also reflected in the further development of the YUFE (“Young Universities for the Future of Europe”) initiative, which aims to strengthen global networking going forward. “This means also bringing strategic partners outside Europe on board in order to broaden student exchanges, for example.”

On behalf of the university, she welcomed numerous newly appointed professors to the University of Bremen. Their areas of expertise range from polar observation to cell biology, retail and logistics management, and clinical psychology.

The traditional New Year's Reception for the University of Bremen and Constructor University (formerly Jacobs University) is organized by the “unifreunde” association, which seeks to support academic endeavors. In addition to the university president, the Senator for Environment, Climate, and Science, Kathrin Moosdorf, Peter Hoedemaker, chair of the “unifreunde” association, and Stanislav Protasov, president of Constructor University, also gave speeches.

In its first year, the law program in Bremen has achieved a ranking of 151 to 175. A closer look at the assessment areas shows that the quality of research is particularly impressive. In this area, the law program in Bremen is among the top ten percent worldwide, placing 31st. In Germany, it is ranked first among twelve participating institutions in this category.

“We are delighted with the exceptionally positive results in these academic fields in both international and Germany-wide comparisons. These excellent rankings are the result of the commitment of numerous researchers at our university. Of course, we recognize that rankings can only do limited justice to the complexity of the scientific community. However, as a benchmark for international comparison, including over longer periods of time, they are an integral part of the scientific system,” says Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject assesses eleven different subject areas at universities across the globe. The ranking is based on results from the following five areas: research quality, teaching, industry, research environment, and international outlook. Each of these five areas is in turn linked to indicators, some of which are numerical and quantitative in nature, while others are based on subjective assessments from surveys.

Further Information:

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/by-subject

Contact:

Heidi Asendorf
Rankings and Ratings
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 (0)421 218-60315
Email: heidi.asendorf@vw.uni-bremen.de

The Glocke concert hall in Bremen, where the ensemble from Paris will be welcomed in February, is no less impressive. The special concert event in which 280 musicians and singers from Bremen and Paris will take to the stage will mark the visit.

Program:

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: “Swan Lake Suite” op. 20a
Giacomo Puccini: Messa a quattro voci “Messa di Gloria” for soloists, choir, and orchestra
Patricio Amaya tenor
Aris Argiris baritone
Orchestra and Choir of the University of Bremen
Chœur & Orchestre Sorbonne Université
Nicolás Agulló conductor
UMD Mariano Chiacchiarini conductor

This year, the Faculty of Business Studies & Economics at the University of Bremen is organizing the central commemorative event. The Vice President for Research and Transfer, Professor Michal Kucera, and the Faculty Dean, Professor Maik Eisenbeiß, will welcome guest speaker Dr. Jörn Lindner. In his lecture “The Use of Forced Laborers at Bremen's Shipyards during the Second World War” (“Der Einsatz von Zwangsarbeiterinnen und Zwangsarbeitern auf den bremischen Werften während des Zweiten Weltkrieges”), he will shed light on a depressing chapter in Bremen's history and offer insights into the realities of life for the workers who were deployed at Bremen's shipyards during World War II.

Dr. Jörn Lindner is a social and economic historian and completed his doctorate at Universität Hamburg in cooperation with the German Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven. His dissertation is entitled “Shipping and Shipbuilding in One Hand – the Rickmers Family Companies 1918 to 2000” ("Schifffahrt und Schiffbau in einer Hand – die Firmen der Familie Rickmers 1918 bis 2000"). He was a university lecturer at Universität Hamburg until 2020 and is now deputy director of the Seevetal municipal archive.

Further Information:

Day of remembrance of the victims of National Socialism - Universität Bremen

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Maik Eisenbeiß
Faculty of Business Studies and Economics
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-66740
E-Mail: eisenbeiss@uni-bremen.de

Goals of the hoi Start-Up Factory

The regional framework conditions for visionaries are excellent: The factory relies on a broad network based on excellent science at universities and a high density of non-university research institutes that is unique in Germany, a traditionally cosmopolitan entrepreneurial community, and extensive public support for start-ups. The aim is to achieve a paradigm shift. All start-up-supporting stakeholders see themselves as a regional, cross-institutional team and share the mission of establishing a holistic entrepreneurial journey in the region and putting founders at the center of their activities. A committee consisting of the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, the chambers of industry and commerce of Bremen and Oldenburg, as well as company representatives, established start-ups, start-up ecosystem stakeholders, and the project coordinator are currently steering the strategic decisions of the hoi startup factory. The goal is to be among the top five German locations for science-based startups with international appeal by 2030.

The name hoi is an abbreviation of the North German word for “Ahoy,” namely “ahoi,” and can be understood as an abbreviation for “harbor of ideas” or “home of innovation” and is intended to focus attention on innovative start-ups and their founders.

Science and Industry in Harmony – Creative Visionaries Meet Brave Sponsors

“We can clearly see how strong the will is in the region to jointly advance science and business and to strengthen the region's economic and innovative power by significantly increasing the number of start-ups. With excellent science, we have an ideal breeding ground for new companies in the region. In the medium and long term, it is also important to make the area a center of attraction for trans-regional and international start-ups – everyone has to pull together on this. We are very pleased about the excellent and close cooperation with industry and are focusing on the common goal of promoting start-ups from the academic world,” explains Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen. This is also confirmed by Professor Ralph Bruder, President of the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg: “The hoi startup factory brings our regions even closer together and opens up new ways of working across borders with science and industry.”

Benefits for the Economy

A collaboration between academia, start-ups, and established companies offers many advantages. For example, existing processes can be made more innovative, agile, and sustainable. In addition, the hoi start-up factory offers early access to new ideas and technologies through collaborations with young companies. Through ongoing contact with innovation drivers and talents, transformation processes can be jointly designed. André Grobien, President of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, confirms this assessment: “The start-up factory opens up a new opportunity for the economy in Bremen, Bremerhaven, and the region to gain direct access to new companies, innovation drivers, and talent. We have the chance to build a network that is effective beyond the region, to combine economic power for the start-up sector, and to successfully position the northwest in the competition between locations.”

The Start-up Factory Competition

A viable and innovative business model for a start-up factory is being developed in the current concept phase. This model is then to be supported by the federal government with up to 10 million euros over a period of five years. The second half of the funding must come from private sources in the business community. After the funding period, the factory should be self-sustaining and permanently available to the region. The current concept phase will run until April 30, 2025. By then, the hoi start-up factory will submit an application to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection as a new entity. A total of 5 to 10 start-up factories will be supported nationwide by the 15 currently ongoing concept regions.

Start-up Support at Universities

The support for start-ups at the leading locations of Bremen and Oldenburg is a success story.
Since its opening in 2012, the Start-up and Innovation Center (GIZ) of the University of Oldenburg has supervised more than 600 start-up projects, from which 148 new companies have been founded – many of which have received prestigious awards.
BRIDGE – Foundations from Bremen Universities is a network of Bremen universities with the Bremen Aufbau-Bank that has existed for over 20 years. BRIDGE, located in the Uni Transfer unit, is the central point of contact for students, alumni, and members of Bremen universities on the subject of business start-ups. Three modules are offered to support all phases of the start-up: practical events, counseling, and the CAMPUSiDEEN competition. The BRIDGE network registers around 20 start-ups a year from Bremen's universities.

In addition to the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, the project is supported by the Bremen City University of Applied Sciences, the Jade University of Applied Sciences Wilhelmshaven/Oldenburg/Elsfleth, the University of Emden/Leer, the University of Vechta, the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, the Constructor University Bremen, and Bremen University of the Arts.

Further Information:

https://bridge-online.de/en/
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/cooperation/industry-liaison
https://uol.de/en/giz

Questions answered by:

Anne-Kathrin Guder
UniTransfer
University of Bremen
T +49 +421 218-60330
E-mail: anne-kathrin.guder@vw.uni-bremen.de

The beginners' courses for Italian, Polish, and Russian as well as the English courses with target level B1 are recognized as paid educational leave in accordance with the Bremen Educational Leave Act. They are aimed at students, university applicants, and all interested parties from Bremen and the surrounding area.

The English courses offered by the Language Center also cover higher language levels and include two-week intensive courses at levels B2 to C1, which can also be used to provide the necessary proof for admission to university.

A brand new addition to the program is a three-day course on pluricultural competence for students of all disciplines. The practical training takes place in English and covers models of pluricultural / intercultural competence, communication styles, and exercises in perspective-taking.

Individual Learning: Tutoring Program, Writer's Help Desk, and Self-Study Center

Guided, yet self-determined – independent language learning is also possible during the lecture-free period, for example in the tutoring program, with the resources offered by the Language Self-Study Center (University of Bremen, GW2), or in the TAPAS tandem program. The Writer's Help Desk offers feedback on English-language texts of all kinds and further help with writing in English all year round. All of these services are free of charge for students at the University of Bremen.

The semester-long language program for the 2025 summer semester starts on 7 April 2025.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb
Contact via email: szhb@uni-bremen.de

In both teaching formats, students go through an iterative process in which they are closely supervised by research assistants from the chair who have relevant practical experience.

Gaining Interdisciplinary and Application-Oriented Experience

“Working on specific practical topics in the middle of their degrees is not only appealing to students, but also helps them to acquire professional qualifications,” says Professor Dr. Jörg Freiling, head of LEMEX at the University of Bremen. ”Forming interdisciplinary teams and getting them to work together productively and creatively is a challenge for everyone involved. If this is successful, promising solutions can be developed.”

In addition to LEMEX at the University of Bremen, the practical teaching format “future concepts bremen” is backed by the Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports, and Transformation, who is supporting the project.

Further Information:

Demo Day is open to all interested parties and is free of charge. Please register at: melzer-counen@uni-bremen.de

future concepts bremen – Demo Day

Thursday, January 23, 2025, 3:00 to 7:00 p.m.,

Digital Hub Industry, Konrad-Zuse-Straße 6a, Bremen

Doors open at 2:30 p.m.

https://de.linkedin.com/showcase/future-concepts-bremen

https://www.uni-bremen.de/lemex/transfer/future-concepts-bremen (in German only)

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Silke Melzer-Counen
future concepts bremen
LEMEX – Chair in Small Business & Entrepreneurship
University of Bremen
Email: melzer-counen@uni-bremen.de

“The New Degree Programs Make Teacher Education More Attractive”

“The reestablishment of the sports degree program at the University of Bremen is a great asset to teacher education in the region. We recognize the vital role of physical education in our schools and the need for more sports teachers in Bremen and Bremerhaven and the University of Bremen will now train these specialists. All available places were filled at the start of the new degree program. I am pleased that this program is in such high demand among prospective teachers. I wish all in-coming students a good start and much success in the future,” said Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science.

Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen, added, “Sports science brings even more movement and diversity to our campus. It also fits well with our university’s core values because it helps to create equal opportunities, inclusion, and more tolerance. The new degrees offer students more subject combinations and make teacher education in Bremen even more appealing. This is an important step for schools in Bremen and the wider community.

“Developing the new degree program was a significant achievement for us in the faculty and for our new colleagues in sports science. We are looking forward to working together in the areas of research, teaching, and outreach,” stated Professor Ingrid Darmann-Finck, Dean of the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Bremen.

Three New Professors for Bremen’s Sports Degree Program

At the event, Professor Ansgar Schwirtz, President of the German Society of Sport Science, gave an expert talk to introduce the discipline. An external committee of experts from the universities of Hamburg, Vechta, and Münster, who helped to develop the new concept, reported on the process of reestablishing the sports program. This was followed by a presentation of the degrees offered and research focuses by the newly appointed professors Ina Hunger, Cornelia Frank, and Jana Semrau.

Professor Ina Hunger, who holds a professorship in sports education and teacher education, previously served as a professor at the Georg-August University of Göttingen for many years. Professor Cornelia Frank, who was previously an assistant professor of sports science at the University of Osnabrück, has been appointed to a professorship in human movement science. Jana Semrau holds the professorship for sport, exercise, and health promotion. She was previously a research assistant at the Department of Sports Science and Sport at the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/faculty-11-subject-sport-sports-science

Contact:

Dr. Micòl Feuchter
Sports/Sports Science Degree Program Coordinator
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68507
Email: feuchter@uni-bremen.de

Methane Concentration Too High, Inaccurate Measurement Methods

Instead, the observed methane concentration in the Earth's atmosphere has reached record highs in recent years. In order to reach the climate targets, drastic emission reductions are therefore necessary. Both the European Methane Strategy (EMS) and the Global Methane Pledge signed by 155 countries support reducing anthropogenic methane emissions. Most methane emissions come from microbial sources or leaks during the extraction and use of fossil fuels, which are difficult to determine. These uncertainties make it harder to reliably assess the effectiveness of measures that reduce emissions, which in turn hinders the development of precise climate scenarios.

European Joint Project IM4CA Develops Improved Methods

The European joint project IM4CA (Investigating Methane for Climate Action) began in January, and will receive 15 million euros in funding from the EU Horizon program. The project aims to reduce uncertainties in the determination of methane emissions by combining the latest developments in measurement methods on site and in space with sophisticated models. The Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen received a budget of one million euros for their participation in the project. Researchers at the institute are involved in setting up a unique measurement network to determine methane emissions from the Congo Basin, the world's largest tropical wetland. “We know that the wetlands in tropical Africa play a decisive role in the global methane cycle,” says Professor Hartmut Bösch from the University of Bremen, “but so far there have been few studies about them. The new measurements that we want to carry out in the Congo Basin are therefore of great importance, and I hope that this will lead to important new findings.” The MAMAP2D aircraft instrument developed at the IUP will also be used to determine small-scale methane emissions, for example in Romania.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Bösch
Institute of Environmental Physics
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone:  +49 421 218-62777
Email: hboesch@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann
Institute of Environmental Physics
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone:  +49 421 218-62102
Email: heinrich.bovensmann@uni-bremen.de

Anyone interested in games and game development is welcome at the event, regardless of their prior experience. The most important thing is for participants to bring their creativity and enthusiasm to the table. At the start of the Global Game Jam, the organizers will reveal a secret theme that everyone must incorporate into their games. They will also announce some rules for earning extra points in the game evaluation.
At the end, all groups will compete against each other and present their games to choose the best games of this year’s Global Game Jam. However, the most important thing is that participants have fun brainstorming, developing, and playing together.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/dmlab/events/global-game-jam-2025

Contact:

Mehrdad Bahrini
Digital Media Lab
University of Bremen
Email: mbahrini@uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-64404

Support from the Federal Government and Civil Society

As part of the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship, the federal government, companies, associations, foundations, and private individuals are currently supporting over 31,000 high-performing students nationwide. In this way, civil society is taking responsibility for talented young people. The scholarship holders receive 300 euros per month for one year. Half of the money is provided by the federal government, and the other half by private sponsors. Not only academic performance at school or university counts, but also social or communal commitment. The scholarships are awarded by a scholarship council made up of students and teaching staff members from the university. The scholarship also includes non-material support. For example, it includes workshops on orientation in life and career matters and the sponsors offer insights into working environments and valuable networks. Since the program was launched in 2011, more than 1,600 scholarships have been awarded at the University of Bremen.

Former scholarship holder Madeleine Kirste explained what the funding means for students: “I was lucky enough to be supported by the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship from 2016 to 2020. In addition to the financial support, I benefited greatly from the accompanying program: I have very fond memories of the workshops and visits to companies.”

Sponsor Ute Treptow: “Giving something back that was once made possible for me”

A total of 65 companies, private individuals, associations, and foundations – including ten new sponsors – fund the scholarships. Ute Treptow is one of them. “For my 70th birthday, I asked my guests for donations to a good cause instead of gifts – a heartfelt desire to give back what was once made possible for me. Thanks to the support of my guests, I am able to support the Deutschlandstipendium as a private sponsor for the first time in the 2024/2025 funding year. I am very happy to be able to support talented young people in this way and to get to know them through the accompanying program,” she said at the event.

Sponsors can fund one or more scholarships over a period of at least one year. The contribution of 1,800 euros per scholarship is tax deductible. It is also part of the tradition of the Deutschlandstipendium at the University of Bremen that current scholarship holders collect money for further scholarships. Interested parties can also participate with small donations at https://www.betterplace.org/de/projects/139661-aus-1-werden-4-gemeinsam-bewegen-was-bremen-bewegt.

Who Enables the Scholarships?

The University of Bremen would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and companies:

University of Bremen Alumni Network | Anheuser-Busch InBev Germany | AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven | Prof. Dr. Gerhard Bach and Isabella Bach | Dr. Christine Backhaus | Baumeister Foundation for Equal Opportunities | Brede Foundation | Bremen Protestant Church | COLLEGIUM Vermögensverwaltungs AG | data protection north GmbH | Germany Scholarship Holders: Class of 2023/2024 | Carl Dolle GmbH & Co. KG | Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler | Dr. Bärbel Ehrmann-Köpke | EUROPA-CENTER Uwe Heinrich Suhr Foundation | Ursula and Manfred Fluß | Manfred and Ursula Fluß Foundation | GESTRA AG | Marco Gottschalk | Barbara Grobien | Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther | Hanseatische Waren Handelsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG | Stefan Hefter | Dr. Heines Foundation | Barbara Hoffmann-Gabel | Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation | Gemeinschaftspraxis Dres. Holstermann | IPSEN LOGISTICS HOLDING GmbH & Co. KG | KAEFER SE & Co. KG | KELLNER & STROLL FOUNDATION FOR THE CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT | KIESERLING Foundation | Pranjal Kothari | Monika and Gerd-Rüdiger Kück | Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Lautmann | Luers Foundation | MLP Finanzberatung SE | H. H. Meier Foundation | Conrad Naber Foundation | Peter Franz Neelmeyer Foundation | OLB Foundation | POELLATH | Rotary Club Bremen-Hansa | Rotary Club Bremen-Hansa | Rotary Club Bremen-Roland | Rotary Club Syke | Rotary Club Bremen-Weser | Fabian Rühlicke | Schopf Family Foundation | Nancy and Dr. Geza Schrauf | Die Sparkasse Bremen AG | University of Bremen Foundation | Tandler Foundation | team neusta GmbH | Reiner Thöle | Ute Treptow | Bremer Umweltinstitut GmbH | Gerda Weßler Foundation | Frits and Dorothea Witte Foundation | Wolfgang Ritter Foundation | XTL Kommunikationssysteme GmbH

... and several donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/cooperation/grants-and-sponsorships/the-deutschlandstipendium
https://www.deutschlandstipendium.de/deutschlandstipendium/de/services/english/english_node.html

Contact:

Dr. Jasmin Overberg
UniTransfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60333
Email: jasmin.overberg@vw.uni-bremen.de; deutschlandstipendium@vw.uni-bremen.de

The University of Bremen’s MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes submitted the successful application for the MaTeNa innovate! Center. MaTeNa stands for Materials – Technologies – Sustainability (German “Nachhaltigkeit”). At the innovate! Center, materials science researchers will work together with experts from transfer and innovation management to promote the patenting process or the establishment of start-ups, for example. Existing technology transfer institutions will play an important role in this. These include BRIDGE, the central contact point for business start-ups from Bremen’s universities, the University of Bremen’s UniTransfer Administrative Unit and the InnoWi patent and trademark center.

Three Pilot Projects – from Renewable Energy to Sustainable Feed

Following the signing of the cooperation agreement between the University of Bremen and the Joachim Herz Foundation, the appointment of the innovation economist Dr. Jan Wedemeier as financial manager, and the appointment of the steering committee, the innovate! Center plans to start operations at the beginning of the new year. Numerous research and industry partners have already expressed interest in working with the center. The center will begin with three pilot projects, which focus on stationary energy storage for renewable energies, sustainable feed for aquaculture, and sensor materials for an environmentally friendly and safe hydrogen economy. Calls for applications will select further transfer projects to be implemented over the next ten years. Members of the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes can apply to the Center for innovation funding for their research.

“An Important Signal for Developing New Ways to Implement Scientific Knowledge”

“We are very proud to build Germany’s first innovate! Center at the University of Bremen, and create ideal conditions for accelerating technology transfer. With the pilot projects, we will create sustainability-oriented contributions for industrial applications. The center is a real novelty and a great opportunity for materials science at our university. I would like to thank the Joachim Herz Foundation for their confidence in us,” said Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen.

Professor Kurosch Rezwan, Scientific Director of the JHS MaTeNa innovate! Center and spokesperson for the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes at the University of Bremen, added, “Innovative materials and their processes play a key role in developing sustainable solutions to technological challenges. The recently established JHS innovate! Center will launch three pilot projects in 2025 and will soon initiate further projects to accelerate the implementation of excellent MAPEX foundation research into tailor-made projects. We are already experiencing enormous interest from science and industry.”

“The establishment of the JHS MaTeNa innovate! Center is an important signal for developing new ways to implement scientific knowledge. It provides an opportunity to overcome systemic hurdles and create a transfer model that increases the speed of innovation. And this is absolutely necessary for the future of our country,” says Professor Sabine Kunst, CEO of the Joachim Herz Foundation.

“It is a great win for Bremen as a science location that the Joachim Herz Foundation and the University of Bremen established the MaTeNa innovate! Center. We are particularly pleased that our university is the first in Germany to have been selected by the foundation for this purpose. This impressively underscores the leading position and innovative strength of our university and the attractiveness of Bremen as a science location. In Bremen, we are particularly good at putting scientific findings into practice. MaTeNa will take us even further in the field of materials science - technologies - sustainability. This is important and necessary, because challenges such as the climate crisis or the scarcity of resources require answers and solutions. Many scientists in Bremen are working on this every day and can now do so in the new MaTeNa innovate! Center,” says Irene Strebl, State Councilor for the Environment, Climate, and Science.

Further Information:

https://www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/en/research/research-and-application/joachim-herz-transfer-center
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/mapex-center-for-materials-and-processes

Contact

Professor Kurosch Rezwan
Scientific Director of MaTeNa innovate! Center
MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes
University of Bremen
Tel. +49 421 218-64580
Email: krezwan@uni-bremen.de

Jody Danard was born in Nantes (France) and has been a doctoral student at the University of Bremen since 2022, where she is pursuing a doctorate in Francophone literature on identity and alterity narratives of Quebec and autochthonous contemporary literatures from the imaginary of the North. Prior to this, she completed a teaching degree for the subjects English and Romance studies at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.

Volunteering to Promote Interculturality in Europe and Francophone Literature

In addition to her studies and doctorate, Jody Danard has volunteered in various capacities. During her studies in Kiel, she spent three years working for the association “Europa macht Schule” (Europe Makes Schools). There she led projects at several schools on topics related to France and the Francophone world and also served as a mentor for foreign European students.

In Bremen, she is involved in various outreach activities organized by faculty 10 to make the joy of reading and literature more widely accessible. Among other things, she organized and hosted an event on the Austro-Canadian author Monique Bosco at the globale° 2022 literature festival.

“The DAAD Prize highlights the importance of international students in their role as a bridge between Germany and the world – this is invaluable, especially in an increasingly complex and tense global context. I am delighted that this year's DAAD Prize goes to Jody Danard. Her commitment to intercultural exchange in Europe is an outstanding example of this,” said Mandy Boehnke, Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity.

Further Information:

https://www.daad.de/en/the-daad/what-we-do/prizes-awards/daad-prize/

Contact:

Erika Stöver
International degrees & International student services
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60366
Email: erika.stoever@vw.uni-bremen.de

Controlling Material Properties by Light “as if at the Push of a Button”

In this way, light becomes a kind of switch that can be used to manipulate material properties as desired, almost at the push of a button. “The advantage of this over other methods of manipulation – such as chemical composition, pressure, or temperature – is that it is ideally reversible. And all of this happens ultrafast, within a millionth of a millionth of a second.” The long-term goal is to develop sustainable and energy-efficient devices that can be used, for example, for energy conversion, quantum sensors, or quantum technologies in general.

The role of Professor Sentef's working group in this research group is to create models for the materials to be investigated “ab initio” – based on the fundamental principles of their atomic structure – and to solve them using modern methods and computer simulations in a non-equilibrium. “This results in predictions for promising experiments, the results of which will in turn be analyzed using our models,” explains the physicist from Bremen.

Short Summary of the Research Project from the DFG Application

The OPTIMAL research project investigates how special materials – so-called quantum materials – can be controlled with light. These materials have unique properties that make them very interesting for future technologies. One aim is to find out how these materials can be influenced with light pulses to create new states and behaviors.

The problem is that the behavior of these materials in “non-equilibrium,” i.e. when they are influenced by light, is very complicated and not yet fully understood. Furthermore, it is difficult to measure how different aspects of these materials, such as spin, charge, and atomic lattice, interact. In addition, unwanted effects such as heating often obscure the desired changes.

To overcome these challenges, OPTIMAL combines modern experimental techniques with theoretical modeling. The focus is on two groups of materials: materials in which the interaction between spin, charge, and lattice is important (e.g. materials known as Mott insulators), and special metallic compounds that can become superconducting at certain temperatures.

The goal of the first phase of the project is to study these materials in detail and to find out how they can be influenced by light. In the second phase, the researchers then want to develop methods to control the materials in a targeted manner with little laser effort. In the long term, the findings from this project could help to develop new technologies based on quantum materials.

More Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/lmcqm
https://lab.sentef.org

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Michael Sentef
University of Bremen
Theoretical Solid-State Physics
Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP) and Bremen Center for Computational Materials Science (BCCMS)
Tel.: +49 (0)421 218-62039
Email: sentef@uni-bremen.de

Today, units are defined on the basis of fundamental constants. To realize a unit such as the kilogram, that is, to construct it so that it can be used in everyday life, it must be traced back to these fundamental constants. This can be done, for example, with a special scale called a Kibble scale. This connects mass with electrical quantities. It measures the mechanical power and thus also the weight of an object, and balances this with an electrical power. The resulting electrical voltage and the electrical current can then be determined using quantum effects, the quantum Hall and the Josephson effect, and thus traced back to the basic electrical quantities of quantum physics. “Units such as the kilogram are thus traceable to electrical units,” explains Claus Lämmerzahl. ”But it would also be possible to realize them in terms of gravity. After all, a gravitational field is to masses what an electromagnetic field is to charges.”

Electromagnetism and gravity have interesting parallels: Both are described by fields that mediate certain fundamental interactions in nature. In their new publication, Lämmerzahl and Ulbricht therefore introduce a gravitational Josephson and a gravitational quantum Hall effect. “We were able to transfer the auxiliary effects of metrology, which previously only applied to electromagnetic fields, to gravitational fields,” explains Claus Lämmerzahl. The work of Lämmerzahl and Ulbricht could thus serve as a basis for realizing mechanical units such as the kilo on the basis of gravitational force.

Original publication: Claus Lämmerzahl, Sebastian Ulbricht: Gravitational Metrological Triangle, Physical Review Letters 133, 241402 (2024)

Further Information:

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.241402
https://www.ptb.de/cms/en.html

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Claus Lämmerzahl
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57834
Email: claus.laemmerzahl@zarm.uni-bremen.de

Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen will play a key role in the upcoming project that involves Copernicus satellites that will monitor man-made carbon dioxide emissions. The project, entitled CO2M (Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Mission), will collect data to track progress in reducing carbon dioxide and methane emissions, as agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement.

Four years ago, the European Space Agency (ESA) selected the Bremen-based space company OHB to build new CO2M greenhouse gas satellites as part of the European COPERNICUS program. In October of this year, ESA and the European Union announced that funding for three CO2M satellites had been secured. These satellites are based on the work / CarbonSat concept of researchers at the University of Bremen. The Institute of Environmental Physics' scientists remain involved in the setup of the system, for example, by developing innovative data analysis methods and aircraft-based greenhouse gas measurements.

Important Data on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The global greenhouse gas emission data provided by the CO2M satellites is needed to quantify the sources of greenhouse gases from local to global scales. For example, the satellites can be used to detect emissions from large power plants or cities. The aim is to identify man-made greenhouse gas emissions, then reduce them and limit climate change.
“With the CO2M system, we will have an important source of information in Europe,” says Professor Hartmut Bösch from the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen. “CO2M will represent an advance in space-based observation of anthropogenic CO₂ and methane emissions.”

The CO2M Mission builds on academic expertise and technological innovation, which is largely attributed to the University of Bremen's contributions to CarbonSat. This earlier mission concept, developed under the European Space Agency's Earth Explorer Program, was designed to demonstrate the feasibility of measuring CO₂ and methane (CH₄) emissions from space with high precision.
The Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen played a central role in designing the scientific objectives, instrument requirements, and data processing methods. This work on CarbonSat laid the foundation for CO2M. The researchers developed novel algorithms and simulation techniques that ensure the accuracy of atmospheric measurements, particularly in distinguishing between man-made CO₂ sources and natural emissions.

The Challenge: Not Just Collecting Data, but Evaluating It

At present, researchers at the University of Bremen are developing an evaluation algorithm for the CO2M Mission. As part of a major European initiative, the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen has been commissioned by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) to develop the evaluation programs that will be used to generate the CO2M data products. These data products will be the central element of the European CO₂ Monitoring and Verification Service of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service.
Additionally, the European Space Agency (ESA) commissioned the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen to design and build the aircraft-based CO2M system CAMAP (CO2 And Methane Airborne maPper). This is due to the IUP's expertise in building and operating airborne imaging sensors for greenhouse gases.

The CO2M satellites are being built by a European industrial syndicate under the lead of OHB in Bremen. The first satellite is to be launched in 2027.

Further Information:

https://www.iup.uni-bremen.de/carbon_ghg/

https://www.eumetsat.int/co2m

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2023/12/Tracking_human_emissions_from_space

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/Future_of_Copernicus_Expansion_Missions_secured

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Hartmut Bösch
University of Bremen
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
Institute of Environmental Physics
Phone: +49 421 218-62777
Email: hboesch@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Michael Buchwitz
University of Bremen
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
Institute of Environmental Physics
Phone: +49 421 218-62086
Email: buchwitz@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann
University of Bremen
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
Institute of Environmental Physics
Phone: +49 421 218-62102
Email: heinrich.bovensmann@uni-bremen.de

Close Ties Between the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg

The two universities have been linked by their geographical proximity for many years. They have been working closely together in the areas of research, teaching, and outreach for a long time and share many values such as social responsibility and sustainability, based on their tradition as reform universities. In research, there is close cooperation in important future-oriented fields such as marine, polar, and climate research, computer science, health, and energy research.

Joint Avenues in the Excellence Competition

Bremen and Oldenburg would like to join forces in the competition for the title of University of Excellence: If the requirements are met, the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and the University of Bremen intend to apply as a consortium.
The requirements are met if the alliance has at least three Clusters of Excellence. The Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg have a total of four cluster applications that are currently under review: “The Ocean Floor” (University of Bremen and Oldenburg) and “The Martian Mindset” (University of Bremen), as well as “Hearing4all” (University of Oldenburg), and “NaviSense” (University of Oldenburg). The decision on whether the applications are successful will be made in May 2025.

“We are optimistic that the two universities will be successful with their Cluster of Excellence applications. But regardless of this, we would also like to pool our expertise and potential more closely and work together even more intensively in future to tackle challenges together,” explains President Jutta Günther.

“I am convinced that it will truly pay off if our universities cooperate even more closely in the future. This applies not only to our Clusters of Excellence, but also to many other fields – from new research foci and infrastructures, to attracting bright minds and close cooperation partners, to new IT concepts for research and campus life,” emphasized President Bruder.

Cooperation in Outreach Activities: A Beacon in the Northwest

The cooperation between the two universities is also reflected in the area of business start-up support. The “Lighthouse Northwest” project was launched in the summer to link the two universities in Bremen and Lower Saxony. Under the leadership of the universities of Bremen and Oldenburg, nine regional universities have joined forces with strong support from the local business community. The goals are ambitious: Lighthouse Northwest will act as a start-up factory for the entire Bremen/Northwest Lower Saxony region, supporting start-ups in their foundation and growth phases. The factory is based on a broad alliance of excellent academics at universities and a high density of non-university research institutes that is unique in Germany, on agile and innovative start-up support, and on a traditionally cosmopolitan entrepreneurial community.

Excellence in Teaching: Sabine Ritter is Positive and Enthusiastic

Dr. Sabine Ritter won the award in the Excellence in Teaching category for her “Sociological Thinking and Working” class. The jury highlighted Sabine Ritter's goals, her positivity and enthusiasm for teaching, and the implementation of university teaching ideas. The students praised her outstanding teaching and approachability as well as her inclusivity on various levels. Sabine Ritter is committed to the students and is interested in their circumstances. She was one of the first teaching staff members to record her face-to-face lectures after the online semesters to enable all students to participate in her class. The students also mention the introductory phase of the degree program, which Sabine Ritter played a leading role in redesigning. To this end, she merged the modules on sociological thinking and academic working techniques into the new module “Sociological Thinking and Working.”

Barbara Cludius: Teaching Tailored to Students' Wishes

Professor Barbara Cludius received the Berninghausen Prize in the Student Prize category. She has not been working at the University of Bremen for very long and yet has already been nominated for the Berninghausen Prize by seven students. The student feedback has been consistently positive. Barbara Cludius submitted a coherent, convincing concept and in her class, she is able to cover and present three technically complex areas well. The students emphasized, among other things, that the courses are “very well structured and comprehension-oriented.”
Barbara Cludius' teaching is tailored to the students' wishes and designed for long-term, in-depth learning. Throughout the semester, she creates regular practice questions that continuously prepare students for final examinations. Her teaching is particularly interactive, diverse, and innovative. Through the didactic structure and the variety of teaching methods as well as her personal skills, the professor actively promotes students' motivation to learn.

