In June 2024, TUM and The University of Queensland expanded their 2021 established flagship partnership during the visit of a UQ delegation to Munich. Image: Uli Benz / TUM
UQ President Prof. Deborah Terry and TUM President Prof. Thomas F. Hofmann signed several agreements – primarily regarding student exchanges. Image: Uli Benz / TUM
Prof. Juliane Winkelmann, Prof. Volker Sieber, Prof. Paul Young, and Prof. Carlos Vergani celebrate the signing of the MoU for the formation of the Global Bioeconomy Alliance in Munich. Photo: Uli Benz / TUM
Selina Fyfe and Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin are conducting research on Buchanania obovata, an indigenous Australian fruit. They are supported by Kevin Wanambi from the Gulkula Mining Company. Photo: Margaret Puls / UQ
UQ student Hayden Wen during his stay at TUM for the UQ-TUM Double Degree Program in Electrical Engineering. Photo: Hayden Wen
UQ, TUM, and UNESP scientists socializing after the Bioeconomy Symposium in Weihenstephan. Photo: Uli Benz / TUM
Scientists from UQ, TUM, and UNESP, among others, met with government officials for the Bioeconomy Symposium in Brisbane. Photo: UQ
In April 2021, the alliance with The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia sealed TUM's third flagship partnership. By joining forces, this partnership aims to drive research topics of great societal relevance even further in the future. There is a particular focus on sustainability and the bioeconomy, digital agricultural and food sciences, hydrogen technology and green energy production, as well as precision medicine.
TUM has had a very special relationship with UQ, one of Australia's top-ranked universities, since 2010. Despite the geographical distance, the TUM-UQ bond developed within just a few years into a partnership that spans a variety of disciplines and is characterized by a wide range of activities. In addition to numerous successful joint research projects and symposia, various mobility programs for students and administrators have also helped to advance the exchange and cooperation between the two universities at all levels.
TUM's International Graduate School of Science and Engineering (IGSSE) plays an important role in strengthening international research groups at TUM. Since 2023, the University of Queensland has been represented as an international partner in three further IGSSE projects:
DISAL - Digital techologies to increase sustainability of african livestock systems under climate risks
HypRTTC - Numerical Investigations of Wall Effects on Hypersonic Transition Control
MINDMAP - Model Interpretation and Data-centric Modeling for Advanced traffic Prediction
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The great success of such projects can be measured by the list of publications, presentations and research proposals that have already emerged from past IGSSE projects:
Microbial Electrosynthesis for Bioproduction of Chemicals (MEB-Chem)
Evolving Synthetic Enzymatic Cascades for Applications for a Sustainable Bioeconomy (E-Cas)
Numerical investigations on high-temperature effects on hypersonic transitional flows (HT)2
On September 28, 2023, female founders from TUM and UQ had the opportunity to meet and get to know other female entrepreneurs from both flagship partners in a first joint Global Webinar for Female Founders – What keeps you up at night?. The webinar, moderated by Beth Lawrance, Empower Women's Accelerator Manager of UQ Ventures, and Juliana Bonitz, Strategy Manager International Entrepreneurship Projects, TUM Entrepreneurship, offered participants a platform to openly discuss their current concerns and challenges. In the webinar, experiences in building (strategic) networks were shared, financing options discussed and the relevance but also the difficulty of diverse team building was addressed.
In short keynote speeches, the female founders also received important insights from experts:
- Prof. Hana Milanov, Professor of International Entrepreneurship, TUM
- Ms. Sarah Wali, Founder and CEO of BugSense, TUM Alumna
- Dr. Jo'Anne Langham, Senior Manager of UQ Ventures and Founder of SparkTank, UQ
- Ms. Phoebe Bardsley, Co-founder and CEO of Go Locum, UQ Alumna
In June 2018, the Memorandum of Understanding for the formation of the Global Bioeconomy Alliance (GBA) was signed during a Bioeconomy Symposium. The three founding members of this alliance were represented at the signing ceremony by Prof. Juliane Winkelmann, TUM Vice President for International Alliances and Alumni, Prof. Volker Sieber, Rector of the TUM Campus Straubing, Prof. Paul Young, Head of the UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, and Prof. Carlos Vergani, Head of the Rectorate of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP, Brazil).
The aim of the GBA is to discuss the most pressing issues of a bio-based industry in research and education on a global level and to develop and implement joint initiatives to promote bioeconomy. Since the signing, regular symposia and workshops have been held for this purpose.
At the last Global Bioeconomy Alliance Conference at UQ in Brisbane, the Global Bioeconomy Alliance Association was founded on September 27, 2023. In addition to the original founding members of the GBA (UQ, UNESP and TUM), the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is now also a founding member of the association. We are delighted to welcome this new member, with whom we have already enjoyed a close partnership for many years.
The next Global Bioeconomy Alliance Conference will take place at UNESP in fall 2024. For more information, please visit the GBA website.
In April 2021, TUM President Professor Thomas F. Hofmann and UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Deborah Terry AO officially concluded the TUM-UQ flagship partnership. Now there is nothing standing in the way of the ambitious expansion plans of TUM and UQ. While the focus of the partnership is on such themes as bioeconomy and sustainability, digital agriculture and food science, hydrogen and green energy, and medicine, both partners place great emphasis on interdisciplinarity and the sustainable expansion of other emerging topics.
The integration of entrepreneurship and innovation in all future activities is to play a particularly important role.
Funding initiatives for researchers
To support new projects with the University of Queensland, scientists of the Technical University of Munich can apply for funding from the TUM Global Incentive Fund. Within the framework of the TUM Global Visiting Professor Program, it is also possible to invite scientists from UQ to TUM for joint research.
Students and doctoral candidates
Via the TUMexchange program, TUM students can study at UQ and UQ students can study at TUM. Doctoral students receive support for a stay at UQ through the TUM Graduate School Partnership Mobility Grant. For them, the TUM-UQ Joint Supervision Program also enables a longer research stay with the partner.