Jan. 17 – United to fight in the quest for European funding, the University of Trento, Bolzano and Innsbruck are ready to kick off the Alpbach agreement, which provides for cross-border cooperation in the area of research and higher educatio . A lot of the progress made so far strived to strengthen the synergy between the universities, and the latest step in this direction was taken yesterday, when researchers from the three universities met to discuss common researches. The meeting was held at the University of Innsbruck and focused on the possibility, for researchers, to converge on projects and joint initiatives. After the first plenary session, the works were organized into subgroups to promote knowledge exchange among researchers in related disciplines and with common interests. These fields covered botany and zoology, law, economics, engineering, German language and literature, German philology, education, social sciences and information technology. “The meeting in Innsbruck – said the vice-dean for research at the University of Trento , Alessandro Quattrone – tested the common interests detailed two months ago in Bolzano. We are now actively seeking synergies with the other universities, we are trying to bring together our common cultural heritage to be better equipped when facing competition in research funding at the European level.” For heads of department Stefan Zerbe (research) and Gabriella Dodero (teaching) of the Free University of Bolzano, yesterday’s meeting was an important step for the collaboration between the three universities: “there has been talk of concrete joint research projects, particularly in light of the European Horizon 2020 program, and opportunities for collaboration in teaching. It is our profound belief that this initiative will improve the competitiveness of the Euro-region in research, education and innovation.”