Hendrik Vogt: Well Implemented Research-Based Learning

Another Student Prize was presented to PD Dr. Hendrik Vogt from the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science. The jury was impressed by his “Analysis” course, which Vogt conducts in a rather unusual way for mathematics. He encourages discussions, bases the lessons on the skills the students have, and develops outstanding and innovative ideas to help them understand the subject and develop a long-term interest in mathematics. According to the students, “Mr. Vogt is a master at conveying complex and abstract calculus content in a way that is both understandable and engaging for the students. He manages to create an atmosphere of shared discovery and learning.”
Hendrik Vogt provides hands-on teaching that implements research-based learning very well. He takes a proactive approach and his research-based learning take on teaching allows students to work independently in small groups to develop and present topics in calculus - a valuable addition to the traditional lecture format. According to the students, the interdisciplinary perspective of the course gives it “a special depth and makes the relevance of the content learned clear for the students' future professional and academic careers.”

The Berninghausen Prize

Since 1991, the University of Bremen and the "unifreunde" Association of the Friends of the University of Bremen and Constructor University have awarded the prize, donated by the Berninghausen family, every year to honor special achievements in university teaching. The prize is endowed with 6,000 euros and can be awarded in several categories. All members of the university can nominate teaching staff members for the prize; only students are eligible to nominate students for the Student Prize.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/preis-fuer-gute-lehre/the-award
www.uni-bremen.de/en/

In welcoming speeches, Irene Strebl, State Councilor for the Environment, Climate, and Science, Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer, and Dr. Georg Mecke, Chairman of the unifreunde Association, praised the achievements of the laureates. “I am always impressed by the range of academic work produced at the University of Bremen. This is also shown by the winners of this year's Thesis Award. Today, we are honoring researchers from the cultural sciences, geosciences, health sciences, chemistry, and production technology, among others. It is a pleasure to see that the university is enabling many talented people in various faculties to develop and write excellent papers. This also shows me that the teaching staff members are doing a very good job,” said Irene Strebl.

Michal Kucera added: “Academic freedom is the basis for supporting researchers. We need early-career academics who are empowered and encouraged to develop freely, set their own research topics, conduct open-ended research, and critically engage with controversial topics. Only in an environment that allows for imaginative and innovative ideas can they fully develop their potential and become outstanding scientists of the next generation. So tonight, let's take a conscious look at what we are not usually aware of because it is always there. In addition to the outstanding achievements of the laureates, let us also celebrate academic freedom together on this occasion.”

Georg Mecke emphasized: “Academic success is never a coincidence. It is the result of hard work, determination, and a firm belief in one's own abilities. Today's laureates have shown exactly this – they have not only overcome obstacles, but also set standards in the process.”

The following people were honored:

Dr. Nicolas Angelo Stoll – Dissertation in the Faculty of Geosciences at the University of Bremen. Dissertation title: “Microstructure and impurities in polar ice”

Maylin Homfeldt – Master's thesis in the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen. Thesis title: “Image-based analysis of component geometry throughout the binder jetting printing process" ("Bildbasierte Analyse der Bauteilgeometrie im Verlauf des Binder Jetting Druckprozesses”)

Dr. Rebecca Maskos – Dissertation in the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Bremen. Dissertation title: “Wheelchair avoidance and wheelchair appropriation in the context of ableism. A qualitative study” ("Rollstuhlvermeidung und Rollstuhlaneignung im Kontext von Ableismus. Eine qualitative Untersuchung")

Anja Binkofski – Master's thesis in the Faculty of Cultural Studies at the University of Bremen. Thesis title: “Enduring the sea – planning for the future on the Halligen in the age of uncertainty” ("Das Meer (r)aushalten – Zukunftsplanung auf den Halligen im Zeitalter der Ungewissheit")

Dr. David Ernst – Dissertation at the Constructor University. Dissertation title: “A first approach to seawater gallium-aluminum systematics throughout Earth's history”

Tanuja Seervi – Master's thesis at Constructor University. Thesis title: “Domain Adaptation in Waste Quality Assessment”

Dr. Isabell Louise Grothaus – Dissertation in the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen. Winner of the Special Prize from the company Bruker Daltonics GmbH & Co.KG. Dissertation title: “Conformational phase spaces of N-glycans under the computational microscope”

Dr. Sven Schultzke – Dissertation in the Faculty of Biology / Chemistry at the University of Bremen. Winner of the “Interdisciplinarity” Thematic Prize. Dissertation title: “Light Actuation: From Syntheses to Material”

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/forschung/foerderangebote-service/ausschreibungen/zentrale-forschungsfoerderung-zf/bremer-studienpreis (in German only)

Contact:

Julia Böttjer
Event Management
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60118
Email: Julia.boettjer@vw.uni-bremen.de

On December 2 and 3, 2024, the U Bremen Research Alliance, in cooperation with JUST ADD AI, the Transfer Center for Artificial Intelligence BREMEN.AI, and the Integrated Health Campus Bremen (IGB), is organizing the third "AI in Health" symposium in Bremen. At the symposium in the Bremen State Parliament and the House of Science, the latest developments and innovative approaches in the field of artificial intelligence for healthcare will be presented and discussed, along with the future of healthcare and the transformative contribution of digital technologies, in particular AI. This event will bring together experts from science, politics, business, and industry for a joint dialog and for the transfer of knowledge to society. Further information: www.bremen-research.de/en/ai-in-health Event locations: Bremen State Parliament / House of Science

Fair Care in Science and Studies

The final conference of "carat - caring all together" with a focus on "Fair Care in Science and Studies" will take place from 10 a.m. on December 6th at the House of Science in Bremen in cooperation with the Bremen and Bremerhaven universities of applied science and the University of the Arts Bremen. After all, the topic concerns all universities.
Representatives from academia and the field of learning, politics, culture, and the interested public are invited. Further information: www.uni-bremen.de/carat-caring-all-together (in German only)

The various research projects address a wide range of topics: for example, the importance of young people's risk perception for local prevention practice, health care in neighborhood-based health centers, the question of what improvements preventive home visits bring for the elderly, and how digital technologies affect outpatient care. Other projects are dedicated to the issue of how integrated small-scale monitoring could be developed in order to contribute to health-promoting urban development and how healthcare could help protect the climate. In all research projects, the scientists work closely with partner institutions in the field and the senatorial authorities in the state of Bremen.

Conference Focus: Networking of Practitioners and Academics

The research cluster invites everyone who works in this field or is interested in the topic of health-promoting urban development to the annual conference, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on November 29, 2024 at the Kwadrat (Wilhelm-Kaisen-Brücke 4, Bremen).
This year, the focus will be on the networking of practitioners and academics. Together with experts from the state of Bremen and other scientists, the topic of healthy cities will be discussed from various perspectives.
The conference will be opened by Dr. Ralph Baumheier, State Councilor to the Senator for Construction, Mobility, and Urban Development. Afterwards, keynote speeches will provide insights into the current status of the research projects. Participants can then look forward to various formats that encourage discussions and networking. In addition to fact sheets and poster presentations, where projects from the fields of practice and academia will be presented, workshops will enable in-depth discussions on the topics of loneliness in Bremen, digitally strengthening social participation in old age, the environmental justice atlas, integrated small-scale monitoring, as well as climate neutrality in healthcare.

Contact:

"Gesunde Stadt Bremen" research cluster spokespersons:

Prof. Dr. Gabriele Bolte, Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen
Prof. Dr. Christian von Wissel, Bremen University of Applied Sciences
Prof. Dr. Johanne Pundt, APOLLON Hochschule der Gesundheitswirtschaft

Academic coordination and contact:
Dr.-Ing. Julita Skodra, Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen
julita.skodra@gesundheitscampusbremen.de

Further Information:

https://gesundheitscampusbremen.de/forschungscluster/forschungscluster-aktuelles/ (in German only)

The show is open to the public and is aimed at anyone who is enthusiastic about physics and technology. Schoolchildren, young people, parents, and teachers in particular are warmly invited to take part in the event.

Event details:
•    Date: Saturday, November 30, 2024
•    Time: 11:00 a.m.
•    Venue: Lecture Hall 1, NW1 building, Otto-Hahn-Allee 1, Bremen
•    Admission: free

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fb1/transfer-schule/physik-zum-advent-experimentalshow

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Justus Notholt
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
Faculty of Physics / Electrical Engineering
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-62190
Email: jnotholt@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de

Katharina Brinkert has been leading the new human space exploration technologies research group since August 2024. She brings outstanding expertise in space exploration, microgravity, and photoelectrochemistry to this position. Katharina Brinkert has been associated with ZARM for a long time and has carried out experiments at the drop tower since 2016. In addition to her professorship at the University of Warwick, she has been working part-time with her photoelectrocatalysis research team at ZARM since October 2021.

Strengthening Space Research and Contributing to the Cluster of Excellence Proposal

The substantive and structural gain through the appointment of Katharina Brinkert is an important step for ZARM. The focus on astronautic space missions is further reinforced by her expertise in human space exploration technologies research. This also benefits the ongoing application for the “Martian Mindset” Cluster of Excellence, which has the goal of researching and developing innovative and sustainable technologies for future Mars missions. Here, Katharina Brinkert's work on artificial photosynthesis systems for the production of oxygen and other chemicals under space conditions will play an important role.

“With the appointment of Katharina Brinkert and the creation of the new research group, ZARM has a broader strategic base. Her globally recognized expertise and international experience, especially in the field of electrochemistry and microgravity research, are invaluable for future research activities at ZARM,” emphasizes Professor Avila.

Short Biography of Katharina Brinkert

Since August 1, 2024, Katharina Brinkert has been the director of ZARM and professor of human space exploration technologies at the University of Bremen. She is investigating artificial photosynthesis systems for the sustainable production of oxygen, fuels, and other chemicals in space environments and on Earth. For her pioneering work in this field, she was awarded the Zeldovich Medal in 2021. She was previously a Leopoldina Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology and a research fellow at ESA's European Space and Technology Center (ESTEC). Before joining ZARM, she held positions as assistant and associate professor, respectively, at the University of Warwick.

Birgit Kinkeldey

Contact:

Birgit Kinkeldey
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
University of Bremen
Email: birgit.kinkeldey@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 421 218-57755

The welcoming address will be given by Alexander Witte, Chairperson of the Wolfgang Ritter Foundation. The event will be hosted by Prof. Dr. Bernd M. Scherer, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Conference

On Friday, November 22, 2024, a closed conference will take place at the Atlantic Grand Hotel Bremen from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Following short presentations by renowned experts, workshops are planned that will be based on an exchange between academia, business, and politics. Together with the guests, the question of how and in what way academic freedom in its various dimensions (regulatory-normative, infrastructural, discursive, economic, political, ecological, practical, etc.) is currently understood as relevant and also threatened and how this affects the relationship between university and non-university communities will be explored.

Focus of the 36th Bremen University Talks

The 36th Bremen University Talks will focus on current practices, threats, and controversies associated with academic freedom. The need for an associated discussion results on the one hand from tendencies towards hostility towards academia, the strengthening of post-factual politics, and the associated tendencies towards strategic intervention in the basic principles of free academic work, and on the other hand from recent developments in the field of digital networking and changing forms of exclusion.

The discussion will address the situation of universities against the backdrop of geopolitical threats as well as the questions of how public academia can and must be, what role, task, and social responsibility academia has, what questions arise from the perspective of the Global South, what possibilities of institutional protection of scholars at risk exist, and what limits academic freedom encounters.

The topic of this University Talks session is in line with the Year of Science on the subject of freedom, which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has proclaimed for 2024. In 2024, the German Basic Law will be 75 years old and it will be 35 years since the Peaceful Revolution; two anniversaries that offer an opportunity to spend a year looking at freedom in all its facets. This year's Year of Science is dedicated to the value and meaning of freedom and sheds light on it in a wide variety of dimensions: freedom in 2024, freedom of future generations, and freedom in Europe and worldwide.

The Bremen University Talks

The Wolfgang Ritter Foundation and the University of Bremen have been hosting the Bremen University Talks since 1988. The aim of the events is to stimulate a dialog on current issues with society beyond the academic framework. After all, a lively exchange between representatives from academia, politics, and business can give the discussion new impetus and a practical relevance.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/bug

https://wolfgang-ritter-stiftung.de (in German only)

https://www.unifreun.de/ (in German only)

www.woc.uni-bremen.de (in German only)

www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Dr. Christina Jung
University of Bremen
UniTransfer – Sponsors and Partners
Phone: +49 421 218-60336
Email: christina.jung@vw.uni-bremen.de

PD Dr. Ehler Voss
University of Bremen
Worlds of Contradiction (WOC)
Email: ehler.voss@uni-bremen.de

The focus of the newly acquired newspaper collection is on Bremen newspapers published in the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. “Historical newspapers are very fragile. Their survival is rare, as newspapers were often disposed of after being read. I am delighted that our collection is being completed with this donation,” explains Dr. Maria Hermes-Wladarsch, Head of Historical Collections at the SuUB.

The State and University Library Bremen (SuUB) will carry out extensive conservation work on the newspapers and then list them in its own electronic catalog (https://suub.uni-bremen.de/home-english/) as well as in national catalogs, making them accessible to researchers.

Contact:
Anke Winsmann
Public Relations Officer
State and University Library Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-59572
Email: winsmann@suub.uni-bremen.de

"Forum at Domshof will strengthen our ties with the urban community, which we are delighted about – and we are already in good contact with our ‘new neighbors’, who also see this proximity as a great opportunity. However, Forum at Domshof is not only a gateway to the city center for the field of law, but for all of the university's faculties. The event rooms and communal areas will be used by everyone for meetings, conferences, and interactive events. We are looking forward to a lively atmosphere,” added University President Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther.

Forum at Domshof (formerly Nord LB) has been a new university location in the center of Bremen since the start of the winter semester. The Faculty of Law has already moved in with around 1,500 students and 160 staff, as have the Center of Labor and Politics (ZAP), and the HERE AHEAD (Higher Education Access Development) Academy. The Institute for Labour and Economy (iaw) and the law library will relocate to Forum at Domshof in the coming months.

Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte said at the opening: "This is a good day for the students, for the university, and for Bremen. Forum at Domshof is a real success story with many winners. Students will have modern working conditions in close proximity to the courts. The university is opening itself up to urban society. And the city center benefits from student life and the student spirit. Bremen is looking forward to having its university in the city center."

Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science Kathrin Moosdorf and President Prof. Dr. Jutta Günther sent warm greetings from Bonn to the Forum at Domshof opening ceremony. In Bonn, they were supporting the “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” research cluster in the Excellence Initiative competition. In a video message, Kathrin Moosdorf expressed her delight at the university's new location in the city center: “From now on, the university can be visited directly in the center of Bremen. This is where it belongs, in the heart of our academic city. The Forum at Domshof building not only offers university students and staff modern premises and is within walking distance of central institutions; it also brings academia and urban society a little closer together – I am sure of that. I am looking forward to new cooperations and dialog, which is more important than ever in these times."

Space for Studying, Teaching, and Working

There is plenty of space at Forum at Domshof, the university's new location in Bremen's city center, which has created a great opportunity for the university and the state to move closer to the city with a number of cooperation and service offerings. Several event rooms of different sizes have been created on the floors of Forum at Domshof: From smaller seminar rooms for 30 people to lecture rooms with around 135 seats. There are also conference rooms on the sixth floor as well as a dining hall (Mensa), which is due to open soon.
The Bremen State and University Library's Juridicum branch will also be represented in the new building with its book collection and study spaces for students from next year onwards.

Science and the Metropolitan Public

The converted former banking hall is an ideal meeting place for students, staff, and teachers, but will also be used for contacts with the city public, for example through events and exhibitions organized by the University of Bremen.

Thanks to Our Supporters

Director of Finance and Administration Frauke Meyer thanked Bremen State for the opportunity to move closer to the city community by relocating to this building. She also thanked the architectural firm Caruso St John Architects and the landlord, BLB Immobilien. The Director of Finance and Administration expressed her gratitude to the Wolfgang Ritter Foundation for its financial support of 100,000 euros for Forum at Domshof.
The event was supported by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development, and Building's federal program “Zukunftsfähige Innenstädte und Zentren” (ZIZ).

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/forum-at-domshof

Contact:

Anja Stöckl
Personal Advisor to the Director of Finance and Administration
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-60102
Email: anja.stoeckl@vw.uni-bremen.de

Research for Sustainability on Mars and on Earth

Researchers from the Humans on Mars initiative will be at the stand to present their work and answer questions. The initiative brings together some 60 researchers from eight of the university’s faculties to investigate how to sustainably explore Mars. At the fair, the researchers will present their application “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” that they have submitted in the Excellence Strategy program of the Federal and State Governments.
Humans are expected to explore Mars in the coming decades. The planned Cluster of Excellence will address the question of how a sustainable production on Mars is possible despite its hostile conditions, including a scarcity of energy, water, and labor. The researchers are committed to making a meaningful contribution to both Mars research and sustainability on Earth. Their efforts were rewarded when the German Research Foundation (DFG) invited them to submit a full proposal in February. This was submitted in August 2024. A decision on whether the application is successful will be made in May 2025.

