The ‘Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership’ was established in 2017 with four institutions which subsequently formed the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) in 2019. The initial aim was to enhance links between Oxford and the Berlin universities, facilitate new research collaborations, and create mobility opportunities for students and faculty. In 2022 the partnership was extended for a further five years to include 50 research institutions represented by the ‘Berlin Research 50’ alliance.
Over the past seven years the Partnership has financially supported over 1,000 faculty and students, offered visiting fellowships, enabled partnership events, and facilitated collaborative student workshops and training. The next stage of the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership will focus on fostering world-leading research on topics that address global challenges, such as ageing, digital humanities and AI ethics, and democratic resilience. These will be led by academic champions in both Oxford and Berlin. The Partnership will also seek to expand opportunities for Early Career Researchers and continue to deliver its annual research symposium.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Professor Irene Tracey, who visited Berlin in November 2023, said, “The Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership, our sole cross-institutional partnership, is hugely important in fostering academic collaboration, providing funding for faculty and students, and importantly ensuring Oxford’s strong links with Europe. It is a key strand of Oxford’s engagement in Europe, and I am excited to be working with our partners to strengthen our relationship further in the years ahead.”
‘Oxford in Berlin’, a subsidiary company in Germany, set up in 2019 to provide the University of Oxford with a legal base in Europe as it navigated a new post-Brexit operating environment will formally close later this year. The management of the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership will subsequently be brought within the central University to ensure its sustainability in delivering our collective goals.
15 August 2024
