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"Tradition – Trust - Future"

From 2013 until the end of 2018, the DAAD program „Strategic Partnerships and Thematic Networks” funded the project “Tradition – Trust – Future” with over 1 million euro. The DAAD-initiative serves the creation and expansion of strategic partnerships of German universities with worldwide partners. 117 German higher education institutions applied to the first DAAD call in 2012. Out of these applicants, the University of Marburg contributed one of 21 projects selected for funding.

The project supported the expansion of the already established strategic relationships of the University of Marburg in China, and entailed research cooperations as well as the explicit recruitment of highly qualified students and junior scientists.

Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and Tongji University in Shanghai, both among the elite universities in China, were selected from a choice of six Chinese higher education institutions, based on their scientific focus and the possibility of an innovative and trend-setting expansion of the University of Marburg’s teaching- and research focus.

We implemented joint research projects and networks, summer schools, binational doctoral programs and life-long-learning programs for administrative staff as part of the program. These strategic activities expanded already established cooperations in the natural sciences, medicine and German as a foreign language. 

In addition to structured measures, mobility of students and doctoral candidates between the three partners has been explicitly encouraged since the partnerships were established, including research stays and clinical rotations for medical students. All mobility options are a permanent feature of the University of Marburg’s strategic connection to the partners in China.