Registration Still Possible Free of Charge

Space Tech Expo Europe is the largest and most important space exhibition in Europe. It will take place from November 19 to 21, 2024 at Messe Bremen, with over 8,000 attendees and more than 700 exhibition stands. The fair is aimed at experts from industry, business, and politics, but students and doctoral candidates are also invited to attend. Interested parties can register free of charge at www.spacetechexpo-europe.com.

Further Information:

https://www.spacetechexpo-europe.com/
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

Contact:

Vanessa Röttger
Science communication
MAPEX – Center for Materials and Processes
University of Bremen
Email: v.roettger@uni-bremen.de
Phone: 0049-421-21864952

Research for Sustainability on Mars and on Earth

Researchers from the Humans on Mars initiative will be at the stand to present their work and answer questions. The initiative brings together some 60 researchers from eight of the university’s faculties to investigate how to sustainably explore Mars. At the fair, the researchers will present their application “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” that they have submitted in the Excellence Strategy program of the Federal and State Governments.
Humans are expected to explore Mars in the coming decades. The planned Cluster of Excellence will address the question of how a sustainable production on Mars is possible despite its hostile conditions, including a scarcity of energy, water, and labor. The researchers are committed to making a meaningful contribution to both Mars research and sustainability on Earth. Their efforts were rewarded when the German Research Foundation (DFG) invited them to submit a full proposal in February. This was submitted in August 2024. A decision on whether the application is successful will be made in May 2025.

Registration Still Possible Free of Charge

Space Tech Expo Europe is the largest and most important space exhibition in Europe. It will take place from November 19 to 21, 2024 at Messe Bremen, with over 8,000 attendees and more than 700 exhibition stands. The fair is aimed at experts from industry, business, and politics, but students and doctoral candidates are also invited to attend. Interested parties can register free of charge at www.spacetechexpo-europe.com.

Further Information:

https://www.spacetechexpo-europe.com/
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

Contact:

Vanessa Röttger
Science communication
MAPEX – Center for Materials and Processes
University of Bremen
Email: v.roettger@uni-bremen.de
Phone: 0049-421-21864952

New Degree Programs in English Are Popular

Additionally, there was a large number of applications for the two degree programs in English language offered for the first time this winter semester. In the “Natural Sciences for Sustainability” bachelor’s program, students deal with sustainability topics from a biological, physical, and geoscientific perspective. The “Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Systems” program teaches students about theory and practical applications of artificial intelligence.
High Number of International Students
The figures clearly show that the University of Bremen is in high demand among international students. Nine percent of undergraduates have indicated a nationality other than German as their first nationality. Students with Turkish, Chinese, and Ukrainian citizenship are particularly well represented here. Among first-year students in master’s programs, as many as 33 percent have a citizenship other than German. They come from 70 different nations, especially from India, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Ghana.

Contact:

Dennis Steffens
Head of Unit 60 – Student Office
University of Bremen
Email: dennis.steffens@vw.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-61100

On November 26, 2024, the SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy is hosting a workshop on the topic of “Health Professionals in Schools – Teaching Health Literacy and Overcoming Health Inequalities” ("Gesundheitsfachkräfte an Schulen – Gesundheitskompetenz vermitteln und gesundheitliche Ungleichheiten überwinden"). The workshop will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the House of Science's Olbers Hall, Sandstraße 4/5, 28195 Bremen. The area of focus is the deployment of health professionals in elementary schools since the 2018/19 school year. The workshop serves to present the current state of knowledge on the potential of health professionals and to discuss potential for further development. It is aimed at researchers, health professionals, and their colleagues, as well as other persons from the cooperating partners, and interested citizens. The project is supported by the Dr. Heino Rose Foundation. Further information and registration: https: //eveeno.com/212501532. Contact: Tatiana Mamontova (tatiana1@uni-bremen.de) and Hanna Richter (hrichter@uni-bremen.de)

The “Healthy City Bremen” Research Cluster's Annual Event

On November 29, 2024, the research cluster “Healthy City Bremen” welcomes visitors to its annual event. From 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., the event at the Kwadrat Werkstatt Bremen at Wilhelm-Kaisen-Brücke 4 in Bremen will provide an opportunity to exchange views on current developments and projects relating to health in the city. The event is aimed at experts and interested parties who are committed to promoting urban health development.
The “Healthy City Bremen” research cluster is developing solutions for sustainable healthcare in Bremen as part of the Integrated Health Campus. The cooperation between the University of Bremen, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, and the Apollon Hochschule der Gesundheitswirtschaft, which is funded by the Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science, focuses on networking different areas of health. The aim is to support the health of the population in the long term by combining theoretical research and practical approaches with the needs of citizens. Contact: Candy Grabowski (candy.grabowski@uni-bremen.de)

Among the global tipping points are the Amazon rainforest and the large-scale Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Further warming of the planet can lead to a significant weakening of the AMOC. This would slow down the conveyor belt that transports warm water to the northern regions, drastically changing the temperature distribution in the Atlantic. This would also have consequences for the Amazon region because the altered temperatures in the Atlantic would affect the atmospheric water cycle, and thus also the patterns and amounts of precipitation.

Analysis of Residual Pollen and Carbon

Exactly how the AMOC and the Amazon are interconnected as systems, and how marine circulation affects the Amazon region, have not yet been extensively researched. A group of researchers led by Dr. Thomas Akabane and Prof. Dr. Christiano Chiessi from the University of São Paulo has now analyzed changes in the vegetation of the Amazon region. With their international team, they have analyzed pollen and carbon residues representing the past 25,000 years from a marine sediment core taken from the mouth of the Amazon River.

This analysis provides the team with a detailed glimpse into the past of one of the most species-rich ecosystems on Earth. The data show how the vegetation, along with wet and dry periods, has changed during the climate events of the last ice age, called Heinrich Events, when the AMOC was drastically weakened. The researchers found, in particular, a dramatic decline in rainforest vegetation in the northern part of the Amazon region.

Close Connection Between Atlantic Circulation and the Amazon Ecosystem

“The study is the result of a long-term German-Brazilian cooperation project, which began in 2012 with a joint expedition of the MARIA S. MERIAN research vessel in the estuarine area of the Amazon. Our data show that the Amazon ecosystem was able to adapt in the past to changes in the patterns of precipitation that resulted from weakened Atlantic circulation. But a further weakening of the AMOC accompanied by an increase in deforestation could threaten the stability of this important global system,” says Dr. Stefan Mulitza of MARUM.

Further studies employing climate and vegetation models indicate that a weakening of the AMOC under present-day conditions would have a similar effect on Amazonian vegetation as it did during the last ice age. “The models have shown us that the AMOC does not have to collapse completely in order to affect the rainforest. The northern areas of the Amazon region are massively impacted by even moderate changes in the AMOC,” explains Dr. Matthias Prange of MARUM.

The results illustrate how complex the global system is. “Driving processes at high latitudes, such as the melting of Greenland ice, can have a substantial effect on the tropics. Such long-distance influences often have severe regional effects, very often for people who are only minimally responsible for causing climate change,” adds Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann of AWI.

Original publication:

Thomas Akabane, Cristiano Chiessi, Marina Hirota, Ilham Bouimetarhan, Matthias Prange, Stefan Mulitza, Dailson Bertassoli Jr., Christoph Häggi, Arie Staal, Gerrit Lohmann, Niklas Boers, Anne-Laure Daniau, Rafael Oliveira, Marília Campos, Xiaoxu Shi, Paulo De Oliveira: Weaker Atlantic overturning circulation increases the vulnerability of northern Amazon forests. Nature Geoscience 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01578-z
 

Participating Institutions:

Institute of Geosciences, University of São Paulo, Brazil
University of São Paulo, Brazil
Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
UIZ-Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Intercantonal Laboratory, Switzerland
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
AWI – Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
Technical University of Munich, Germany
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany
University of Exeter, United Kingdom
University of Bordeaux, CNRS, Bordeaux INP, EPOC, France
University of Campinas, Brazil
Southern Marine Science and Engineering, Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), China
Further Information:
Publication in Nature Geoscience: www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01578-z

Contact:

Dr. Matthias Prange
Geosystem Modelling
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen
Email: mprange@marum.de

Dr. Stefan Mulitza
Paleoceanography
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen
Email: smulitza@marum.de

Prof. Dr. Gerrit Lohmann
Paleoclimate Dynamics
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Institute for Environmental Physics, University of Bremen
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
Email: Gerrit.Lohmann@uni-bremen.de

Dr. Thomas Akabane
Institute for Geosciences
University of São Paulo
Email: thomask.akabane@gmail.com

Prof. Dr. Christiano Chiessi
University of São Paulo
Email: chiessi@usp.br

Attracting Excellent Young Talent

The award winners from Bremen and Bremerhaven were honored at the award ceremony at the University of Bremen. Katrin Moosdorf, Senator for the Environment, Climate, and Science, is Bremen’s patron of the competition and stated, “The Dr. Hans Riegel awards encourage curiosity and reward good work by young science talents. Students have worked out amazing and enlightening things, such as how social media can affect young people’s eating habits, or that you can have a goat problem in mathematics. I am very pleased that we have so many young talents in Bremen and Bremerhaven. Our world needs creative minds who work out solutions for a future worth living in. I would like to thank the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation and the University of Bremen for supporting this potential and making it visible.”
Professor Maren Petersen, Vice President for Teaching and Studies, warmly congratulated them and said, “Talents like you are central to understanding and shaping our increasingly complex world. I am thrilled and impressed by your wealth of ideas and would be very happy to welcome you as a student of our university in a few years.”

Beginning of Sustainable Support

Alexander Kukla, who oversees the programs and communications at the Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation, added, “We know that the transition from school to university is often not easy. The competition aims to pave the way for talented pupils to enter university. We see our role as a link between the education providers school and university. By honoring the pre-scientific work, students receive acknowledgment from teaching staff members at universities and make initial contacts. We are very pleased that we were able to award the Dr. Hans Riegel Specialist Awards together with the University of Bremen for the eighth time and will continue to do so in the future.”

The Foundation and Its Specialist Awards

The foundation of former HARIBO co-owner Dr. Hans Riegel is particularly committed to promoting education – always with the aim of helping young people shape their future. The Dr. Hans Riegel Specialist Awards are endowed with 600 euros each for first place, 400 euros for second place, and 200 euros for third place. In addition, the schools of the first-place winners receive a non-cash prize of around 250 euros in recognition of the supervision of the students’ work by the respective subject teachers. The awards are presented in cooperation with 15 German universities. Depending on the university, papers on natural sciences, computer sciences, and mathematics can be submitted.

Further Information:

Details of the individual award winners and their work can be found here (in German only): www.uni-bremen.de/hans-riegel-fachpreise

Contact:

Isabell Harder
University of Bremen
Administrative Unit 16, UniTransfer
Phone: +49 421 218 57134
Email: isabell.harder@vw.uni-bremen.de

Peter Laffin
Project Leader - Dr. Hans Riegel Awards
Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation
Phone: +49 228 227 447 15
Email: peter.laffin@hans-riegel-stiftung.com

Madeleine Breuer

Head of Public Relations
Dr. Hans Riegel Foundation
Phone: +49 (0) 228 - 227 447 23
Email: madeleine.breuer@hans-riegel-stiftung.com

“The balance of dissolved organic substances in the water is crucial”

However, the study, which has now been published in the renowned journal mSystems, provides unexpected results: In an algae-overgrown coral reef, it is the exudates of the corals themselves that promote the growth of harmful bacteria, not those of the algae. “This suggests that the prevalent composition of dissolved organic substances in the water is crucial. A change in this composition can disturb this balance, for example, a change in the respective abundances of corals and algae due to human influences, can promote the growth of harmful microorganisms,” says the biologist.

This research was carried out in collaboration with the Department of Marine Glycobiology at the University of Bremen and international partners on the Caribbean Island of Curaçao and sheds new light on the threats to coral reefs. Coral reefs are already severely endangered by climate change and environmental pollution. “Since the 1950s, we have already lost half of all hard corals worldwide, especially in the Caribbean, where many reefs are now overgrown by algae,” emphasizes Thobor.

Results Also Important for Seagrass Meadows and Kelp Forests

The scientists analyzed the composition of sugars released into the water by stony corals and algae, as well as those already present in the reef water. These sugars were then mixed with seawater from an algae-dominated reef on Curaçao and monitored for four days. To find out how the bacterial community developed during this time, the researchers took water samples at different times and sequenced genetic material of the bacteria.

These results could be important not only for coral reefs, but also for other marine ecosystems such as seagrass meadows or kelp forests. Thobor emphasizes, “These results illustrate how sensitive the balance of marine habitats is to changes in the dissolved organic material present in the water – and how such changes can have potentially harmful effects on the stability and health of these ecosystems.”

Further Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/en/marine-ecology

Thobor, B.M.; Haas, F.A.; Wild, C.; Nelson, C.E.; Wegley Kelly, L.; Hehemann, J.-H.; Arts, M.G.I.; Boer, M.; Buck-Wiese, H.; Nguyen, N.P.; Hellige, I.; Mueller, B. (2024) Coral high molecular weight carbohydrates support opportunistic microbes in bacterioplankton from an algae-dominated reef, mSystems, journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/msystems.00832-24

Contact:

Bianca Thobor

Department for Marine Ecology (https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/marine-ecology)

University of Bremen

Email: thobor@uni-bremen.de

A wide range of speakers, including Jörg Bogumil (professor of political science, Ruhr University Bochum) and Anke Hassels (professor of public policy, Hertie School Berlin), as well as various panel discussions offer in-depth insights and opportunities for discourse. Another highlight of the forum is the plenary lecture by Hubertus Heil, Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, which will take place on the first day. The Zukunftsforum (Future Forum), where political and academic experts will debate the challenges and opportunities of future social policy, will round off FIS Forum 2024.

The event is aimed at researchers who work on socio-political topics from different perspectives, as well as experts from politics, associations, clubs, and institutions who work on socio-political issues. DIFIS welcomes the participation of policy-makers at the municipal, state, and federal levels as well as journalists and interested parties who want to find out about current challenges in social policy and contribute to the debate.

Participation is free; please register at https://eveeno.com/FIS-Forum2024_ENG. More information and the full program can be found on the DIFIS website.

DIFIS is a joint institution of the universities of Duisburg-Essen and Bremen under the responsibility of the Institute for Work, Skills and Training (IAQ), Duisburg, and the SOCIUM Research Center for Inequality and Social Policy, Bremen. DIFIS is headed by Prof. Dr. Ute Klammer (IAQ), and deputy head Prof. Dr. Frank Nullmeier (SOCIUM). Funding for DIFIS is provided by the Funding Network for Interdisciplinary Social Policy Research (FIS) of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS).

Further Information

http://www.difis.org/en/en
https://twitter.com/difis_org
https://www.uni-bremen.de

Contact

Johanna Ritter
Universität Bremen
SOCIUM Forschungszentrum Ungleichheit und Sozialpolitik
DIFIS Deutsches Institut für Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung
+49 421 218-58 547
johanna.ritter@difis.org

The DENCAI project addresses a highly relevant and socially significant issue. A dengue diagnosis requires immediate investigation of its origin, such as location and circumstances, to combat existing mosquito populations. This is where the award-winning project comes in. In collaboration with partners at Mahidol University in Bangkok, DENCAI has developed a software for monitoring and combating dengue outbreaks.

Kathrin Moosdorf, Senator for Environment, Climate and Science of the City of Bremen, states, “Outreach activities make it possible for academic knowledge to have an impact. This is stated in the outreach strategy of the University of Bremen. The DENCAI project implements this strategy in an exemplary manner. With the DENCAI software, locals can actively prevent the spread of dengue infections. I am delighted that the university will now be regularly awarding the Outreach Award to draw attention to such solutions. I would also like to thank the Wolfgang Ritter Foundation and Sparkasse Bremen for financially supporting this important award.”

Professor Jutta Günther, President of the University of Bremen, emphasized the importance of outreach activities for society: “Knowledge and technology transfer from the university is extremely important for innovative developments and practical applications. This applies to technical as well as social and cultural developments. All these areas are in focus of the outreach activities of the University of Bremen. I am pleased that we can make this significant work more visible to the public with the Outreach Award.”

Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer at the University of Bremen, congratulated the award winners, “Today, more than half of the world’s population is already at risk of dengue fever. And as climate change continues unabated, this dangerous disease is spreading further into temperate latitudes. Solutions like DENCAI are therefore urgently needed.”
The Vice President thanked all the participants, “The jury’s decision was not easy as we received many high quality applications. The projects submitted ranged from German studies to biochemistry. They showed impressively how diverse and creative outreach can be. They all contribute to taking on social responsibility, which is one of the guiding principles of our university.
Software for Monitoring and Combating Dengue Outbreaks

The winning software improves and expedites the response to dengue outbreaks and potential sources of infection as it significantly speeds up the organization of disease combating activities. It consists of a web-based and mobile app and is used by Thai public health workers at various organizational levels, where it simplifies and accelerates the monitoring of dengue infections. At the same time, digital data is collected.
The jury was particularly impressed by the fact that the project is largely student driven. Computer science students from the University of Bremen and Mahidol University jointly developed the software.

