"You can better understand other people’s point of view"
To mark the first Humboldt Day on 30 January at the University of Münster, Prof Hans-Christian Pape, president of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and researcher at Münster University, talks in this interview about international academic mobility, the University’s Research Alumni Strategy and the importance of the financial support provided by the Humboldt Foundation.
Why is international academic mobility and cooperation important in today’s world?
To what extent can the University’s Research Alumni Strategy (RE.AL) boost Münster as a location for research marketing? How would you assess the role played by Humboldt alumni?
The RE.AL Strategy is an important component in Münster University’s research marketing. It has implemented some outstanding measures supporting Münster’s international visibility as an excellent location for research and thereby enhancing its reputation. It all begins with good advisory services for visiting academics. The University’s Welcome Centre provides information and support, during all stages of their stay here. The aim is to provide optimal working conditions for top-level researchers, and to make them and their families feel home in their new environment. Research alumni can return to Münster at a later date, and also bring junior researchers with them, through so-called reunion grants and ‘Senior brings Junior’ programmes. This results in long-term ties and long-lasting cooperation. All over the world, selected RE.AL Münster University Ambassadors promote Münster as a research location, which represents valuable networking on behalf of the University. Setting up the RE.AL Strategy was made possible not only by means of a project funded by the Humboldt Foundation, but also through the decisive role played by individual Humboldt alumni in putting the strategy into practice. Currently, four out of the five Münster University Alumni Ambassadors are Humboldtians.
How important is funding provided by the Humboldt Foundation in a university’s overall third-party funding portfolio?
The value of the funding programmes of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is not simply measured as a percentage of the total third-party funding portfolio of a university. At Münster, for example, this is in the range of five percent. The young academic talents and junior researchers coming to German universities from all over the world as Humboldt scholarship holders make an enormous contribution to internationalization. They will be part of the international network of the University all their lives. Experienced researchers and award-holders from the Foundation also bring contacts with them from their large global networks. The Alexander von Humboldt professorship attracts international top researchers to the universities. They bring international research teams, they attract excellent researchers from all over the world, and, in the process, they often cross traditional borders between disciplines and challenge entrenched structures within faculty organizations. In other words, they provide stimuli of inestimable value at whatever university they are at, and they contribute not only to further developments in top-level research, but also to internationalization. Also Münster University profits from this promotion of excellence. It succeeded in attracting to Münster the world’s leading Jewish Studies scholar, Prof Katrin Kogmann-Appel, as an Alexander von Humboldt professor. The mathematician Michael Weiss accepted an Alexander von Humboldt professorship at Münster University in 2012. He stayed as planned, and his internationally renowned expertise in algebraic and differential topology is indispensable for the excellence cluster in mathematics. Among the junior researchers, there are currently no fewer than three Sofia Kovalenskaya award-winners at Münster, all contributing to the University’s reputation with their international research teams.
Information on the Humboldt Day at Münster University
The Humboldt Day on January 30 marks the start of a series of events organized by the Welcome Centre in collaboration with SAFIR – the research funding support – and the University’s Brazil Centre. This event focuses on the promotion of international academic exchanges, cooperation and global activities. Cooperation in the fields of teaching and research requires international mobility on the part of academics. For its part this mobility can, and should, entail cooperation. After, initially, South America – and in particular Brazil – are included, ensuing semesters will see further regions of the world being presented with which departments at the University collaborate and undertake exchanges. The aims are to present funding opportunities, to enable researchers to network with one another, and to attract outstanding junior researchers.
Researchers at Münster University can register for the first Humboldt Day on January 30 at support.academics@uni-muenster.de