Cardiff’s German link aims to protect funding access post-Brexit

Cardiff University has launched a partnership with Germany’s University of Bremen in a bid to gain better access to research funding after Brexit.

The Bremen-Cardiff Alliance will enable academics to be affiliated with both institutions, allowing them to take part in long-term collaborative research projects, supervise PhD students at the two universities and apply for external national funding from both the UK and Germany.

The universities also hope that the partnership will increase staff and student mobility between the two institutions.

A dedicated collaborative fund will be open for the development of joint research between the two institutions in all disciplines, as well as the mobility of teaching, technical and professional services staff to share best practice.

Since 2012, the University of Bremen has been one of 11 German universities that has received funding through the country’s excellence initiative.

The two universities already have long-established research links in the areas of marine sciences and the interdisciplinarity of science and the humanities.

The new alliance will initially focus on media and communication sciences; marine and environmental sciences; and literary, social and historical studies, with the aim of adding semiconductor physics in the future.

Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, said that the institution was “responding to the complex demands of Brexit by strengthening relationships with one of our long-standing European partners and ensuring that our respective staff and students continue to have access to a wealth of exciting educational and research opportunities”.

“We are a global, outward-looking university that recognises international partnerships as a key enabler to achieving our strategic priorities,” he added.

“I’m delighted that we’ve been able to partner with an institution that shares this passion for international collaboration and staff and student mobility, and I look forward to working closely with our counterparts in Bremen in the future.”

Bernd Scholz-Reiter, president of the University of Bremen, said that the new alliance was “countering Brexit and the growing isolation in Europe with exchange and networking”.

Several leading UK universities have launched new, or strengthened existing, partnerships with European universities since the Brexit vote, while Lancaster University and Coventry University have announced plans for branch campuses on the Continent.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com