Immediate Benefit for the Community

The award-winning software has already been put into practice. It was successfully used during the 2023 dengue season in a pilot phase that lasted several months. DENCAI is currently being further refined and the team is working to make the software known beyond the borders of Thailand so that as many people as possible will be able to benefit from it in the future.

Panel Discussion on the Future of Hydrogen

The importance of the dialogue between science and society also became clear during the panel discussion at the award ceremony. Representatives of the hyBit project, led by scientist Dr. Torben Stührmann, discussed energy and hydrogen transformation in the Bremen region. The hyBit project is developing a digital transformation platform to bring together energy transformation paths and potentials in Bremen in the areas of industry, logistics, and urban development.

According to Jutta Günther, the issue of hydrogen is a good example of what effective outreach activities look like, “The focus is on Bremen’s industrial port, in particular the ArcelorMittal steelworks, which is currently the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in our region with emissions of around six million tons. The hyBit project is highly application-oriented and makes a concrete contribution to the transformation of our urban society.”
The President thanked the Wolfgang Ritter Foundation and Sparkasse Bremen for their financial support.

Cooperation Partnerships:

Sparkasse Bremen

Wolfgang Ritter-Stiftung Bremen

hyBit_Hydrogen for Bremen’s industrial transformation https://hybit.org/en/

i2b https://www.i2b.de/

Further Information:

DENCAI – DENgue CAse Investigation: https://mobile4d-projekt.de/en/home-en/

Outreach activities at the University of Bremen: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/cooperation

Contact:

Anne-Kathrin Guder
Administrative Unit 16, UniTransfer
Phone: + 49 421 218-60330
Email: anne-kathrin.guder@vw.uni-bremen.de

Additional Locations  

molo now provides information for four cities – in addition to Bremen and Leipzig, Lüneburg and Delmenhorst are also part of the molo network. Other locations will follow, since clubs, groups, institutions, or administrations throughout Germany can contact molo and request to be added. The goal is that even more people will be able to find posts from their hometown at molo.

New Look, New User Features

molo remains a community-oriented and free platform for local clubs, initiatives, cultural organizations, media, civic entities, and other local groups to share their information and events. The content is intended to promote discussions and sense of belonging within the community. The update introduces new features that make it even easier to spread local information.

The new minimalist logo and the redesign of the interface give the app a fresh look and make it more user-friendly. From now on, all molo users – including private individuals – can post events or news directly from the app. This posting feature opens up new opportunities to actively contribute to the digital urban public sphere and make local topics visible.
Parallel to the app update, molo's website was also redesigned. Those interested will find information about the app, the background of the project, and current news. molo can still be used without an account, which makes it very easy to access local information. Only those who want to post themselves need an account, and only the most essential information is requested and stored.

molo was launched and supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of a joint research project of the ZeMKI at the University of Bremen, the University of Leipzig, and the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans Bredow Institute in Hamburg. The aim is to promote local groups within the urban public sphere by providing them with a platform. The app was developed to deliberately counteract the crisis of traditional local media and to give more visibility to local topics and events and promote community cohesion.

Bundled Local Information for Citizens  

“molo” stands for “moving local” and gathers the information and events of local media, clubs, civic and cultural organizations, civic initiatives, and socially engaged citizens. The app is a platform for local posts, which are often lost in the news flood of established and social media. molo users can adjust their info feed according to personal interest by narrowing down topics and sources. With the update, molo is now even more interactive and allows everyone to actively participate in shaping their local community.

Further Information:

https://zemki.uni-bremen.de/en/forschungsprojekt/03-15-2023-molo-news-research-network-tests-bremen-news-app/

Contact:

Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Email: andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de

During the tour, the innovative character of research at the university impressed Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte. In conversation with the academics, he gained an impression of what it means to take part in such a high-caliber funding competition.

Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte: “The achievements of the researchers at the University of Bremen are truly impressive. Not only because they are outstanding in academic terms, but also because they address existential questions concerning the future. I am absolutely convinced that the university is well equipped for the Excellence Competition. Now we need to keep our fingers crossed that we hold our own in the national contest."

President Professor Jutta Günther: “At the University of Bremen, we do not pursue excellence for the sake of excellence, but out of a sense of social responsibility. Our cutting-edge research in the Cluster of Excellence teams in the fields of materials and marine sciences contributes significantly to the pressing problems of our time. As the university management, we are proud of what we have achieved so far in the Excellence Competition and are delighted that the mayor is acknowledging our top researchers with his visit. They are representative of all the University of Bremen members who make indispensable and valuable contributions to academia and society with their outstanding research.”

At the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM), the MaMBA – Moon and Mars Base Analog (MaMBA laboratory) – was viewed. In the coming years, the facility is to expand and encompass a complex for testing production processes under Martian conditions. Both facilities are unique research infrastructures worldwide.

This was followed by a visit to the Bremen Institute for Mechanical Engineering (bime), headed by Professor Kirsten Tracht. The testing of low-threshold and interactive exhibits illustrated the potential of technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, as well as their possible applications in production scenarios on Mars.

During the tour of the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, led by MARUM Director Professor Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, the focus was on the application for continuation of the “Ocean Floor” Cluster of Excellence. MARUM is the largest university marine science research unit in Germany and together with scientists from the University of Oldenburg, the researchers at MARUM have submitted a joint application for the continuation of the cluster. The new alliance with the University of Oldenburg would enable the future cluster to place a greater emphasis on marine ecosystem and biodiversity research.

One of the highlights was the new remote-controlled diving robot, ROV MARUM-QUEST 5000, located in the research institute's workshop. The development of underwater technologies is a central area of focus at MARUM. These technologies are groundbreaking for marine and climate research and demonstrate the outstanding research infrastructure of the University of Bremen.

This particular industry has a high energy consumption, which has a significant impact on production costs – at least for now. That is because the potential of flexibilizing electrical loads is now being investigated in the BrewFlex project. “In addition to flexibilization, we are also investigating how to optimize consumption by increasing efficiency,” says Yannik Schädler, research assistant at BIMAQ. He is leading the university institute's research on this topic.

Focus on Small and Medium-Sized Breweries

“The focus is on small and medium-sized breweries because they make up the majority of German breweries. They often lack the resources to become more efficient and flexible,” explains Schädler. ”To achieve trustworthy results, real measurement data forms the basis of the analyses.” The Institute for Metrology Automation and Quality Science (BIMAQ) at the University of Bremen is responsible for data collection, processing, and analysis. The Federation of German Scientists (VDW) provides expertise on business management aspects and smart communication, while the VLB Teaching and Research Institute for Brewing in Berlin ("Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin e.V.") contributes knowledge of brewing and typical processes in a brewery. 

This consortium has already collected initial data, visited breweries, and determined a theoretical flexibilization potential from the load profiles of various facilities. This was compared with the framework conditions of the brewing process and some technical parameters. “We used the data to determine the technically feasible flexibilization potential,” says Yannik Schädler. "This in turn was compared with the business and organizational framework conditions – such as shift rosters. The result was the economically feasible potential for BrewFlex.”

The main result of the project is a website that will help companies to obtain an initial assessment of their individual potential for flexibility and to compare themselves anonymously with other breweries.

Increased Efficiency Is Desired – But How Can it Be Implemented?

The second goal is to help optimize consumption. Discussions with the brewing industry revealed that many SME breweries are definitely looking to increase efficiency. “However, they are unsure which systems they should start with in order to reduce their consumption as quickly as possible,” explains the Bremen engineering scientist. The project developed the idea of providing low-threshold assistance for this development by anonymously comparing the efficiency of a brewery with other breweries of the same size. In concrete terms, this option is also intended to include the ability to compare specific energy consumption by differentiating between individual (energy-intensive) brewery sectors, such as the cooling system or bottling plant. General recommendations for optimization in the individual sectors round off the online tool.

These two tools will soon be made available to the brewing industry on a project website. “The tool does not replace an energy consultant, but provides specific information on whether and where it might be worth consulting one,” says Schädler. “The possibility of an anonymous comparison of efficiency has always been met with a high level of interest in our discussions, so we are looking forward to high user numbers.”

High Savings Potential, Especially in Storage

Preliminary conclusion: It is already clear that a “classic flexibilization” of the process steps of mashing, lautering, boiling, and cooling the wort, as well as bottling has little chance of success (less than five percent savings with high organizational effort). “But we have found that storage offers great potential. Beer is currently cooled to around 0° Celsius for storage, but it can be stored within a 2° Celsius range around this temperature without affecting quality. Postponing cooling by a few hours is a good idea here, for example to make optimum use of the feed-in from a photovoltaic system." The inertia of the system is usually high enough to ensure that the specified temperature range is not abandoned.

The project, which will run until 2025, plans to look at a number of special cases and communicate the results efficiently with industry. Work is also being done on the transferability of the BrewFlex approaches to other sectors.
 

Further Information:

https://www.bimaq.de/en/research/projekte/brewflex/
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
 

Contact:

Yannik Schädler
Bremen Institute for Metrology, Automation and Quality Science (BIMAQ)
University of Bremen
Faculty of Production Engineering – Mechanical and Process Engineering
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-64626
Email: y.schaedler@bimaq.de
 

Courses for Heritage Languages, Multilingual Formats, and Preparing for a Stay Abroad

The heritage language courses for Kurdish, Polish, Russian, and Turkish are aimed at students who want to improve their language skills acquired at home in an academic context. They are free of charge for students at the University of Bremen. The SZHB also offers free writing and presentation workshops for students with German as a second language.

The portfolio of multilingual course formats has been expanded once again. In addition to courses for Polish-Croatian or Spanish-Catalan, the SZHB is also offering a Portuguese course for learners with previous knowledge of Spanish for the first time in the winter semester. Many of the language courses also prepare students specifically and compactly for a stay abroad.

Independent Learning and Individual Support

The Language Center's self-study area offers many flexible additional options, e.g. language cafés in eight languages, mini strategy workshops on language learning, and an online platform for arranging language tandems. As part of the tutoring program, language enthusiasts can pursue their individual learning goals with the support of student tutors. The Writer's Help Desk provides students with individual advice on writing texts in English. All additional services are free of charge for students at the University of Bremen.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb
Email contact: szhb@uni-bremen.de

Bridging Differences, Embracing Strengths

Earth system models take into account important processes in the atmosphere and their interactions with other components of the Earth system (e.g., oceans and land), so they can make projections of the Earth system as a whole. Such models process large amounts of data and are limited in their spatial resolution due to computational requirements. This results in inaccuracies and systematic errors. Reducing these errors is one of the greatest challenges in climate modelling. The newly suggested approach uses machine-learning techniques to improve the representation of processes that cannot explicitly be resolved in the models but are of central importance for climate dynamics. Simulations with high-resolution climate models – in the kilometer range – have higher accuracy when compared to observational data, but cannot currently be run at climate timescales for multiple decades or longer, due to their staggering computational costs.

The researchers’ novel approach combines models across scales and process complexity with the systematic use of satellite data and AI. The AI works in a fully integrated way, for instance taking a climate model with very high spatial resolution in the kilometer range, learning the influence of a certain atmospheric process, and applying this learned AI model in the “coarse” Earth system model, thereby making it more accurate. This is a groundbreaking solution that reveals the potential already contained in our existing data sets.

"Satellite-based Earth observation data is invaluable for climate and environmental research," says Eyring, lead author of the study from the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics. "We can and should use this resource much more intensively to calibrate, evaluate, and improve global climate models. By combining AI with Earth system models and Earth observations, we will be able to project the complexity of Earth’s future climate and extreme events with unprecedented accuracy."

Redefining the Traditional

The approach formulated by the collaborative research team from Germany, Spain, and the US can also form a basis for more realistic “digital twins” of the Earth system that are scalable, adaptable, and user-interactive. Co-author Prof. Gustau Camps-Valls from the University of Valencia emphasizes the role of AI in this advancement, stating: "Integrating machine-learning techniques with traditional climate modelling allows us to make substantial strides in understanding complex climate interactions and in improving the models. AI is not just assisting us. It is an essential part of redefining what our models can achieve."

The new publication marks a milestone in the development of climate models. AI-enhanced models will make it possible to project the impact of climate change with greater precision and improve technology assessments for individual sectors. High-resolution, global Earth observation data, and improved, more accurate models are essential to develop strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to prepare society for the impacts of climate change. Co-author of the Nature Geoscience study, Dr. David Lawrence from the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, says, "Our proposed approach will allow us to simulate important Earth system processes with unprecedented accuracy, to become a crucial tool for planners and decision-makers worldwide." Co-authors of the Nature Geoscience perspective article also include Prof. Pierre Gentine from Columbia University and Prof. Markus Reichstein from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. Prof. Veronika Eyring leads the European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant project "Understanding and Modelling the Earth System with Machine Learning (USMILE)” together with them and Prof. Gustau Camps-Valls.

The Future Machine Learning

Machine learning is still a relatively new tool in environmental and climate research. With another international research team, DLR scientist Eyring investigated the challenges and opportunities that it presents. In an article published in the Nature Climate Change journal on 23 August 2024, the experts discuss how AI can help to further expand the boundaries of climate modelling and analysis. This includes the generalisation of methods in a changing climate, the quantification of uncertainties, explainable artificial intelligence, and causality. This is a distinctly interdisciplinary approach. Academia and the private sector from fields of machine learning, aeronautics, and Earth observation can work together to accelerate progress towards actionable climate science.

Further Information:

Eyring, V., P. Gentine, G. Camps-Valls, D. M. Lawrence, and M. Reichstein, AI-empowered next-generation multiscale climate modelling for mitigation and adaptation, Nature Geoscience, doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01527-w, 2024a.

Eyring, V., W. D. Collins, P. Gentine et al., Pushing the frontiers in climate modelling and analysis with machine learning, Nature Climate Change, doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-02095-y, 2024b.

European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant “Understanding and Modelling the Earth System with Machine Learning (USMILE), www.usmile-erc.eu

www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Prof. Veronika Eyring
University of Bremen
Institute of Environmental Physics
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Institute of Atmospheric Physics
Email: Veronika.Eyring@DLR.de

Bernadette Jung
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Communication Team
Phone: +49 (0)8153 28-2241
Email: Bernadette.Jung@DLR.de
 

For more than two decades, the biogeochemist Hinrichs and his group at MARUM have been investigating the carbon cycle, microbial life of the ocean floor, as well as the microbial sources of the greenhouse gas methane and how it can be reduced in the marine environment. During his term, Hinrichs wants to continue the institutional strategy process already started in order to focus even more on addressing societal issues and solutions in marine and climate research.
In addition, Hinrichs plans to further expand international cooperation and further anchor MARUM among the top international marine research institutions through forward-looking research. Hinrichs will be supported by vice directors Prof. Elda Miramontes and Prof. Kai Bischof.

“The bar is set high,” says President Jutta Günther, “but with Kai-Uwe Hinrichs, we are gaining an internationally renowned researcher and responsible leader who, together with his team colleagues, Elda Miramontes and Kai Bischof, enjoys our full confidence. We wish Kai-Uwe Hinrichs and his team a good start and all the best for the future.”

Whenever we go to remote places on Earth, we take sufficient supplies with us. In space, the astronauts on board the International Space Station ISS are regularly supplied with the help of cargo capsules. But if we want to travel to Mars, neither large supplies nor continuous resupply are possible. The transport route is too hazardous and the costs are too high. The solution, therefore, lies in producing essential consumer goods from raw materials available locally.

Dr. Cyprien Verseux has already demonstrated that some cyanobacteria are able to produce oxygen and biomass from the natural resources of Mars. He obtained initial research findings at the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM), which he heads at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen.

The big question now is: how can this be done efficiently? To answer this, a better understanding of how cyanobacteria metabolize Martian resources at the cellular and molecular level is needed. This will be investigated, among other things, by means of laboratory experiments using specifically developed apparatus that uses little more than the raw materials from the Martian soil and atmosphere. In addition to the laboratory work, mathematical models will be developed to predict the growth rates, productivity, and efficiency of the bacterial cultures.

The European Research Council Starting Grant opens up new opportunities for Cyprien Verseux and his research team, especially by creating two doctoral positions. "With our project 'MarCyano', we set to achieve two goals. One is to gain some fundamental knowledge on cyanobacterial responses to environments which are alien to them, such as atmospheric conditions that do not exist on Earth. Another is to develop solutions which can help make the exploration of Mars by humans sustainable," he explains.

However, Verseux and his team are not only concerned with sustainability concepts for long-term missions to Mars. They will also transfer their findings and developed systems into new approaches and technologies that serve a more sustainable use of naturally occurring but increasingly scarce resources on Earth.

