Cardiff and Bremen universities sign partnership

Cardiff University will today celebrate the start of a partnership with the University of Bremen in a bid to strengthen European relations in the wake of Brexit.

The two universities will come together to form the Bremen-Cardiff Alliance, aimed at increasing the movement of both staff and students between institutions and providing better access to research funding.

The partnership will be officially launched at a special ceremony in Cardiff, attended by delegates from the University of Bremen and wider academic and cultural partners from Germany and Wales.

A unique aspect of the Bremen-Cardiff Alliance will be the affiliation of academic staff members from one university to the other.

This will enable staff to take part in long-term collaborative research projects, to supervise PhD students and, most significantly, apply for external funding through the respective national systems of the partner institution.

The University of Bremen is one of Germany’s leading ’young universities’, with around 20,000 students and 2,300 academics. Its teaching and research activities span across a wide range of disciplines in the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and the humanities.

From 2012, it has received funding as one of the eleven top universities in the German Excellence Initiative.

Cardiff University has long-established research links with the University of Bremen, including through the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the University of Bremen’s Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM), and the cross-disciplinary Science Humanities initiative at Cardiff University and the University of Bremen’s Fiction Meets Science group.

The Bremen-Cardiff Alliance reflects shared strategic priorities and, whilst open for all areas to develop new collaborations in, will initially focus on complementary research strengths in three specific areas: media and communication sciences; marine and environmental sciences; and literary, social and historical studies. Further promising areas to bring into the alliance includes semiconductor physics.

A dedicated collaborative fund will be open for the development of joint research between the two institutions in all disciplines, as well as the mobility of teaching, technical and professional services staff to share best practice.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Colin Riordan said: “Through the Bremen-Cardiff Alliance we are responding to the complex demands of Brexit by strengthening relationships with one of our long standing European partners and ensuring that our respective staff and students continue to have access to a wealth of exciting educational and research opportunities.

“We are a global, outward looking university that recognises international partnerships as a key enabler to achieving our strategic priorities.

“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to partner with an institution that shares this passion for international collaboration and staff and student mobility, and I look forward to working closely with our counterparts in Bremen in the future.”

President of the University of Bremen Bernd Scholz-Reiter said: “With the Bremen-Cardiff Alliance, we are facilitating cooperation and exchange among our scientists. Through our cooperation with a British university, we are also countering Brexit and the growing isolation in Europe with exchange and networking.”