Eucor Seed Money 2017

Launched in 2017, the Seed Money mechanism of the trinational university grouping aims to finance new cross-border academic projects at the member universities and to contribute to the ongoing development of a joint campus.

Funding with Seed Money is intended to boost long-term academic cooperations with an international appeal. The total volume of funding from January 2018 to December 2020 is almost one million euros. The University of Basel is involved in seven concepts and is the promoter for one of them.

Cross-border projects

A total of 38 entries competed for the award. “We are delighted that our academics from the European Campus have submitted so many cross-border projects. The choice wasn’t easy for us with the high quality of applications,” says Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer, President of Eucor – The European Campus and Rector of the University of Freiburg.

“We are confident that the projects that receive funding will continue to drive academic excellence at our locations and enrich our shared range of courses. The projects will take us in the Upper Rhine region a large step further on the way to creating the first European university.”

Support was given to three projects under the aegis of Teaching and five under the aegis of Research and Innovation – these include two from the Physical Sciences & Engineering and Social Sciences & Humanities categories as well as one from the category of Life Sciences. The funding allowances amount to a maximum of EUR 48,000 per project. The selection committees consisted of experts from all five member universities..

Further informatiom

Janosch Nieden, Head of the Eucor – The European Campus EVTZ coordinating office, tel. +33 3 68 85 82 93, eMail: janosch.nieden@eucor-uni.org

Funding for Teaching

• Mutualisation et internationalisation de l’offre de formation en médiévistique de Strasbourg, Freiburg et Bâle: This humanities project is based at the Catholic Theological Faculty in Strasbourg and is being realized in cooperation with the universities of Freiburg and Basel. The partners aim to interlink closely their existing Masters programs in Medieval Studies. Among other things there will be shared seminars and events for the students to enhance language skills.
• TREE MSc: This Biology project is taking place under the leadership of the Université de Strasbourg together with all the other universities in Eucor – The European Campus. Its aim is to establish a cross-border degree program that produces highly-trained researchers in plant science.
• Upper Rhine Science Trails: Led by the University of Freiburg in cooperation with the Universities of Basel, Haute-Alsace and Strasbourg, the project involves the development of an e-learning concept intended to enable cross-border teaching and learning online as well at the European Campus, and involves among other things a multilingual app.

Funding for Research and Innovation

Physical Sciences & Engineering category

• Advanced modelling of hybrid interfaces towards innovative technologies: Led by the Université de Strasbourg and in cooperation with the universities of Freiburg and Basel, a cross-border scientific network for computational materials science is being developed. The partners are designing new interfaces between solids and liquids that are suitable for the development of electronic double-layer transistors. These have a charge density about 100-times higher than ordinary transistors, which today are fitted in almost all technical commodities.
• DA-HPC-OR: Data Analysis for Improving High Performance Computing Operations and Research: This project combines interdisciplinary competencies in the fields of high performance computing, law and data analysis. The researchers want to analyze data from the universities’ own high performance computers. The project is based at the University of Basel and is being realized in cooperation with the universities of Freiburg and Strasbourg.

Social Sciences & Humanities category

• Synergies from an Integrated Renewable Energy Supply and Storage System in the Upper Rhine Region: An Interdisciplinary Analysis (SIRES_URR): This interdisciplinary project is studying the basic conditions for more efficient and flexible production, distribution and temporary storage of renewable energies in the Upper Rhine region. All Eucor – The European Campus universities are engaged in this project, which is being directed by Freiburg.
• Aesthetics of Protestantism in Northern Europe: This Scandinavian studies project is led by the Université de Strasbourg. In cooperation with the universities of Basel and Freiburg, academics want to study the significance of Protestantism from the Reformation to the present day on the aesthetics of Scandinavian culture.

Life Sciences category

• Using optogenetics to visualize histone H2AX phosphorylation in living cells with high precision: This Biology project is based at the University of Freiburg and is being realized jointly with the Université de Strasbourg. The partners are studying an altered form of the protein H2AX in living cells which plays an important part in the repair of DNA.