Verseux is a member of the “Humans on Mars” initiative and is involved in the application for the “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” excellence cluster at the University of Bremen. The interdisciplinary academic team benefits from his expertise, and their research could now help to secure excellence status for the University of Bremen once again.

About Cyprien Verseux:

Dr. Cyprien Verseux, a French biologist, has been conducting research at the University of Bremen's Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) since 2019. He set up the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM) there, and is head of a ZARM research group of the same name."

He has first-hand experience of exploration missions in remote areas: in 2018, he headed the French-Italian Concordia research station in the Antarctic. He spent a year there, including the winter months when temperatures can drop as low as minus 80°C and darkness lasts for months. In 2015, he took part in NASA's HI-SEAS Mars simulation project and lived in isolation with five scientists for a year in a “Mars station” on the barren slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, USA.

His academic achievements were honored in 2019 with a research fellowship from the renowned Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Lucie-Patrizia Arndt

Further Information:

https://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/en/research/researchindependent-groupshtml/laboratory-of-applied-space-microbiology.html
https://youtu.be/_lHsDTE1e0E?si=RvbTW4ooV742CV8w (Video about the LASM laboratory)
https://www.up2date.uni-bremen.de/en/article/on-a-mars-mission-from-cyanobacteria-to-bioplastics (up2date. article)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
 

Contact:

Jasmin Plättner
ZARM Communication Team
Email: jasmin.plaettner@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57794

Dr. Cyprien Verseux
University of Bremen
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
Email: cyprien.verseux@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57830

Whenever we go to remote places on Earth, we take sufficient supplies with us. In space, the astronauts on board the International Space Station ISS are regularly supplied with the help of cargo capsules. But if we want to travel to Mars, neither large supplies nor continuous resupply are possible. The transport route is too hazardous and the costs are too high. The solution, therefore, lies in producing essential consumer goods from raw materials available locally.

Dr. Cyprien Verseux has already demonstrated that some cyanobacteria are able to produce oxygen and biomass from the natural resources of Mars. He obtained initial research findings at the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM), which he heads at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity at the University of Bremen.

The big question now is: how can this be done efficiently? To answer this, a better understanding of how cyanobacteria metabolize Martian resources at the cellular and molecular level is needed. This will be investigated, among other things, by means of laboratory experiments using specifically developed apparatus that uses little more than the raw materials from the Martian soil and atmosphere. In addition to the laboratory work, mathematical models will be developed to predict the growth rates, productivity, and efficiency of the bacterial cultures.

The European Research Council Starting Grant opens up new opportunities for Cyprien Verseux and his research team, especially by creating two doctoral positions. "With our project 'MarCyano', we set to achieve two goals. One is to gain some fundamental knowledge on cyanobacterial responses to environments which are alien to them, such as atmospheric conditions that do not exist on Earth. Another is to develop solutions which can help make the exploration of Mars by humans sustainable," he explains.

However, Verseux and his team are not only concerned with sustainability concepts for long-term missions to Mars. They will also transfer their findings and developed systems into new approaches and technologies that serve a more sustainable use of naturally occurring but increasingly scarce resources on Earth.

Verseux is a member of the “Humans on Mars” initiative and is involved in the application for the “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm” excellence cluster at the University of Bremen. The interdisciplinary academic team benefits from his expertise, and their research could now help to secure excellence status for the University of Bremen once again.

About Cyprien Verseux:

Dr. Cyprien Verseux, a French biologist, has been conducting research at the University of Bremen's Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) since 2019. He set up the Laboratory of Applied Space Microbiology (LASM) there, and is head of a ZARM research group of the same name."

He has first-hand experience of exploration missions in remote areas: in 2018, he headed the French-Italian Concordia research station in the Antarctic. He spent a year there, including the winter months when temperatures can drop as low as minus 80°C and darkness lasts for months. In 2015, he took part in NASA's HI-SEAS Mars simulation project and lived in isolation with five scientists for a year in a “Mars station” on the barren slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, USA.

His academic achievements were honored in 2019 with a research fellowship from the renowned Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

Lucie-Patrizia Arndt

Further Information:

https://www.zarm.uni-bremen.de/en/research/researchindependent-groupshtml/laboratory-of-applied-space-microbiology.html
https://youtu.be/_lHsDTE1e0E?si=RvbTW4ooV742CV8w (Video about the LASM laboratory)
https://www.up2date.uni-bremen.de/en/article/on-a-mars-mission-from-cyanobacteria-to-bioplastics (up2date. article)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
 

Contact:

Jasmin Plättner
ZARM Communication Team
Email: jasmin.plaettner@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57794

Dr. Cyprien Verseux
University of Bremen
Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM)
Email: cyprien.verseux@zarm.uni-bremen.de
Phone: +49 (0)421 218-57830

From September 9 to 12, the second Topical Meeting of the DFG Priority Program “Tropical Climate Variability & Coral Reefs” will take place at the University of Bremen on the topic of “Tropical Coral Records of Climate Change and Environmental Stress.” 60 researchers from Germany and abroad will exchange views on tropical climate extremes such as El Niño events, marine heatwaves, and global coral bleaching events. The DFG Priority Program “Tropical Climate Variability & Coral Reefs” is coordinated by Dr. Thomas Felis at MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences. It aims to improve our understanding of tropical climate variability and its impact on coral reef ecosystems in a warming world. Further information: https://www.spp2299.tropicalclimatecorals.de/ , contact: Dr. Thomas Felis, tfelis@marum.de

3rd Industrial Mathematics Forum: Sustainable Energy Systems - Transformations for the Future

On September 12, the Model Region Industrial Mathematics #MOIN, the Optimization & Optimal Control working group at the Center for Industrial Mathematics (ZeTeM) at the University of Bremen, and TOPAS Industriemathematik gGmbH are organizing the 3rd Industrial Mathematics Forum. It will take place from 4 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. at the Bremen Digital Hub Industry (Konrad-Zuse-Straße 6A). The program includes keynote speeches presenting the latest findings and projects relating to sustainable energy systems, discussions, interactive sessions, and networking opportunities. Further information and registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3-forum-industriemathematik-tickets-945460556977   (in German only), contact: Dr. Kerstin Ksionzek, kerstin.ksionzek@uni-bremen.de

16th International Workshop on Boolean Problems

The 16th International Workshop on Boolean Problems will take place in Bremen from September 19 to 20. It is being organized by the University of Bremen and the Cyber-Physical Systems research department of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). The workshop will focus on academic dialog in the field of Boolean logic and algebra. Researchers and engineers from various disciplines will exchange ideas on problems and solutions, both in terms of theoretical findings and practical applications. One of the main objectives is to initiate academic collaborations and open up new fields of application. Further information: http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/iwsbp , contact: Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler, drechsler@informatik.uni-bremen.de

Writing a British Childhood in a Global Context? Critical Perspectives on Enid Blyton

Enid Blyton is one of the world's best-known and most prolific authors of children's books. Her book series have entertained children around the world and across generations for almost a century. The “Writing a British Childhood in a Global Context? Critical Perspectives on Enid Blyton" conference focuses on her work and its international reception. It will take place from September 25 to 27 at the University of Potsdam and is being organized by Dr. Aileen Behrendt (University of Potsdam), Dr. Stefanie Jakobi, and Dr. Hadassah Stichnothe (both from the University of Bremen). The event is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Further information: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/veranstaltungen/detail/2024-09-25-dfg-tagung-writing-a-british-childhood-in-a-global-context-critical-perspectives-on-enid-blyton , contact: Dr. Stefanie Jakobi, jakobist@uni-bremen.de

Citizen Science & Social Cohesion - Final Conference

On September 26 and 27, 2024, the final conference of the “Gemeinsam Gesellschaft erforschen” (GINGER) project will take place at the House of Science in Bremen (Sandstraße 4/5). Since 2021, researchers and people without a direct academic connection have worked together as citizen scientists to explore social cohesion in numerous formats. This has resulted in a wide variety of topics and perspectives, both regarding social cohesion and citizen science. With interactive workshops, discussion rounds, and lectures, the conference brings together researchers, citizen scientists, and an interested audience. Participation is free of charge and is recognized as paid educational leave. Further information and registration: https: //www.uni-bremen.de/ginger/ginger-abschlusstagung-26-27092024  (in German only), contact: Julia Gantenberg, ginger@uni-bremen.de

“Us in Bremen – Creating Perspectives Together” BarCamp

With the aim of bringing together the expertise of people from academia, urban development, NGOs, and committed and interested citizens, a BarCamp will take place on September 26 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the House of Science in Bremen (Sandstraße 4/5). Under the motto "Wir in Bremen – Gemeinsam Perspektiven schaffen" (Us in Bremen – Creating Perspectives Together), the event will address numerous questions: What can we do to help tackle global environmental problems and promote social responsibility in a diverse society at a local level? Who brings which expertise to the table? What spaces – analog and digital – do we need for a democratic, participatory exchange? The event is open to the public and participation is free of charge. Contact and registration: Julia Gantenberg, ginger@uni-bremen.de

The Award-Winning Projects:

First place in the Business Ideas category went to Aurel Groh, Nora Heim, Carl Schütte, Janina Ehe, and Moritz Daume (University of Bremen). The team developed a digital health application called "Solid Sleep" for the German market, which specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. This app is designed to significantly improve users' sleep quality and offers functions such as a sleep log, learning content, sleep restriction therapy, reminders, and relaxation techniques.

Second place went to Niklas Bavendamm and Jan-Hendrik Koch (University of Bremen) with their idea of an "autonomous, track-mounted screwdriving machine". Their developed system for track-operated screwing machines automates the fastening of rails to sleepers, relieves track construction workers of monotonous tasks, and speeds up the process through optimization and automation.

Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard and Pawel Grudzinski (University of Bremen) won third place for their idea entitled "QuantumPrime." In our increasingly digital and networked world, secure data transmission plays a major and important role. QuantumPrime addresses this issue by developing a satellite-based quantum communication system based on quantum entanglement, providing robust security against cyber threats that conventional encryption methods cannot.

The first prize in the Business Concepts category went to Sarah Fraikue, Mionah Abbassi Larsen, and Daniel Parry (Bremen University of Applied Sciences) for "FlexBenAI." FlexBenAI is an AI-based SaaS solution that enables SMEs to offer personalized working models to increase productivity, reduce employee turnover by 25%, and optimize HR processes.

Second place went to Patrick Runge, Björn Gieß, and Marvin Pöperny (University of Bremen and Bremen University of Applied Sciences) for "Tapdesk." Tapdesk makes it possible to use bars, cafés, and restaurants as co-working spaces outside their regular opening hours, offers remote workers the opportunity to book tables in these locations, and provides restaurateurs with a platform to list their spaces. The Tapdesk kit with smart locks, smart cameras, and coffee trolley includes everything you need for self-sufficient co-working.

Third prize went to Justinian Gomez Moreno (Bremen University of Applied Sciences). “Andenkraft" is a sustainable solution for fair trade in plant-based superfoods from South America, in particular yacón root, which is used as a healthy sweetener and to promote intestinal health. A variety of products are on offer, including yacón nut nougat spread, cocoa nibs with yacón, and yacón fruit potato chips. These products are organic, gluten-free, and without added sugar and are sourced in close cooperation with small Peruvian farmers at fair prices, creating social, ecological, and economic impact at the same time.

CAMPUSiDEEN 2024

The CAMPUSiDEEN ideas competition awarded prizes for the 21st time to the best startup ideas from Bremen's university landscape. CAMPUSiDEEN is organized and carried out by the university network BRIDGE. The network includes the University of Bremen, Bremen University of Applied Sciences, Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences, Bremen University of the Arts, Constructor University Bremen, and Bremer Aufbau-Bank GmbH.

CAMPUSiDEEN 2024 is supported by the following partners: AOK Bremen/Bremerhaven, Bremer Aufbau-Bank, encoway, ESA BIC, Bremen Chamber of Commerce, Kanzlei Nachtwey IP, Die Sparkasse Bremen, Stiftung Bremer Wertpapierbörse, and team neusta.

Further Information:

https://bridge-online.de/en/campusideen

www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact:

Sarah Thiel
BRIDGE Entrepreneur Support Network
UniTransfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60343
Email: sarah.thiel@vw.uni-bremen.de

Save the Date: Orientation Week Begins on October 7

First-year students at the university start their studies with the orientation week from October 7 to 11, with some courses starting even earlier. If you would like to find out more about the many introductory offers and information on starting your studies, take a look at the Uni-Start Portal at www.uni-bremen.de/en/unistart.

Further Information:

Click here for the available study places: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/study-places-still-available

Contact:

Christina Vocke
Head of Administrative Department 6 – Student Affairs
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-61000
Email: christina.vocke@uni-bremen.de

The Metropolitan Region Northwest has presented the award every two years since 2014 and acknowledges outstanding projects, ideas, and initiatives that align with the motto “NordWest.Zusammenhalt” (Northwest. Solidarity) in a variety of ways. Around 70 applications were submitted this year. #MOIN won first prize, which is endowed with 6,500 euros and an image film. The award ceremony took place in Wilhelmshaven on August 26 under the patronage of the Mayor of Bremen, Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte, and the Lower Saxony Minister for Regional Development, Wiebke Osigus.

Making Industrial Mathematics Accessible to All

#MOIN has been supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2023 as part of the “T!Raum” – TransferRäume für die Zukunft von Regionen” sponsor program. The initiative is led by the Center for Industrial Mathematics at the University of Bremen and is being implemented in collaboration with other partners from academia, business, and administration. "#MOIN aims to show that (industrial) mathematics is accessible and full of opportunities for everyone, from schools to high technology, from business to politics," says principal investigator Professor Christof Büskens. The aim is to free mathematics from its elitist, abstract reputation and make it a vibrant and useful academic subject – for schools, industry, and society in general. To this end, #MOIN engages in a broad exchange process with society, culture, education, politics, and business. #MOIN wants to become an integral part of the economy and civil society and play a decisive role in shaping the digital transformation in the region, for example in schools, industry, and society.

"The NordWest Award is a great recognition of our work and encourages us in our efforts to anchor (industrial) mathematics as an essential part of our society and economy, to continue developing innovative solutions, and to make our contribution to the positive development of the region," Büskens continues. The presentation of the NordWest Award underlines the importance of #MOIN as a forward-looking project that not only sheds new light on the field of mathematics, but also makes a significant contribution to strengthening the innovative power of the entire region.

Further Information:

www.uni-bremen.de/moin-industriemathematik (available in German only)

www.innovation-strukturwandel.de/strukturwandel/de/innovation-strukturwandel/t_raum/t_raum_node.html (available in German only)

www.nordwest-awards.de (available in German only)

www.metropolregion-nordwest.de/ (available in German only)

www.uni-bremen.de/en

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Christof Büskens (principal investigator)
Center for Industrial Mathematics
Research Group Optimization and Optimal Control
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-63861
Email: bueskens@uni-bremen.de

This is where the AGELESS project comes in, as a continuation and expansion of the already successful cooperation between MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg. Partners at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB) are also involved in the project. Researchers from Bremen and Oldenburg have already been engaged with the themes of the BBNJ agreement as part of the work of the German Research Foundation's Senate Commission on Fundamental Issues of Biological Diversity. They have also carried out fundamental research using palaeoecological data as part of the “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface” Cluster of Excellence, thus contributing to our understanding of the current rapidly changing biodiversity in the sea.

Tiny Fossils Provide a Glimpse into the History of the Oceans

The study of tiny microfossils that have been deposited on the ocean floor over decades and millennia allows a unique glimpse into the history of the oceans and their inhabitants. Analyzing how fossil communities have spread enables the researchers to understand how individual species and even entire ecosystems have reacted to environmental changes in the past. AGELESS wants to use data from the past to develop concepts for protecting the ocean of tomorrow. The project thus ties in with the Cluster of Excellence’s reaserch. In addition to paleoclimate research and paleoecology studies, scientists will incorporate aspects of theoretical ecology, nature-conservation planning, and governance research.

Geological Knowledge Can Be Applied in the Cause of Environmental Protection

“Such a combination of professional disciplines is unique and forward-looking,” says the coordinator of the consortium, Professor Michal Kucera from Bremen. “Cooperation crossing the traditional boundaries of specialty fields will make it possible to directly apply insights from the geological past to our efforts toward environmental protection.”
The project is designed to be interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. The resulting data and models that reflect how biodiversity has changed in response to climate change will be presented to provide comprehensible information for political decision-makers.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project with 2.5 million euros over a three-year period beginning in September 2024. During this time, the researchers will compile large datasets, involve experts and stakeholders, analyze time series of planktonic microfossils response to past ocean change and develop models based on this data. From this fundamental knowledge, they will make concrete suggestions on how biodiversity in the high seas can be effectively protected in times of climate change.

“We are using a co-design approach and have already contacted international and national interest groups,” explains Professor Helmut Hillebrand of the University of Oldenburg. Co-design is a participatory process in which stakeholders are involved in the project from the beginning in order to refine the research questions and define possible products in dialog workshops. “Four projects on this topic will be funded by the BMBF. The joint dialog strategy of the projects will ensure that the results will have the greatest possible impact.”

