Exploratory Research Space – ERS
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Science Needs Room for Creativity
The Exploratory Research Space, ERS for short, promotes and funds interdisciplinary research projects and provides a platform for scientists to join forces and develop highly innovative, challenging research ideas that involve a higher risk than conventional ventures.
We facilitate dialog and exchange between the disciplines and support researchers with seminars, workshops, and continuing education opportunities. ERS is targeted both at experienced scientists and early-career researchers.
Offers within ERS are:
- The ERS Forum to help you find and develop your research idea that is at a very early and open stage yet.
- The ERS Project Support to help you further develop your research project.
- IRS – International Research Space to create a supportive research infrastructure in order to promote internationalization.
How Do We Understand Interdisciplinarity at ERS?
Interdisciplinarity, as understood by the Exploratory Research Space, ERS for short, at RWTH Aachen University, combines approaches, insights and methods of different academic disciplines to pursuit a task that is of common scientific interest and requires a joint research strategy with contributions from all partners.
That means that the disciplines should do more than merely exchange results. Rather, the applied methods and techniques should be shared between the partners and preferably broaden the respective disciplinary portfolios. In contrast to multidisciplinarity, where individual aspects can stand side by side, interdisciplinarity merges the different aspects into one cohesive activity.
To further differentiate, in our understanding transdisciplinarity is an integrative research that combines scientific and practical knowledge to solve societal challenges.
ERS projects are intended to promote interdisciplinary collaboration across faculty boundaries. ERS defines disciplines as different if they belong to different faculties and each has a particular approach to the respective research topic. All project partners have to pursue their own research question. Projects that include a partner in a purely advisory or service role are not eligible.
In the case of topic-specific calls, the participation of partners from different departments of a faculty may be possible.
Testimonials
Since January 19, there hasn’t been a week that I have not told someone about the “Internet Medicine – Medicine in the Year 2045” event. For me, it brought a wealth of new ideas. I ask myself, what will my discipline look like in 2045, and how can teach our students so they will be well prepared for it? Thanks so much for hosting this valuable event – I wish we had more of such events!Professor Carsten Bolm, Managing Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry