Umbrella Partnership
Israel Institute of Technology, RWTH Aachen University, and Forschungszentrum Jülich
The Umbrella Cooperation between RWTH Aachen University, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology – was established in 1983. The partners signed a cooperation agreement with the aim “to strengthen collaboration in science and technology.”
This strategic partnership is considered a major driver of high-impact cross-border research. The Technion in Haifa is Israel’s oldest university. Among its 610 faculty members, there are three Nobel laureates.
All three partners are considered to be excellent research institutions and therefore the exchange under the Umbrella collaboration has been highly fruitful on an academic and personal level. In order to promote the aims of the Umbrella partnership, different initiatives have been put in place, such as symposia and the Umbrella Award.
Symposia
The Umbrella Symposia with central topics from research have been an important element of cooperation between the institutions from the very beginning. Each year, a different partner holds the symposium and scientific coordinators are appointed for it depending on the topic area at hand.
Umbrella Symposium 2022
After a two-year break, the 35th symposium took place again in a face-to-face format. Researchers from Aachen, Jülich and Haifa exchanged ideas on the topic of "Life Science and Engineering: Data Analytics, Neurosciences and Multiscale Biomedical Engineering" on the Aachen campus from May 16 to 18. This topic links biomedical research with modern methods of data analysis and the development of new technologies.
Umbrella Awards 2022
Since the 2018 Umbrella Award, which included prize money of 5,000 euros, was presented for the first time, the prize is now presented at every Umbrella Symposium. Three outstanding researchers from the symposium's field of expertise receive the coveted prize.
This year, Dr. David Mehler received the award on the RWTH side. He has been a Junior Principal Investigator Fellow at the University Hospital of RWTH Aachen University for several months, where he established a research group on clinical applications of non-invasive neurotechnology. The two other awards were given to Dr. Gabriela Figueroa Miranda, Institute for Biological Information (IBI-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich and to Assist. Prof. Assaf Zinger of the Technion.
Overview of Past Topics
| Year | Location | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Aachen | Life Science and Engineering: Data Analytics, Neurosciences and Multiscale Biomedical Engineering |
| 2021 |
Aachen |
Life Science and Engineering: Data Analytics, Neuroscience and Multiscale Biomedical Engineering (online conference) |
| 2019 | Jülich |
Energy Conversion and Energy Storage |
| 2018 |
Haifa |
Energy Conversion and Energy Storage |
| 2017 | Aachen |
Quantum Information and Technology |
| 2016 | Jülich | When Life Sciences and Engineering Converge |
| 2015 | Haifa | Biomaterials and Biohybrids from Basic Research to Medical Applications |
Umbrella Award
Since 2018 the newly created Umbrella Award, worth 5,000 euros, has been established as a new measure to support excellent and outstanding researchers. Each year, the Umbrella Award is presented to three researchers, that is, one researcher from each institution who is an expert in the annual symposium’s respective key topic.
“The Umbrella Award is unique at the national level, and through the support from the Deutsche Technion Gesellschaft e.V., it is of international relevance as well. The award comes with a grant to enhance collaboration and support the exchange of researchers between Germany and Israel. The aim is to make the award recipient more internationally mobile and provide them with a competitive edge,” explains Professor Joachim Mayer, head of the RWTH Institute of Microstructural Analysis and the University’s academic coordinator of the Umbrella Collaboration.
Every year, nominations for the annual award are invited in preparation of the next Umbrella Symposium. This year's prize winners have already been selected. The awards will be presented at the Umbrella Symposium on May 16, 2022.
Research Exchange – Summer and Winter Schools
Since 2018 the symposia are accompanied by Summer or Winter Schools. Experts of the three partner institutions cover a wide range of methods in current research for master students, doctoral candidates and early-stage postdocs. The Schools take up the key topics of the annual symposia, and therefore participating researchers have the chance to stay in touch with their colleagues. One of the key objectives of the Umbrella Consortium is to foster international mobility of early career researchers. Both, the Umbrella Award as well as the Winter School will further enhance these objectives.
In addition to that, Umbrella supports scientific exchange travels between Israel and Germany. Through Umbrella research stays have been established and continue on an annual basis.
| Technion Haifa | Prof. J. Rubinstein, Executive Vice President for Research |
|---|---|
| Forschungszentrum Jülich | Prof. F. Melchior, Member of the Board of Directors |
| RWTH Aachen University | Prof. J. Mayer, Rector’s Delegate for Cooperation with the Technion |