Campus by the sea: European universities fly the flag in Kiel and focus on joint research

• Research: An international team is investigating greenhouse gases, microplastics and air quality in European coastal waters on the first SEA-EU research cruise, which will last several weeks.
• Teaching: Establishing international study and training programmes aimed at over 150,000 students and researchers.
• Knowledge transfer: Smart shipping is on the agenda at the Kiel Marketplace dialogue event – conducted for the first time on a cross-border basis.

Europe-wide cohesion, shared values and research into environmentally sustainable solutions: European university alliances are playing an increasingly important role in promoting cross-border networking, international education and research – this includes the European University of the Seas (SEA-EU). Under its banner nine universities all of them located at coastal sites, and among them Kiel University (CAU), have joined forces. From 30 May to 2 June 2022, Kiel University will host delegations from all of the SEA-EU partner universities. Together they form a pluri-ethnic, multilingual and transdisciplinary inter-university campus with more than 150,000 students and researchers. Simultaneously, the research catamaran Oceanograf will dock in Kiel on its scientific voyage – the first joint one by the SEA-EU partners.

Fruitful internationalisation and constructive cooperation

Initially represented by CAU’s Kiel Marine Science (KMS) priority research focus, today SEA-EU provides one of the most important international programmes at Kiel University. “CAU can look back on a tradition of more than 300 years in marine sciences and, as a fully-fledged university, integrates diverse inter- and transdisciplinary approaches in research, teaching and knowledge transfer. SEA-EU is a lighthouse project for us to further develop our profile at a European level and contributing via innovative mobility and cooperation projects to the vision of European university alliances,” says CAU President Simone Fulda. Close cooperation with European partners allows the cross-national development of technologies, concepts and models to be advanced. “In this way, we can make important contributions to solving the major societal, global challenges of our time. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), aligned in our view with European values, are key in providing orientation here.”

40 days at sea, 4,000 nautical miles, more than 45 researchers

Never before, since the alliance’s establishment in 2019, have SEA-EU’s various partners embarked on a joint research trip. “The cruise is an impressive demonstration through marine science of how cross-national and cross-cultural research and education can function in the future,” explains Professor Nele Matz-Lück, Vice President for International Affairs, Young Researchers, Equality and Diversity at CAU. The Gdańsk research catamaran Oceanograf will be docking in Kiel from 1 to 4 June on its journey from Gdańsk to Cádiz.

More than 45 marine scientists from six countries are involved in the 40-day research cruise. The scientific agenda: a large-scale survey of microplastics and air quality in European coastal areas and examination of greenhouse gases in sediments.

On a day trip to the Eckernförde Bay, for example, the researchers will be measuring greenhouse gases in sediments – accompanied on board the Oceanograf by students from Kiel University. The research cruise will be making an important contribution to students’ education in current topics of marine research. It pools resources and capacities and strengthens research cooperation between European universities within SEA-EU. The organisation of the research at Eckernförde Bay is being led by the Institute of Geosciences at CAU.

Innovative learning, teaching and mobility projects

“SEA-EU provides us with a context for intensifying internationalisation, promoting student mobility and developing new digital formats for studying and teaching,” says Matz-Lück. Students, doctoral candidates, researchers, teachers and staff can receive further education and training via innovative and digital teaching and communications programmes within the Europe-wide university campus. “We want to provide our CAU graduates with the best possible preparation for internationalist working contexts, supporting them early on in building their own networks and career opportunities,” stresses Matz-Lück.

At the same time, the project is strengthening the European Higher Education Area within the global competitive arena. SEA-EU members’ current shared goals are developing innovative teaching and learning formats, creating new forms of cooperation for education, research, technology transfer and knowledge exchange, as well as strengthening pan-European cohesion.

Kiel Marketplace: smart shipping

The SEA-EU week will be flanked by Kiel Marketplace. “We want to use this event to further invigorate the dialogue between science and business, strengthening our cooperation between research and industry,” says Dr Christian Wagner-Ahlfs. As coordinator for transdisciplinary marine research at the Kiel Marine Science (KMS) research centre, Kiel University, he has responsibility for social dialogue. This year's Marketplace will for the first time be hosted internationally with guests from Gdańsk under the reSEArch-EU umbrella. The topic: smart shipping and the development of innovative, sustainable shipping through digitalisation.

For more than ten years, the Kiel Marketplace event series has been organised jointly with Wissenschaftszentrum Kiel (WiZe), the Maritime Cluster Northern Germany (MCN), Schleswig-Holstein office, and Kiel University. Adds Wagner-Ahlfs: “Our goal is to strengthen transnational cooperation in applied research through knowledge transfer.”