Joint studies formed the basis for success: 20 years ago, each university offered separate studies in the cooperation subjects, but now 22 studies in Biosciences, Chemistry, Earth, Space and Environmental Science, Mathematics and Physics are run in Union. Around 5,300 students make use of this broad spectrum. Verena Lipic is one of them: "For me, NAWI Graz means combining the best opportunities for teaching and lecturers from both universities," says the 27-year-old, describing the cross-university cooperation.
For her, one of the secrets of success lies in the interdisciplinarity offered in teaching and research. This is also reflected in Lipic's personal career: Lipic started with physics, after her Bachelor's degree she switched to materials science for her Master's degree. She currently works at the Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry and is convinced: "NAWI Graz has enabled me to gain a better insight into the working methods and fields of work of the other research areas and to carry out collaborations in-house."
The joint doctoral training within the NAWI Graz Advanced School of Science (GASS) enjoys a high status, with over 600 doctoral students currently being trained. The doctoral students are integrated into doctoral schools across universities and thus benefit from the resources and supervision of teaching staff and researchers at both universities.
Researching together
Joint teaching also saves time. This time can in turn be invested in research, as Michael Kerber from the Institute of Geometry emphasizes. "The joint degree course in mathematics, in particular the alternating delivery of the large basic lectures, reduces the teaching load, which indirectly benefits research." Around 450 joint projects are carried out in the NAWI Graz network. The joint commitment is also reflected in successful project acquisitions: the 36 institutes involved in the NAWI Graz cooperation acquire 34.6 million euros in third-party funding, which corresponds to an increase of around 120 percent since 2006. Joint NAWI Graz appointments have also become common practice. Currently, 36 §98 professors have been appointed in a joint procedure.
Joint infrastructure
It is obvious: successful research can only be carried out if the necessary equipment is available. NAWI Graz has recognized this fact and started to promote cooperatively used research infrastructure in 2008. Research is currently being conducted in 28 central labs (central labs bundle thematically related equipment in one place) and core facilities (individual large pieces of equipment required by several research groups) in accordance with international standards; around 160 pieces of equipment have been purchased and used in partnership. One of the oldest jointly used Central Labs is the Central Lab Water, Minerals and Rocks, which was launched in 2011. Dorothee Hippler from the Institute of Applied Geosciences heads the Central Lab, "a valuable place for scientific collaboration, development and exchange," says the researcher.
A common path into the future
The NAWI Graz alliance is considered a showcase project throughout Austria and demonstrates how the alliance between two universities can work - despite different organizational structures. With the construction of the Graz Center of Physics (GCP), the cooperation has now been taken to a new level: In June 2024, the ground-breaking ceremony for this inter-university center took place, which will spatially unite the physics institutes of TU Graz and the University of Graz from 2030. The Graz Center of Physics is one of the largest university construction projects in Austria.
In addition to the GCP, which is currently being built on the University of Graz campus, four other institutes from TU Graz and the University of Graz will also cooperate even more closely with each other in the NAWI Graz Geozentrum (planned for the Inffeldgasse campus). In this center, synergies from geology and geotechnics will be used in the best possible way. However, construction of this building project will not start before 2032.