Further Information:

BBNJ Agreement: https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en

Participating Institutions:

MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen
Department of Economics and Law, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Department of Geosciences at the University of Bremen
Email: mkucera@marum.de

Prof. Dr. Helmut Hillebrand
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB)
Email: helmut.hillebrand@uol.de

This is where the AGELESS project comes in, as a continuation and expansion of the already successful cooperation between MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen and the University of Oldenburg. Partners at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB) are also involved in the project. Researchers from Bremen and Oldenburg have already been engaged with the themes of the BBNJ agreement as part of the work of the German Research Foundation's Senate Commission on Fundamental Issues of Biological Diversity. They have also carried out fundamental research using palaeoecological data as part of the “The Ocean Floor – Earth's Uncharted Interface” Cluster of Excellence, thus contributing to our understanding of the current rapidly changing biodiversity in the sea.

Tiny Fossils Provide a Glimpse into the History of the Oceans

The study of tiny microfossils that have been deposited on the ocean floor over decades and millennia allows a unique glimpse into the history of the oceans and their inhabitants. Analyzing how fossil communities have spread enables the researchers to understand how individual species and even entire ecosystems have reacted to environmental changes in the past. AGELESS wants to use data from the past to develop concepts for protecting the ocean of tomorrow. The project thus ties in with the Cluster of Excellence’s reaserch. In addition to paleoclimate research and paleoecology studies, scientists will incorporate aspects of theoretical ecology, nature-conservation planning, and governance research.

Geological Knowledge Can Be Applied in the Cause of Environmental Protection

“Such a combination of professional disciplines is unique and forward-looking,” says the coordinator of the consortium, Professor Michal Kucera from Bremen. “Cooperation crossing the traditional boundaries of specialty fields will make it possible to directly apply insights from the geological past to our efforts toward environmental protection.”
The project is designed to be interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. The resulting data and models that reflect how biodiversity has changed in response to climate change will be presented to provide comprehensible information for political decision-makers.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project with 2.5 million euros over a three-year period beginning in September 2024. During this time, the researchers will compile large datasets, involve experts and stakeholders, analyze time series of planktonic microfossils response to past ocean change and develop models based on this data. From this fundamental knowledge, they will make concrete suggestions on how biodiversity in the high seas can be effectively protected in times of climate change.

“We are using a co-design approach and have already contacted international and national interest groups,” explains Professor Helmut Hillebrand of the University of Oldenburg. Co-design is a participatory process in which stakeholders are involved in the project from the beginning in order to refine the research questions and define possible products in dialog workshops. “Four projects on this topic will be funded by the BMBF. The joint dialog strategy of the projects will ensure that the results will have the greatest possible impact.”

Further Information:

BBNJ Agreement: https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en

Participating Institutions:

MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen
Department of Economics and Law, Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Michal Kucera
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and Department of Geosciences at the University of Bremen
Email: mkucera@marum.de

Prof. Dr. Helmut Hillebrand
Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg (HIFMB)
Email: helmut.hillebrand@uol.de

The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm

The full proposal is “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm,” which successfully made it through the first application stage in February.

Seemingly unlimited resources have enabled humanity to geographically and demographically expand humankind, which has gone hand in hand with a massive exploitation of fossil fuels. This has set humanity on a path toward a rapidly deteriorating environment and an impending age of scarcity, which will challenge the very fundamentals of nearly all production technologies. Accordingly, various research efforts now focus on how to make production more sustainable, efficient, and automated.

In this cluster, researchers of the University of Bremen take a radically new perspective, aiming at a long-term paradigm shift. They place themselves on Mars, a potentially habitable but inhospitable world with scarce resources, and rethink the production of materials and parts from scratch.

The Cluster will establish the Martian Mindset as a new, scarcity-driven paradigm to produce materials and parts that are sufficient in quality for use. The Martian Mindset is guided by scarcity constraints in four dimensions – natural resources, electric power, human workforce, and information. The research will focus on three goals: First, developing (bio)electrochemical methods for the synthesis of raw materials from low-grade resources. Second, designing and demonstrating low-energy process chains that use these raw materials as input to produce a variety of enough-to-use parts. Third, devising concepts for production facilities operated by small human teams assisted by robots and digital representations of the processes. The fundamental knowledge gained through the Martian Perspective cluster will lay the foundations for a fossil-fuel-free production of materials and parts from scarce resources in a highly automated and resilient way.

Exploring the Ocean Floor: MARUM Submits Application for Continuation Together with the University of Oldenburg

The team from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has submitted an application for continuation. MARUM is already home to one of the 57 Clusters of Excellence currently funded nationwide. This time, the researchers at MARUM have submitted the application for continuation of “The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface” cluster as a joint application together with scientists from the University of Oldenburg.

The researchers investigate the ocean floor as an important, dynamic interface that has a wide range of functions for the entire Earth system. They analyze how geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes in and on the ocean floor interact with each other, thus influencing the climate system, the global carbon cycle, and the biological productivity in the world’s oceans. The researchers want to better understand the processes in order to include the ocean floor in detailed global mass budgets. This involves deciphering the transport processes of biogenic particles to the ocean floor and their transformation under changing environmental conditions, recording the transfer of carbon and other elements between the ocean floor and seawater, and understanding how ocean floor ecosystems react to environmental changes. Because of their scientific and technological complexity, these goals can only be achieved through interdisciplinary research.

The scientists at the University of Oldenburg make an important contribution here. In a future joint cluster, the universities want to pool their expertise in order to decipher further the role of the ocean floor for material cycles and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions. Another important goal is to provide a scientific basis for the protection and sustainable exploitation of the oceans.

A decision regarding the cluster applications will be made in May 2025. The successful Clusters of Excellence will be funded for a period of seven years starting from January 1, 2026. Universities that are successful with two Clusters of Excellence or university alliances that are successful with at least three clusters can apply for the title of University of Excellence in 2025. To achieve this title, a comprehensive future concept for the entire university or the alliance must be presented.

Further Information:

https://www.dfg.de/en/research-funding/funding-initiative/excellence-strategy

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

https://www.marum.de/en/The-Ocean-Floor.html

The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm

The full proposal is “The Martian Mindset: A Scarcity-Driven Engineering Paradigm,” which successfully made it through the first application stage in February.

Seemingly unlimited resources have enabled humanity to geographically and demographically expand humankind, which has gone hand in hand with a massive exploitation of fossil fuels. This has set humanity on a path toward a rapidly deteriorating environment and an impending age of scarcity, which will challenge the very fundamentals of nearly all production technologies. Accordingly, various research efforts now focus on how to make production more sustainable, efficient, and automated.

In this cluster, researchers of the University of Bremen take a radically new perspective, aiming at a long-term paradigm shift. They place themselves on Mars, a potentially habitable but inhospitable world with scarce resources, and rethink the production of materials and parts from scratch.

The Cluster will establish the Martian Mindset as a new, scarcity-driven paradigm to produce materials and parts that are sufficient in quality for use. The Martian Mindset is guided by scarcity constraints in four dimensions – natural resources, electric power, human workforce, and information. The research will focus on three goals: First, developing (bio)electrochemical methods for the synthesis of raw materials from low-grade resources. Second, designing and demonstrating low-energy process chains that use these raw materials as input to produce a variety of enough-to-use parts. Third, devising concepts for production facilities operated by small human teams assisted by robots and digital representations of the processes. The fundamental knowledge gained through the Martian Perspective cluster will lay the foundations for a fossil-fuel-free production of materials and parts from scarce resources in a highly automated and resilient way.

Exploring the Ocean Floor: MARUM Submits Application for Continuation Together with the University of Oldenburg

The team from MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen has submitted an application for continuation. MARUM is already home to one of the 57 Clusters of Excellence currently funded nationwide. This time, the researchers at MARUM have submitted the application for continuation of “The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface” cluster as a joint application together with scientists from the University of Oldenburg.

The researchers investigate the ocean floor as an important, dynamic interface that has a wide range of functions for the entire Earth system. They analyze how geological, physical, chemical, and biological processes in and on the ocean floor interact with each other, thus influencing the climate system, the global carbon cycle, and the biological productivity in the world’s oceans. The researchers want to better understand the processes in order to include the ocean floor in detailed global mass budgets. This involves deciphering the transport processes of biogenic particles to the ocean floor and their transformation under changing environmental conditions, recording the transfer of carbon and other elements between the ocean floor and seawater, and understanding how ocean floor ecosystems react to environmental changes. Because of their scientific and technological complexity, these goals can only be achieved through interdisciplinary research.

The scientists at the University of Oldenburg make an important contribution here. In a future joint cluster, the universities want to pool their expertise in order to decipher further the role of the ocean floor for material cycles and biodiversity under changing climatic conditions. Another important goal is to provide a scientific basis for the protection and sustainable exploitation of the oceans.

A decision regarding the cluster applications will be made in May 2025. The successful Clusters of Excellence will be funded for a period of seven years starting from January 1, 2026. Universities that are successful with two Clusters of Excellence or university alliances that are successful with at least three clusters can apply for the title of University of Excellence in 2025. To achieve this title, a comprehensive future concept for the entire university or the alliance must be presented.

Further Information:

https://www.dfg.de/en/research-funding/funding-initiative/excellence-strategy

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/humans-on-mars-initiative

https://www.marum.de/en/The-Ocean-Floor.html

Life Span Originally in Nanosecond Range

The isolation of nitrenes was previously impossible due to the fact that these compounds react very quickly with other substances and normally only remain stable for tiny fractions of a second. The breakthrough was achieved by the scientists building a kind of protective shield around the reactive nitrogen atom, which seals it off from other substances in the environment. "Figuratively speaking, we have built two walls around the reactive nitrogen atom that serve to shield it," explains Professor Beckmann. Chemists call this protective mechanism kinetic stabilization.

To determine the exact structure of the isolated nitrene, the researchers used a special method called X-ray structure analysis. This revealed that the nitrogen atom in this case is only connected to a single carbon atom, whereas nitrogen normally forms three bonds. "The X-ray structure analysis gave us amazing insights," says Beckmann. "The nitrogen atom in our nitrene is only bonded to a single carbon atom, which is extremely unusual and leads to a so-called electronic triplet ground state. This unique structure gives the nitrene special magnetic properties known as paramagnetism."

Discovery Could Lead to New Developments in Catalyst Research

The significance of this discovery goes far beyond foundation research. Stable nitrenes could be used as novel ligands in homogeneous catalysts, for example in the chemical industry, in order to make chemical reactions more efficient and save energy.

Beckmann emphasizes that interdisciplinary research was the key to success. "Although the origins lie in chemistry, it was only through collaboration with the geo- and material sciences that we were able to understand the magnetic properties and ultimately make this revolutionary discovery." In addition to Professor Beckmann, the authors of the study are: Marvin Janssen, Thomas Frederichs, Marian Olaru, Enno Lork, and Emanuel Hupf.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/beckmann (in German only)

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp4963

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Jens Beckmann
University of Bremen
Faculty 02: Biology / Chemistry
Phone: +49 421 218-63160
Email: j.beckmann@uni-bremen.de

Program with Excursions and Company Contacts

In addition to the specialist events, workshops on professions and careers round off the program. One focus will be on sustainability and the social impact of technologies. Furthermore, companies will introduce themselves and seek contact with motivated female students or new employees. Classes take place in small groups and are led by international university lecturers from academia and industry. Participants can attend several half-week courses and earn certificates of achievement and credit points. The teaching languages are German and English. In addition, excursions to technical companies and cultural institutions offer interesting insights into the State of Bremen and Northwest Germany.

Further Information:

https://www.ingenieurinnen-sommeruni.de
https://www.informatica-feminale.de

Contact:

Henrike Illig and Veronika Oechtering
Women in Natural Sciences and Technology Competence Center
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-64469
Email: ifis-summerschools@uni-bremen.de

Bremergy e.V. is a group of students from both the University of Bremen and Bremen University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the group is to compete against teams from other universities with a self-built electric racing car at national and international events. Following the principle of "learning by doing," the motivated team wants to bring more hands-on experience into their theoretical daily study routine. Every year, the students, who are not only from engineering degree programs, design, construct, manufacture, and assemble an electrically powered racing car.

Many New Technologies Implemented in BreMo24

"Since the start of our season, the entire team has been working towards the presentation of the BreMo24 with dedication and passion," says Lediona Balla from the Bremergy team, looking back on the past few months, which were thoroughly exhausting. "We faced a number of challenges this year. Building an electric racing car is a huge undertaking in itself but we had also set ourselves the goal of implementing extensive new technologies in our vehicle."

Since the beginning of 2024, the team has therefore had a lot of development work to do. To successfully implement their project, the members also invest a lot of time in the design and production of the racing car. The time commitment of the individual members varies depending on the season and their personal availability. "But to realize a challenging project of this size, you have to keep at it. Someone was always in the workshop to continue building the new racing car – and they were never alone," explains Lediona Balla, who studies sociology at the University of Bremen.

Competitions in Spain, Germany, and Italy

Bremo24 is now finished, and the team already knows from the many tests that they have built an even faster vehicle than in previous years. It will now compete in international competitions over the next few weeks, where electric racing cars developed in-house by various European universities will have to overcome various challenges. It's not just about fast lap times, but also about things like the cost report, the engineering design report, and the business plan presentation. "These so-called static disciplines also play a significant role in the assessment and help to evaluate the work done on the car. In the cost report, for example, the team has to prepare a cost calculation for the car," explains Bremergy team member Alex Lichtner.

The new car will take to the track for the first time at the Circuit de Barcelona in Spain – incidentally, this track is also used by Formula 1. For a week at the beginning of August, the Formula Student Spain (FSS) will be comparing developments from other countries. Other events with Bremergy participation include Formula Student Germany (FSG) at the Hockenheimring from August 12 to 18 and Formula Student Italy from September 4 to 8 in Varano de Meligari (northern Italy).

300 Teams from 45 Countries

The RoboCup is one of the largest and most prestigious competitions for robots in the world. At the current tournament, which took place from July 17 to 21, 300 robot teams from 45 countries competed against each other. The competition aims to support the development of robots and their artificial intelligence so that they are able to operate without direct human control. Organized by the non-profit RoboCup Federation, the tournament has been held every year since 1997. The participating teams usually come from universities and research institutes, but also from industry.

One Tournament, Various Fields of Robotics

Robots not only play soccer at RoboCup, but also compete against each other in other disciplines: RoboCupRescue, for example, simulates rescue scenarios in which robots find and rescue victims. RoboCup@Home, on the other hand, pits robots against each other in household tasks. There are five different sub-leagues within the Soccer League, which differ according to the type of robot used. B-Human took part in the Standard Platform League where all teams use the same type of robot with the same hardware. The main focus is therefore on skillful software development.

Further Information:

https://2024.robocup.org/
www.b-human.de

Contact:

Dr. Thomas Röfer
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Cyber-Physical Systems Research Unit
Phone: +49 421 218-64200
Email: Thomas.Roefer@dfki.de

Dr. Tim Laue
University of Bremen
Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science
Phone: +49 421 218-64209
Email: tlaue@uni-bremen.de

German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)
Corporate Communications Bremen
Phone: +49 421 17845-4111
Email: communications-hb@dfki.de

As part of the "Future of Care" cluster, social and technical innovations in care have been brought together since 2017. Research, industry, and the care sector are working together with users to develop new products that will make everyday care in Germany easier and better. The first component of the care cluster, the Care Innovation Center (PIZ), which is the only one of its kind in Germany to date, began its work in June 2017. Engineers from the OFFIS computer science institute, an affiliated institute of the University of Oldenburg, are researching new technologies there together with nursing researchers and nursing economists from the University of Bremen: Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann from the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research and Professor Heinz Rothgang from the SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy are involved. Ethical, social, and legal aspects also play a central role and are being analyzed by the University of Oldenburg.

Robotic Systems for the Physical Relief of Caregivers

Following the successful first phase, the research project is now entering its second round, in which the cluster is to be expanded into an "innovation and transfer hub." While the focus to this point has been on developing and testing new technologies, the aim now is to accelerate their transfer into widespread practice. This includes, for example, robotic systems to physically relieve care staff during physically demanding activities or technologies that support telecare, for example by using sensors to record the state of health.

University of Bremen's Extensive Expertise on Requirements in Nursing Practice

The University of Bremen brings extensive expertise in nursing research, nursing economics, and healthcare research with a special focus on digital nursing technologies. "Technological innovations can make everyday life in care easier, but they must be able to be meaningfully integrated into care practice and the work of care staff," says Professor Karin Wolf-Ostermann. Among other things, the Bremen researchers are analyzing the need for technological support in various outpatient and inpatient care situations and investigating how technological innovations such as smartwatches and other wearables can be integrated into everyday care. They are also looking at issues surrounding the evaluation of the use of technology. "With our experience, research focus, and networks, we can also play a mediating role between the needs and requirements of nursing practice, the interests of developers, and academia," states Professor Heinz Rothgang.
The "Future of Care" cluster will be supported with a total of approximately 20 million euros over the next five years. In addition to the PIZ, the project includes four so-called "Care Practice Centers" (PPZ) in Berlin, Freiburg, Hanover, and Nuremberg, which will play an important role in the implementation and evaluation of the technologies and products.

