During the guided tour on the Mathildenhöhe, which is considered one of Darmstadt's landmarks, early career researchers from RMU have the opportunity to explore the artists' colony and UNESCO World Heritage Site and to network with early career researchers from other Rhine-Main universities and other research disciplines.

Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt is an ensemble consisting of a wedding tower, exhibition building, artists' colony museum, plane tree grove and artists' houses. It was founded in 1899 and made Darmstadt a center of European art development.

Registration is now open at: 232_EXP02 Guided Tour: Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt (eveeno.com)

Further information on the event can be found at: Guided Tour: Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt (March 20th, 2024) – TU Darmstadt (tu-darmstadt.de)

Four of the cluster initiatives submitted by the Rhine-Main universities have successfully passed the draft proposal phase of the Excellence Cluster (EXC) funding line in the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. The expert committee of the German Research Foundation (DFG) invited the four cluster initiatives to submit a full EXC proposal. The Rhine-Main Universities, a strategic alliance of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Technical University of Darmstadt, participated in the competition with a total of nine new project proposals.

Prof. Dr. Tanja Brühl, President of TU Darmstadt and spokesperson for the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), was delighted at the expert panel’s decision: "The fact that four RMU research clusters were able to prevail with their draft proposals is a success– both for the three universities and the entire Rhine-Main region, especially in the face of such strong competition in the national scientific landscape. This is proof of the diversity and strength of research in the Rhine-Main region."

Brühl also emphasized: "I would like to thank the scientists involved for their outstanding work. My colleagues Enrico Schleiff, Georg Krausch and I will do everything we can to provide the researchers with the best possible support in preparing the full proposals." Brühl as well as Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff, President of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch, President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, are confident that they will be able to submit brilliant full proposals to the Excellence Commission in August, based on outstanding research from the Rhine-Main region.

Brühl was particularly pleased with the success of the joint RMU draft proposal CoM2Life submitted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Technical University Darmstadt: "The Rhine-Main universities have been cooperating across all performance dimensions for many years. The fact that another collaborative research project is now one step closer to receiving excellence funding is proof of the success of our joint strategy." The CoM2Life scientists aim to revolutionize the field of soft biomaterials by integrating principles from living systems into synthetic materials.

At its meeting on 12 January 2024, the Senate of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) confirmed Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch in his office as President of JGU. With 32 valid votes cast and one abstention, the incumbent President was unanimously elected for a fourth term of office from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2031. The Senate thus followed the preceding unanimous vote of the University Council in favor of the 62-year-old physicist, after the Rhineland-Palatinate Science Minister Clemens Hoch had also approved the nomination.

One of Krausch’s strategic priorities in his fourth term of office will be to significantly improve the structural situation on campus, particularly by increasing the sustainability of the university buildings and the attractiveness of the campus through modern teaching spaces as well as through unsealing and greening of surfaces. Another focus will be on the further development of modern university teaching, for example through new forms of collaborative learning, variety of methods and participation formats. In the medium term, lifelong learning is to become an integral part of the courses on offer. In addition, traditional structures and processes will be modified in order to successfully support early career researchers. Furthermore, Krausch will also continue to focus on the positioning of the Rhine-Main science region as a future-oriented and internationally competitive center of science and research in the strategic alliance of the RMU.

Georg Krausch was born in 1961 and studied Physics at the University of Konstanz. After completing his doctorate and acquiring his post-doctoral lecturing qualification, he was Professor of Physical Chemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / LMU Munich from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, he was assigned to the Chair of Physical Chemistry at Bayreuth University. Krausch has more than 160 research publications to his name, which have been cited over 10,000 times. In recognition of his research work, he was appointed a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2009. Since 2013, he has been a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). In 2014, he was awarded the Leibniz Medal of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz; in March 2020, he was appointed full member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. In 2021/2022, he was the State Coordinator for Biotechnology in Rhineland-Palatinate, and from 2020 to 2023 he was Chairman of the German U15 association of universities, of which he had been Deputy Chairman since 2014. In November 2023, Prof. Dr. Georg Krausch was elected HRK Vice President for Research, Academic Career Paths.

How do appointment procedures work? Who is involved? What considerations are decisive on the part of the decision-making bodies? Which behaviour is expected from applicants, which is tolerated and which tends to contribute to a negative assessment?

Participants can discuss these and many other questions with three professors from natural sciences, engineering and computer sciences and an administrative employee from the "Appointments" department. The three-hour event will focus on three main topics: "Application", "Appointment presentation and discussion with the appointment committee" and "Appointment".

This year, the event will be held in English for the first time and will be attended by a professor from Goethe University Frankfurt.

Registration is now open at https://eveeno.com/247951779.

Further information on the event can be found at Appointment for Professorship – Learning from Experience (27.02.2024) - Natural Science, Engineering + Computer Sciences – TU Darmstadt (tu-darmstadt.de).

The Summer School aims at students interested in Children’s and YA-media in Germany and abroad. Numerous lectures and workshops taught by international experts will provide new cultural studies’ perspectives on Children’s Media (e.g. Disability Studies and New Environmental Studies) with methods from the digital humanities.

Registration for the Summer School is now open until 15 February 2024 at Registration | Children's Media Summer School (childrensmediasummerschool.com).

Further information and the programme can be found at Children's Media Summer School | (childrensmediasummerschool.com)

The aim of the Kurswechsel conference is to support women in the strategic planning of their careers, to present career prospects outside academia and to help them make a qualified decision on their next career steps.

The programme includes a panel discussion on the topic "New Beginnings! Starting your job in the world outside academia" and career talks. Experts will give participants a comprehensive insight into their careers and activities, share their experiences and report on the opportunities and challenges of career paths outside academia. The conference will take place online and in English from 10:00 to 17:00.

Kurswechsel is a collaboration of GRADE - the Goethe Research Academy for Early Career Researchers, the Equal Opportunity Office of Goethe University, and Mentoring Hessen, a joint project of the universities in Hessen.

You can register for the Kurswechsel Conference on the following page: Kurswechsel online - Career Conference for Female Early Career Researchers (letsgetdigital.com)

Initiative Funding for Teaching

With the Teaching Initiative Funding, RMU supports cooperations for the development of new, attractive study programmes, for the cooperative further development of existing curricular offerings and for the joint testing of innovative teaching/learning formats within the RMU. Against the background of the excellence strategy, the current call for proposals focuses on research-oriented teaching/learning settings. In particular, project-based or problem-based teaching/learning formats are to be used. 

Applications can be made for funding of up to 40,000 euros for a maximum of one year. Applications can be submitted by 25 March 2024 to koordination@rhein-main-unis.de.

Initiative Funding for Research

With the Initiative Funding for Research, the RMU promotes joint research projects. The RMU Initiative Funding for Research consists of three funding lines:

The funding line "Start-up funding for RMU collaborative projects" supports already advanced proposal proposals for large, strategically relevant collaborative research projects that will be ready for proposal submission within one year. A funding of to 50,000 euros can be received.

The funding line "Funding of RMU networking in innovative projects" offers start-up funding for networking activities for new, innovative RMU collaboration projects of 20,000 to 40,000 euros per year for a maximum of two years. Applications can be submitted by 15 April 2024 to koordination@rhein-main-unis.de.

The funding line "Early Career Researchers" supports networking between scientists* in the early career phase with up to a maximum of 30,000 euros per project over a maximum project duration of two years. Applications can be submitted on two deadlines per year, 15.03. and 15.09., to koordination@rhein-main-unis.de..

The calls for proposals for the initiative fundings can be downloaded below.

Further information about the event can be found on the link below.