Collaborations
Cooperations with other universities, especially in the international arena, have become increasingly important in recent years. The Bonn Medical Faculty is therefore particularly proud of its long-standing cooperation with its university partners in Europe and overseas. In the following you will find an overview of three particularly significant cooperations.
NeurotechEU
The University of Bonn is one of nine partners in the NeurotechEU22 (The European University of Brain and Technology) consortium funded as a "European University" by the European Commission. Together with the Radboud Universiteit in Nijmegen (consortium leader), the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, the University of Oxford and other universities from France, Romania, Spain, Hungary and Turkey, the University of Bonn is committed to building a trans-European network of excellence in the sector of brain research and technology. This includes the establishment of an international and interdisciplinary graduate school, a center for lifelong learning and a digital platform for scientific exchange students, teachers and researchers from the network. To this end, the consortium will receive funding totaling 5 million euros over the next three years. In Bonn, Prof. Dr. Christian Henneberger from the Institute for Cellular Neurosciences of the Medical Faculty and Dr. Kai Sicks from the Department of International Affairs are in charge of this European cooperation. Numerous scientists from the Faculty of Medicine are involved in this project.
The idea of establishing "European universities" took root in 2017. At the Social Summit for Fair Jobs and Growth in Gothenburg, the heads of state of the EU countries agreed to expand their cooperation on an educational and cultural level. This agreement led to the concept and the initial call for applications for the European University Program one year later. The initiative around NeurotechEU was able to secure the status of European University in the second funding round in July 2020.
In principle, the EU program aims to bring together institutions of academic education from EU countries and thus secure Europe's position as an internationally competitive university location in the long term. Beyond languages, borders and disciplines, young Europeans are to be motivated to cooperate with each other and to address common societal challenges.
Universities in Australia
Particularly close collaborations have been established with the University of Melbourne, the leading Australian university (Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2019 rank 32 worldwide). Within the framework of the Bonn & Melbourne Research and Graduate School Immunosciences4, Bonn and Australian researchers jointly supervise PhD projects on immunological/infectiological topics, for which a cotutelle agreement has been concluded on the basis of which students receive a joint PhD degree from both universities. This program was complemented in 2017 by the BMBF-funded "Bonn-Melbourne Academy for Excellence in Immunosciences (BM-AXIS)5""" ", which enables the exchange of scientists* for specific research projects and visiting professorships between both universities. In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding between the universities of Bonn and Melbourne was signed in 2018, which further strengthens the partnership.
Collaborations are not limited to the University of Melbourne; intensive knowledge transfer also takes place with the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity6 and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institut (WEHI), internationally renowned institutes with an immunological focus, as well as with the Centre for Eye Research Australia7 (CERA), which ranks among the top five ophthalmology research institutes worldwide.
Universities in Japan
Collaboration with Japan is of particular importance at the Faculty of Medicine. In order to establish or deepen cooperation, a delegation of the University of Bonn with participation of the Faculty of Medicine visited the Universities of Osaka, Kyoto, Tsukuba and Waseda in October 2017. During this visit, agreements were signed with Osaka and Kyoto Universities to promote collaboration in the field of immunology. The alliance for immunology between the University of Bonn and Osaka University was sealed by a five-year cooperation agreement in November 2018. The aim is to better understand the immune system through joint research. The agreement governs research and teaching collaboration between the ImmunoSensation Cluster of Excellence and the Immunology Frontier Research Center, the Research Institute for Microbial Diseases and the Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences at Osaka University. Collaboration with Kyoto University is long-standing and includes a broad exchange of students and scientists. This international exchange will greatly enhance research and junior research.
A strategic partnership agreement has been in place with Waseda University since 2017, enabling even closer collaboration in study, teaching and research. In the field of biomedical research, Bonn's LIMES Institute and Waseda University's TWIns Institute are already cooperating. As part of the strategic partnership, travel grants will be made available from a central source for Bonn scientists to establish or expand further research areas from 2018 onwards.