The Strategic Development of Potential programme aims to make Lower Saxony’s universities, with their individual profiles and goals, more competitive nationally and internationally. The Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (MWK) and the Volkswagen Foundation are providing four categories of funding to the state’s universities depending on university size. Four universities in the state, including Leibniz University Hannover (LUH), were eligible to apply under category 1 for up to 25 million euros for a period of five years. LUH has been awarded 22.5 million euros and has thus received almost the entire amount available.
LUH’s concept is titled LIFT – Global Inspirations for Local Transformation. “LIFT is part of a successful strategy process we’ve undertaken at LUH in recent years,” said LUH president Prof. Dr. Volker Epping, emphasising: “My hope is that the LIFT measures will enable us to recruit researchers and students for LUH from around the world.”
With the funding, MWK and the Volkswagen Foundation aim to “strengthen the central role of Leibniz University Hannover as a source of ideas and a driving force for science in Lower Saxony and beyond”, said the funding announcement. “We are convinced that the measures outlined in the proposal will not only drive advances in science but will also generate positive impulses for society and business in our state,” said Falko Mohrs, Lower Saxony’s minister of culture and science, and Georg Schütte, secretary general of the Volkswagen Foundation, in their grant letter.
The LIFT concept’s measures fall primarily within three areas: people, networks and impact.
People: outstanding international researchers
One focus of the concept is the recruitment of outstanding international researchers for professorships and short stays in order to obtain global inspiration and ideas for research, teaching and the campus community. The funding will enable LUH to create 40 international part-time professorships and five New Horizons professorships. Three Leibniz scholarship programmes will also be established to further develop and publicise research in selected emerging fields. In addition to driving developments in research and science, the measures will also support efforts to double the number of English-language study programmes at LUH and strengthen strategic partnerships. These partnerships include the EULiST European university alliance, as part of which LUH cooperates with nine European universities.
Networks: climate-neutral campus development and regional knowledge transfer
An additional focus of the LIFT concept is the further development of the LUH campus together with regional partners in order to strengthen local networks and achieve the university’s goal of carbon neutrality. The central element is the so-called Leibniz Campus Labs. They are intended to bundle research expertise, technological innovation and student engagement, thereby increasing the visibility of these elements and promoting an open scientific culture. There are also concrete plans for a real-world laboratory at the Ruthe Research Station. Here various actors from within and outside LUH will discuss, analyse and plan potential ideas for research projects and alternative energy facilities, as well as other options for use. As part of this work, real-world experiments and so-called demonstrators will also be developed to make sustainability research accessible and understandable for the public.
Impact: from the scientific sphere to the business sector
In the area of technology transfer, the focus is on giving students a broad awareness early on regarding the possibility of founding a business, and on showing them how they can utilise good business ideas and inventions to start their own company. A university-wide entrepreneurship training programme for all subject areas is planned for this purpose. LUH also intends to make it easier to license non-patented intellectual property, such as software. With these measures, LUH aims to use spin-offs and licensing to maximise the impact of its research on the scientific community, the business sector and society.
Administrative structures as basis
Because they are the foundation for the successful implementation of the measures, administrative support structures and processes will be expanded and improved. The activities in this area entail human resources development, including the onboarding of international researchers, and the implementation of digital platforms for internal training and networking or the analysis of key figures.
Note to editors:
For further information, please contact Mechtild Freiin v. Münchhausen, spokesperson for Leibniz University Hannover and head of Communications and Marketing (tel. +49 511 762-5342, email: kommunikation@uni-hannover.de).
