In his welcoming address the Mayor of Bremen, Dr. Carsten Sieling, spoke of the important contribution the two universities make to the regional economy and Bremen’s reputation as a science location. He said this must be sustained going forward. The second major task is to further build on the quality of university teaching and education and train more academics to meet the challenges the future will bring. In front of the backdrop of pending decisions regarding the follow-up program for the current Excellence Initiative, Sieling assured the audience of local government support, saying “It’s important for us to keep Bremen excellent. We’re in the same boat.” He identified the Bremen Senate’s most important task in gaining support from the Federal Government. “We are doing everything we can.”
2015: A successful year for Bremen science
It was decided this year to dispense with speeches by the Rector of the University of Bremen, Bernd Scholz-Reiter, and the President of Jacobs University, Katja Windt and instead to have a panel discussion, which was excellently chaired by János Kereszti (Radio Bremen). Bernd Scholz-Reiter looked back over another successful year for the University of Bremen: Successes had been scored not only in the area of collaborative research, but also on the part of the University’s individual scholars and scientists, no less than six of whom were awarded ERC grants. And large amounts of third-party funding were acquired for university teaching and teacher training. The Rector is optimistic about the new academic year and the pending new round of the Excellence Initiative, and is confident the University will secure further federal financing.
New round of the Excellence Initiative: Bremen is prepared
In this connection, Bremen’s Senator for Science, Eva Quante-Brandt, assured the audience that the Federal State of Bremen is well prepared for the pending call and had allocated accordant state support. The Chairman of the “unifreunde”, Bengt Beutler, underscored his view that funding science represents an investment in the future of all of us. “Science needs Bremen. Bremen needs science.” In 2015, the University of Bremen appointed 22 new professors – all of whom represent new boosts for research, teaching, and science transfer.
