Stifterverband Provides Funding for an Exchange Forum between University, Politics and Economy
The University of Mannheim and the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar GmbH (MRN) will receive 25,000 euros in funding for the project “Transformationslabor Hochschule”. Julia Derkau of the Center for Teacher Education and Teaching Innovation and Professor Hiram Kümper, holder of the Carl-Theodor professorship, will take on the lead for the University of Mannheim.
The pressure to transform affects the Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region in all aspects of life. An ever-evolving working world, demographic changes, and the consequences of climate change are a particular challenge. The University of Mannheim and the Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar are one of nine pairs in Germany to receive funding from the Stifterverband as part of the program “Transformationslabor Hochschule”. The one-year funding program was launched by the Stifterverband, with the aim of strengthening universities as active and competent designers of transformative processes.
The funds will bring together a forum made up of university, regional planning, politics, and economy under the lead of the University of Mannheim and the MRN. Stakeholders will exchange their ideas regularly and contribute to tackling the transformative challenges that the region is facing. A graduate school is part of the forum. Students have the opportunity to work on specific challenges of the region in their final theses together with the partners of the forum. For example, this concerns the digitalization of the working world and our daily environment or urban planning in new climatic conditions. "With the graduate school, we want to specifically prepare early-stage researchers for their career start, build up networks for graduates and offer them a good start of their professional life. At the same time, we want to develop fresh, courageous ideas and innovative solutions with and for the metropolitan region,” explains project manager Julia Derkau.
The forum with the graduate school is closely connected to the collaborative project TransforMA of the University of Mannheim and the University of Applied Sciences Mannheim. TransforMA is aiming to guide and positively shape the transformation of the Metropolitan Region Rhine-Neckar. The graduate school is to actively involve students in the transformative processes.
Further information on the program “Transformationslabor Hochschule: Wissenschaft und Stadt“, please see the Stifterverband website.