Further Information:

Https://www.interaktive-technologien.de/foerderung/cluster/cluster-zukunft-der-pflege (in German only)
Https://www.pflegeinnovationszentrum.de/ in German only)
Https://www.cluster-zukunft-der-pflege.de/ (in German only)
https://www.socium.uni-bremen.de/departments/health-long--term-care-and-pensions/en/

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/institute-of-public-health-and-nursing-research/departments-working-groups/nursing-research/health-care-research

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Karin Wolf-Ostermann
Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-68960
Email: wolf-ostermann@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58557
Email: rothgang@uni-bremen.de

The new project is called “Divers for Ocean Temperature – Coastal temperature database for monitoring ocean surface water past and present,” BlueDOT for short. It is being coordinated by MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen, and funding for the citizen science project is provided by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The work is being led by Dr. Christophe Galerne from MARUM, Dr. Rebecca Zitoun from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Prof. Achim Kopf from MARUM, and Arne Schwab from SchwaRTech, the project’s official industry partner.

Understanding Temperature Rise through Data Analysis

With BlueDOT, Galerne combines his scientific work and passion with his hobby. “Over the past five or six years, divers have reported temperature anomalies that suggest the presence of a severe heat wave in the Mediterranean. Surprisingly, this has not been indicated by the monitoring systems currently in place. A distinct increase in average surface-water temperatures compared to earlier records was first recognized in the spring of 2023. In order to understand what is happening worldwide and in the Mediterranean, we need to analyze more data. That is exactly what is made possible by the collection of data from diving computers, and it will even allow us to analyze what has happened in the past. This is the only way we can find out exactly what causes the heatwaves and how their effects can be mitigated," says Galerne.
There are similar data-collection projects being carried out for the surface waters, for example, using surfboards. These involve the use of a “smart fin” attached to the board that can record certain parameters in the surface waters. Galerne points out that, “Our project goes further and deeper, down to around 40 meters.” People go diving at locations in the Mediterranean Sea every day. “We can use their data to fill a large gap in the present monitoring system.”
Rebecca Zitoun from GEOMAR adds, “Diving computer data are already available online, and we have a large amount of historical data that we can use. Our project will make use of these historical data and collect new data in order to analyze past trends of water temperature in the Mediterranean, and to understand how it could develop in the future.” These kinds of data are important for climate models as well as for risk assessments for governments, communities, and the general public, to aid them in making informed decisions.

In practice, it looks like this: after each individual dive, the data from a calibrated diving computer, which include the place, time, pressure, and temperature, are downloaded to a PC or laptop. This is where the BlueDOT project comes in, for which Galerne and his colleagues are programming a portal where dive data can be uploaded and processed regardless of the brand of diving computer. The data is then processed by the analysis team for scientific evaluation.

Successful in the “Innovation Sprint”

The team applied to take part in an “innovation sprint” as part of the DATIpilot funding guideline. The BMBF is funding 300 technological and social innovation projects from around 3,000 applications that offer solutions to current challenges and produce added societal value. The team is supported in its work by the University of Bremen’s UniTransfer office.

The project begins in December with two diving stations in the Mediterranean. Calibration stations for the diving computers will be set up on the Costa Brava and on the Maltese island of Gozo. Divers at these sites will receive training to ensure that the data is of high quality. The citizen scientists will collect data for 18 months that will subsequently be analyzed. These two locations were selected based on diver experience in recent years.
With its cooperation partners, the team is currently working on the sensors and on buoys anchored to the sea floor that record stationary temperatures and serve as reference stations for the diving computers. Work is also continuing on the database structure and the portal for uploading the data. They are also drawing up guidelines for data standards and working procedures for citizen scientists. “The development of community-based procedures for the collection, management, storage, and use of diving data is an important part of the project. These assure us that everyone is using the same methods when they contribute to the project. This provides us with confidence in our data so that it can be used for scientific modeling," emphasizes Zitoun.

And, of course, the team will seek to establish contacts with divers in Malta and on the Costa Brava to recruit them for the scientific project. “We need dedicated individuals and diving centers to support us in this work. Our planned Ocean Literacy campaigns and workshops are therefore an important component of BlueDOT. With their contributions, enthusiastic individuals can help to find solutions, as scientists cannot solve the problems alone. That is why citizen science projects like ours are becoming more important,” says Zitoun.

It is already possible for divers to record their data now and upload it later when the programming of the app is complete. As Galerne emphasizes, “We first want to contact local people who dive especially often and in all kinds of weather.” This would avoid a "sampling bias" – for example, when more dives are completed in the summer and correspondingly fewer when travel restrictions are in effect or in winter conditions. Diving during the winter months is particularly important in order to gain a sufficient amount of data for all months and all latitudes. The team is committed to involving the diving community even after the data collection phase is completed – after all, water is their element.

Further Information:

Funding guidelines for the BMBF’s DATIpilot:
https://www.bmbf.de/bmbf/de/forschung/datipilot/datipilot_node.html (German only)
University of Bremen press release:
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/university-communication-and-marketing/all-news/details/university-of-bremens-success-in-receiving-datipilot-knowledge-and-technology-transfer-funding

Contact:

Dr. Christophe Galerne
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Bremen
Email: cgalerne@marum.de

Prof. Achim Kopf
MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Geosciences
University of Bremen
Email: akopf@marum.de

Dr. Rebecca Zitoun
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Email: rzitoun@geomar.de

Arne Schwab
Schwab Research Technology (SchwaRTech)
Email: aschwab@schwartech.de

The production of steel generates large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). In 2022, for example, German CO2 emissions from the production of pig iron and steel amounted to around 23.5 million tons, according to the Federal Environment Agency. The IUP researchers have known that these emissions can also be detected from space since the major moorland fire in Emsland in September and October 2018: "It wasn't an open fire, but one that was smouldering in the ground," says Heinrich Bovensmann. "A fire like that produces a lot of carbon monoxide, which we were able to visualize with the high-precision images from the Sentinel-5P earth observation satellite launched in 2017." What could also be seen, however, was a carbon monoxide plume from the Ruhr region – from Germany's largest steel site in Duisburg.

Tracking Carbon Monoxide with Satellites

From then on, postdoctoral researcher Oliver Schneising from the IUP team took an interest in these emissions and examined satellite data with regard to other German steel sites with integrated steelworks. He was able to prove beyond doubt that carbon monoxide was being released in Duisburg, Dillingen, Salzgitter, Bremen, and Eisenhüttenstadt. "Primary steel production worldwide is predominantly carried out using the so-called Linz-Donawitz process. In this process, oxygen is blown onto carbon-rich pig iron in order to minimize the carbon content by means of oxidation and thus obtain high-quality, low-carbon steel," explains the Bremen scientist. "The carbon monoxide – CO – released in the process can be better determined from space using the new generation of satellite sensors than the greenhouse gas CO2 itself."

In order to determine the CO emissions from the Earth remote sensing measurements, the Bremen researchers led by Schneising took a close look at the meteorological conditions – in particular the wind – at the time of the measurements. "We determined the CO emissions of the above-mentioned steel sites and compared them with the CO2 emissions reported by the steel manufacturers for the same period," says Schneising. "This analysis shows a very high correlation of CO with CO2 across all sites and therefore justifies determining the CO2 emissions from the CO observations." The method developed by the IUP research group has now been published in a renowned academic journal following peer review.

Greenhouse Gas Monitoring System for Germany in Development

The Institute of Environmental Physics' work on this topic is part of an extensive research initiative funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It is entitled "Integrated Greenhouse Gas Monitoring System for Germany" (ITMS) and is being led by the German Weather Service and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. "The ITMS project aims to develop and implement a system that combines atmospheric observations from the ground, from the air, and from space with high-resolution emission inventories and high-resolution atmospheric models. The project intends to use said system to monitor and document greenhouse gas sources and sinks," explains Dr. Heinrich Bovensmann from the IUP, which is coordinating Bremen's participation for the institute. "The University of Bremen is jointly responsible for a large part of the activities. It coordinates the activities in the area of observation data, whereby continuously collected data from measurement networks and satellites play an important role."

The research group from the Institute of Environmental Physics has now published its results in the prestigious "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics" journal of the European Geosciences Union: https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/24/7609/2024/

Further information:

https://www.itms-germany.de/en
www.uni-bremen.de/en/

Contact:

Dr. Michael Buchwitz
University of Bremen
Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP)
Phone: +49 421 218-62086
Email: buchwitz@uni-bremen.de

Six Out of Nine Research Groups Active in Bremen
 

Nine research projects plus a coordination project – six of them in Bremen – will investigate the question of how social communication changes when communicative AI becomes a part of it. The research group is coordinated by ZeMKI (Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp) and HBI (Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen). Top researchers from the fields of media and communication studies, human-computer interaction, sociology of knowledge, governance research, and media law are involved.

Together, they pursue the common goal of systematically analyzing the transformation of social communication under the influence of artificial intelligence by investigating the consequences of its use in various social areas and the public discourse surrounding it. The research focuses on social pioneers, the development of interfaces, the legal handling of communicative AI, as well as that of companies, its role in journalism, in public (online) discourse, in personal everyday life through technological devices, in the health sector, as well as in learning and teaching.

Research Unit to Establish Joint "ComAI Research Space"
 

An innovative "ComAI Research Space" is being set up for the research group – a shared research environment used by the participating institutions to create increased visibility for the research unit's findings for decision-makers in various areas of society across all locations. The central focus here is the accompanying identification of possible future scenarios for the dissemination and impact assessment of automation processes on different levels of social communication.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp, ZeMKI spokesperson at the University of Bremen and designated co-spokesperson of the ComAI research group, emphasizes the far-reaching importance of fundamental research for the current spread of communicative AI at all levels of society: "The accelerated spread of communicative AI and the associated social risks and (re-)productions of inequality necessitate a critical examination of it. This is the only way we can help to understand whether automated communication can do justice to current social challenges. As an internationally established interdisciplinary research group, we have the collective research experience, the necessary field access, and the methodological competence to do so."

The German Research Foundation (DFG) is supporting the research unit "Communicative AI: The Automation of Social Communication" ("Kommunikative KI: Die Automatisierung der gesellschaftlichen Kommunikation") in an initial funding phase for the years 2025 to 2028. In addition to Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp (ZeMKI, University of Bremen) and Prof. Dr. Wiebke Loosen (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), the participating researchers are Prof. Dr. Rainer Malaka (TZI, University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulz (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), Prof. Dr. Christian Katzenbach (ZeMKI, University of Bremen), Prof. Dr. Cornelius Puschmann (ZeMKI, University of Bremen), Dr. Gregor Wiedemann (Leibniz Institute for Media Research | HBI), Prof. Dr. Michaela Pfadenhauer (University of Vienna), Prof. Dr. Juliane Jarke (University of Graz), and Prof. Dr. Andreas Breiter (ifib/ZeMKI, University of Bremen).

Further information:
 

www.comai.space (in German only)
www.uni-bremen.de/en/
 

Contact:
 

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hepp
Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research (ZeMKI)
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-67620
Office (Ms. Schmidt): +49 421 218-67604
Email: andreas.hepp@uni-bremen.de

University of Bremen Well Represented in the Funding Lines

With five participations in Third Mission funding lines, the University of Bremen has the most in Germany. The university is an applicant in the Startup Factories, as well as in two T!Raum initiatives. It is part of two teams in the Innovationscommunities program.
Professor Michal Kucera, Vice President for Research and Transfer at the University of Bremen, sees this as an endorsement for the University of Bremen: "The good results show that our transfer strategy is working. We see ourselves as a driver of innovation and a source of inspiration for social and technological developments and are happy to take on this social responsibility."

The Projects:

T!Raum: As part of T!Raum, "#MOIN! – MOdellregion INdustriemathematik" has been supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2023 in order to create transfer spaces for the future of regions. The aim is to bring mathematics to life in schools, industry, politics, and society.

T!Call: Until now, there has been no place in long-term care settings where teaching, research, and care are carried out simultaneously. In the T!CALL cooperation project, care facilities are being developed into teaching care facilities that act as a bridge between academia, vocational training, and care practice and enable a two-way transfer.

Innovationscommunities: The Innovationscommunity Urban Health (ICUH) is concerned with the question of what social and ecological change can look like in old industrial centers. Smartport Transfer (SPorT) is about promoting digitalization in maritime logistics.

Not yet included in the ranking is the "innovate! Center" funding from the Herz Foundation. The University of Bremen is the only university in Germany to have recently been awarded said funding. The aim is to bring research to market maturity more quickly and sustainable solutions for technological challenges will be developed in three pilot projects from 2025 onwards. The Joachim Herz Foundation is supporting the project with up to 30 million euros.

Further Information:

Https://hochschuldaten.che.de/third-mission-foerderung/ (in German only)
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/university-communication-and-marketing/all-news/details/model-region-for-industrial-mathematics-is-being-created-in-and-around-bremen
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/university/university-communication-and-marketing/archive/details/multimillion-dollar-project-for-better-quality-of-care-in-the-state-of-bremen
https://www.joachim-herz-stiftung.de/en/research/research-and-application/joachim-herz-transfer-center

Contact:

Anne-Kathrin Guder
Head of UniTransfer
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-60330
Email: anne-kathrin.guder@vw.uni-bremen.de

Students in master's programs, doctoral candidates, and young researchers will exchange ideas at the "Summer School: Data-driven Dynamical Systems" from July 24 to 26. The topics of the summer school lie at the interface between dynamic systems and machine learning, including, for example, data-driven approximation and kernel analog predictions. The summer school is being organized by the Parameter Identification research group within the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science. Participation is free of charge and registration is required. Further information: Https://unihb.eu/dds24 Contact: Friederike Preuße, datads24@uni-bremen.de.

XLIV Dynamics Days Europe

The "XLIV Dynamics Days Europe" conference will take place in Bremen from July 29 to August 2. It is one of the largest annual events in the field of dynamical systems and offers the opportunity for exchange in many subfields of this research field, including bifurcation theory, machine learning, nonlinear waves, computational methods, as well as medicine and neurodynamics. The event series was founded in the 1980s and has provided a European forum for developments in the theory and application of dynamics for 44 years. With presentations on topics from physics, mathematics, biology, and engineering, the conference brings together researchers from different backgrounds from all over the world. The conference is financially supported by various organizations such as the German Research Foundation (DFG) and Springer-Verlag. The organizational team also includes members of the Faculty of Mathematics / Computer Science. Further information and registration: https://dynamicsdays.eu/bremen2024/ Contact: Professor Anke Pohl (apohl@uni-bremen.de), Professor Marc Keßeböhmer (mhk@uni-bremen.de)

New Degree Courses: Sport and Natural Sciences for Sustainability

Several new degree programs will be offered in the coming semester. These include the degree in Sport, which can be studied as a school subject for primary school teaching as well as for grammar schools and secondary schools. In addition, the University of Bremen is offering the English-language Natural Sciences for Sustainability degree for the first time.
The University of Bremen works together with the Foundation for University Admissions (Stiftung für Hochschulzulassung) as part of the so-called dialog-oriented service procedure (DoSV) to allocate study places for the bachelor's degree programs and law courses. Multiple applications are possible via this system. At the information event, the Central Student Advisory Service (ZSB) will explain what you should bear in mind when applying in order to have the best chance of being offered a study place for October. Registration for the free event is not necessary.

Time and place:

Friday, July 5, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the House of Science in Bremen. (Olbers Hall, 1st floor).

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/studies/orientation-application/study-orientation/student-orientation-events
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zsb

Contact:

Betina da Rocha
Central Student Advisory Service
University of Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-61152 (61160)
Email: darocha@uni-bremen.de
 

The beginners' courses for Italian, Polish, Russian, and Portuguese, as well as the English courses with target level B1, are recognized as paid educational leave under the Bremen Educational Leave Act (Bremisches Bildungszeitgesetz). The courses are aimed at students, student applicants, and all interested parties from Bremen and the surrounding area. In the English B2 to C1 range, the focus is on teaching academic language skills. Student applicants can also use the intensive courses, which usually last two weeks, to obtain proof of proficiency for admission to university.

Free Additional Offers for University of Bremen Students: Independent Language Learning and Coaching Opportunities

Independent language learning is also possible during the lecture-free period, for example in the tutoring program, with the materials provided by the Language Resource Centre (University of Bremen, GW2), in the SZHB tandem program, or at a language café for French. The Writer's Help Desk offers feedback on English-language texts of all kinds and further help with writing in English all year round.

The semester-long language program for the 2024/25 winter semester will commence on October 14, 2024.

Further Information:

https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/language-centre-of-the-universities-in-the-land-of-bremen/language-centre-szhb
Contact via email: szhb@uni-bremen.de