“Border Studies – Towards a research network of excellence” - under this heading, the University of the Greater Region and its member universities presented the project “UniGR-Center for Border Studies” for the first time to the public at the University of Luxembourg on 24 October 2018. The project is funded by the INTERREG VA Greater Region program with 2 M € EFRD until 2020.
“I am very happy to host the kick-off conference of this project at our university. Together with our partner universities, we have supported the implementation of cross-border studies from the beginning. Thanks to the support of Interreg, we can raise this scientific cooperation to a higher level. Together, we aim to position the UniGR-Center for Border Studies as an excellence center of European dimension,” Stéphane Pallage, Rector of the University of Luxembourg, inaugurated the event.
“Border regions are real laboratories of European integration. Due to its experience, the UniGR-Center for Border Studies contributes to the valorization of borders as resources for citizens living on both sides of it.”, Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), summed up the importance of Border Studies in a changing world, where questions of migration, identity, and territorial development are topical issues. With 2,595 km of borders, the Greater Region is a privileged territory of experimentation. It is for this reason that Border Studies became a key area of scientific cooperation among the six partner universities in the Greater Region.
On the occasion of the presentation of the project “UniGR-Center for Border Studies”, the University of the Greater Region filled the auditorium with an audience consisting of representatives of local collectivities, universities, students and the cultural/artistic scene. The overall aim of the project is to create a European center of knowledge and resources in Border Studies, unique in its kind.
Approximately 80 researchers coming from 16 different scientific disciplines participate today in the scientific cross-border network which shall gain international visibility. Its activities, along with the “Forums Greater Region”, a series of public panel discussions organized in the ‘House of the Greater Region’ in Esch-sur-Alzette (L), are supposed to promote the dialogue between the scientific world and institutional actors about cross-border topics and their challenges: migrations and borders, spatial planning, or the development of cross-border mobility and new forms of working.
The students of the six universities of the Greater Region will likewise benefit from the project. In order to make easier multilingual cross-border studies, innovative distance learning tools will be developed. The students of the Master in Border Studies – supported by the Franco-German University and taught at four universities of the Greater Region – will be the first ones to profit from these new devices which simplify virtual mobility before they will be applied to other cross-border study courses. The mobility of researchers will also be enhanced by the means of a mobility program funding interregional research stays.
“With the European Center for Border Studies, the University of the Greater Region affirms the dynamism and vitality of scientific cross-border cooperation among its six member universities. Taking into account current developments of the European Union, this center, unique in Europe, will contribute to the international visibility of our grouping. It paths the way for the emergence of numerous other scientific networks which will take part in the creation of a real European University,” Pierre Mutzenhardt, President of the Université de Lorraine and the University of the Greater Region, concluded the event.
A short video of the conference can be found here.
Contact: Maria Hegner, University of the Greater Region,