In his welcome speech, Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller-Stach, Vice President for Research and Early Career Academics at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) emphasized the importance the RMU alliance has for science: “Networking and cooperation across the three universities and across subject areas is the key to innovation and excellence. By pooling competences and adopting new approaches, we are shaping the Rhine-Main region as an integrated, globally attractive and competitive region of science.”

The conference offered a varied program that gave the participating VARM partners the opportunity to present their joint projects, with a particular focus on research initiatives involving several cooperation partners within the network. VARM spokesman Prof. Dr. Wicke highlighted the successes and future prospects of the network: “With VARM, we created a platform that brings together scientists from different archaeological disciplines and institutions. There are not many regions in Germany with such a high number of institutions and researchers active in or for archeology. We must make use of this and allow everyone to profit from this.”

The event was also a testament to the close connection between the RMU alliance and VARM. Joint networks such as VARM not only contribute to strengthening research, but also help intensify the exchange among scientists in the Rhine-Main region. The response generated by the annual conference shows the immense interest in this type of cooperation – which has already successfully been put into practice in various joint research projects.

The next annual VARM conference is planned to take place in 2025 at Goethe University Frankfurt. It will be exciting to see which topics and developments will be the focus then.

"There aren't many regions in Germany that possess this extent of university and non-university know-how in the field of archaeology, all of which makes the Rhine-Main area a very special one," emphasized Professor Friederike Fless, President of the German Archaeology Institute, in her speech at the VARM kick-off event in November 2015. Attended by numerous colleagues from a wide variety of institutions, the event served to provide an introduction to the project and played host to discussions about the potential and opportunities that will result from collaboration. The planned cooperation will focus especially on research, teaching, and the promotion of talented young researchers, the support of existing academic infrastructures, and the further development of communication pathways. The preparation of a wide-ranging joint research project has already commenced and ideas for future projects are currently being drafted and discussed.

With such a broad spectrum of interests united in one body, the cooperating partners are expecting a wealth of valuable input: "Academic collaboration will be easier, and we will be able to more easily access and more effectively share our infrastructures. In the teaching arena we want to put in place new options that the partners on their own simply wouldn't be able to offer. In addition, the association will allow us to more smoothly integrate our numerous international contacts into the Rhine-Main area."

The VARM cooperation partners cover a vast period of time in their research: from the earliest phases of human evolution to the Middle Ages and the early modern era, with a geographical emphasis on Europe, Asia, and Africa. On top of that, the archaeological disciplines possess a broad spectrum of methodologies that will be positively augmented by the natural sciences. "It's great that our institutions complement each other's research and work so well. It's a trump card that we can certainly make the most of in the future," the initiators agreed.