Eurac Research

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Eurac Research
logo
legal form society
founding 1992/93
Seat Bolzano
representative offices: Rome , Vienna , Brussels
main emphasis Regions worth living in, diversity as added value, healthy society
method Applied research
Chair Roland Psenner
Managing directors Stephan Ortner (Director)
sales 33,013,727 euros (2016)
(59% basic funding by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol, 41% third-party funding)
Employees 391
Website www.eurac.edu
The buildings of the research center at night

Eurac Research is a private center for applied research based in Bolzano ( South Tyrol , Italy ).

The Eurac Research research center, which was administratively founded in 1992 as the European Academy of Bolzano and has been operating since 1993, currently has eleven institutes and two centers. The studies by Eurac Research focus on the multilingual mountain area. These include, for example, studies of the climatic changes in some South Tyrolean valleys, mobility in the Alpine region , energy saving in mountain areas and the autonomy statute of the autonomous province of Bolzano - South Tyrol , which regulates the coexistence of the three language groups (Germans, Italians and Ladins) in South Tyrol. Researchers from Eurac Research work in international organizations such as the Alps and the Carpathian Convention , the United Nations Environment Program and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization .

At the headquarters of Eurac Research there is also a branch of the Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention , which is primarily concerned with technical and operational areas of responsibility.

Institutes and Centers

The various research pillars are based on a common denominator: Researchers from a wide variety of scientific and geographical origins work together flexibly and in an interdisciplinary manner in order to enable basic research in an effective and sustainable manner. Linguists and computer scientists develop online learning programs for language acquisition, legal and EU experts examine and develop legal instruments for the protection of minorities in the EU, ecologists and economists design future scenarios for the development of the Alpine region. Doctors analyze genetic material from the South Tyrolean population and historians research their genealogy in order to track down the causes of genetic diseases.

Research infrastructures

Eurac Research has several laboratories . The laboratory for ancient DNA of the Institute for Mummy Research analyzes genes and ancient pathogens that come from mummies, including those from the man from Tisenjoch (Ötzi). The Biomedicine Laboratory is researching biomedicine and epidemiology, especially in the context of the CHRIS study . The heart of the laboratory is a latest-generation DNA sequencer. In the laboratories of the Institute for Renewable Energy, photovoltaic modules are tested in a climatic chamber, as are thermal solar systems. The tests are carried out as part of research projects or on behalf of companies that have their products tested. The satellite receiving station on the Rittner Horn of the Institute for Earth Observation is located at 2,360 meters above sea level, is in contact with three NASA satellites (Terra, Acqua and Suomi NPP) and is used to observe surface phenomena.

history

Eurac Research was founded in 1992 as an association under private law, began its work in January 1993 and initially had twelve employees in the research areas of language and law, minorities and autonomies and the Alpine environment. The first major project was a feasibility study for the establishment of a university in Bolzano (1993), which was founded in 1997. Over the years, other research areas were added (including management and corporate culture , genetic medicine and renewable energies), such as the Institute for Biomedicine and the Institute for Alpine Emergency Medicine.

building

Since autumn 2002 the headquarters of Eurac Research has been located in the former "ex-GIL" building, near the old town of Bolzano at the confluence of the Eisack and Talfer rivers. The complex was built in the 1930s as a seat for the female fascist youth (GIL, Gioventù Italiana del Littorio ) according to the design of the two architects Francesco Mansutti and Gino Miozzo in the rationalist style . After the fall of Mussolini and the end of the war, the former parade building of the fascist Italianization policy in South Tyrol was used in many ways. Among other things, a cinema, a supermarket and a car repair shop were housed here. The building was falling into disrepair. At the beginning of the 1990s it was decided to renovate the building and to establish the headquarters of the then newly founded research institute there. In 1995 an international architecture competition was announced for the renovation of the ensemble, which was won by the Graz architect Klaus Kada . His project envisaged the preservation of the existing building and the structural addition of a transparent glass building. Since the renovation, the facade has been wearing the characteristic Pompeian red, the color of the first building. The building uses renewable energies and has an absorption chiller for cooling in summer.

The former cinema (conference room) and the newly built seminar rooms are used for internal events, but can also be rented.

Local reference and international orientation

In addition to international and supraregional contract research, in which scientists from all over Europe are involved, Eurac Research also oversees numerous projects with a local focus: In the border region of South Tyrol, the German, Italian and Ladin cultural areas overlap. This diversity presents the scientists with the particular challenge of designing projects of local interest as models for the design of other European regions. The studies on the autonomy of South Tyrol, for example, serve as an important basis for the development of similar models of autonomy for Cyprus , Kosovo and Tibet . The research results in the field of the Alpine environment are continuously incorporated into the Alpine Convention .

literature

  • Stephanie Risse-Lobis: Eurac - a house for the European Academy Bozen. Architecture - history - science . Vienna / Bozen: Folio Verlag, 2003. ISBN 3-85256-231-7 .
  • Eurac: Tower to the People - Knowledge creates (f) t art . Vienna / Bozen: Folio Verlag, 2010. ISBN 978-88-6299-025-7 .
  • Eurac: Activity Report 2012/13 . Print Esperia Trento, 2013.

Web links

Commons : European Academy Bolzano  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Eurac: Activity Report 2016/17. 2017.
  2. Eurac: Activity Report 2016/17. 2017.
  3. Stephanie Risse-Lobis: Eurac - a house for the European Academy Bozen. Vienna-Bozen 2003, p. 74.
  4. Eurac Research: Activity Report 2016/17. 2017
  5. ^ Permanent Secretariat . Alpine Convention website. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
  6. ff - South Tyrolean weekly magazine : In the climatic chamber. No. 37/2012, September 13, 2012, pp. 56–58.
  7. ^ Receiving station ( Memento from January 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Eurac Research website. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  8. ^ A b Stephanie Risse-Lobis: Eurac - a house for the European Academy Bozen. 2003.
  9. Hannes Obermair : Bozen – Bolzano 1850–1950 (series of archive images). Erfurt: Sutton Verlag, 2nd edition 2010, ISBN 978-3-86680-489-0 , p. 42 (aerial view of the original state of construction).
  10. Michela Toni: Südtirol Architektur - The characteristics of an area using the example of buildings with the KlimaHaus standard . EdicomEdizioni, Monfalcone 2013, pp. 226-229.

Coordinates: 46 ° 29 ′ 40 ″  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 50 ″  E