Actors

The Upper Rhine region is characterized by a distinct concentration and structural diversity in the areas of research, innovation, and technology transfer, as well as universities themselves. With its numerous scholars, researchers, universities and research facilities, the region is an effective center of education and research in Europe and disposes of a vast array of potentialities for development. The region is considered Europe’s “Golden Triangle” of research and education.

The Science Pillar is in close cooperation with its partners, notably the scientific actors of the Upper Rhine: Eucor – The European Campus, a European confederation of Universities in the Upper Rhine (Basel, Freiburg, Haute-Alsace, Karlsruhe, and Strasbourg), facilitates the practical and legal conditions so that the five EUCOR universities can work more closely, especially in the fields of research and education, as well as the recruitment of personnel. The Science Pillar is also in close cooperation with TriRhenaTech, the new composite of universities of applied sciences in the Upper Rhine. Together Eucor and TriRhenaTech make up the important and necessary platforms for further cross-border cooperation in research and education in the Upper Rhine.

The partner universities of Rhineland-Palatinate belong to some of the most important actors of the Science Pillar, namely the University of Mainz (Germersheim Campus), the RPTU (Technische Universität Rheinland-Pfalz), and the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer.

Non-university research institutes such as the CNRS, INSERM, IRCAD as well as the Fraunhofer and Max-Planck Institutes, are essential components of the Science Pillar.

Numerous actors champion the value of research results, and thus the further implementation of knowledge and technology transfer, all in a region that is often referred to as an “innovation ecosystem”. Also actively contributing to this “innovative ecosystem” are CCIs, research institutions, various colleges, university services, clusters, as well as agencies that promote and develop businesses.

Finally, in this region many different actors support scientific mediation (for example  institutional actors, associations, initiatives, and events) and thereby form an important part of the Science Pillar.

These many actors are represented by the spokesman of the Science Pillar Prof. Dr.Thomas Hirth, Vice President for Transfer and International Affairs at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Vice President of Eucor – The European Campus and the Vice Spokesman Prof. Dr.Franz Quint, Vice Rector for Research, Cooperation and Quality Management at the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences and spokesman of TriRhenaTech.