Excellence Strategy Resolv enters the race as University Alliance Ruhr
The Resolv team gives insights into their Excellence Strategy for Solvation Science.
The cluster of excellence Resolv normally uses the New Year’s Reception to look back at a year of achievements. But the event that took place on the 20th of January was a special one. In view of the next application phase of the Excellence Strategy, Resolv announced the strategic involvement of all partners within the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr): RUB and the Technical University (TU) of Dortmund will jointly apply as cluster hosts, with significant involvement from the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE).
“The journey in the new interdisciplinary field Solvation Science began here at RUB. It has led us to new findings that in turn opened up a new world of scientific challenges. We want to pursue these challenges by tripling our efforts with the backing of the UA Ruhr,“ said Prof Dr Havenith, speaker of Resolv.
Concentrating the strengths of the Ruhr area
In 2017, the cluster of excellence will have to submit a new application to the German Research Foundation, with the aim of getting further seven years of funding. The new proposal will be a Key Research Initiative of the UA Ruhr. Since 2007, the UA Ruhr has initiated over 100 collaborations among universities in the fields of research, academia and administration.
“We are happy about the outstanding development of Resolv and, at the same time, appreciate the dynamic cooperation within the UA Ruhr. This is also reflected in the establishment of Resolv as Key Research Initiative of the UA Ruhr. Through this partnership we can concentrate more strengths of the Ruhr area for the new application in the Excellence Strategy,” said Prof Dr Axel Schölmerich, rector of RUB.
Valuable cooperation
TU Dortmund University is already a strong partner in the cluster of excellence Resolv. Many principal investigators, among them Prof Dr Roland Winter, Prof Dr Metin Tolan, and Prof Dr Gabriele Sadowki, work in pivotal projects. “The cluster of excellence Resolv is an outstanding example of the successful cooperation in the University Alliance Ruhr. Our joint application in the next Excellence Strategy round emphasises the value of cooperation even more clearly,” said Prof Dr Dr h. c. Ursula Gather, rector of the TU Dortmund University.
Also the University of Duisburg-Essen participates with two scientific groups in Resolv: Prof Dr Eckhard Spohr, and Prof Dr Uwe Bovensiepen. “The strength of our three universities, combined within the UA Ruhr, has already led to substantial success in the past. Hence, I see a big potential in the cooperation of our researchers within the scope of Resolv and I am looking forward to our university’s important contribution to the project,” said Prof Dr Ulrich Radtke, rector of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
A year of achievements
At the New Year’s Reception, 2016 stood out as a year full of far reaching milestones for the cluster and of growing collaborations. Many of the already published 500 papers are the result of a collaborative work. The integrated graduate school offers 100 doctorates a comprehensive scientific platform.
With the appointment of Prof Dr Enrica Bordignon, Prof Dr Viktoria Däschlein-Gessner, Prof Dr Lukas Gooßen and Prof Dr Clara Saraceno at RUB, the cluster has anchored to itself a total of nine new professors. Moreover, the pan-European funding body European Research Council (ERC) awarded a total of 10 million Euro for the next five years to five Resolv researchers.
Finally, one of the most important events ever for Resolv took place last Mai, with the inauguration of Zemos, the new home of Solvation Science at RUB.