NAWI Graz
NAWI Graz is a strategic cooperation between the Karl-Franzens-University Graz and the Technical University Graz with the aim that large parts of the natural science faculties of the two universities work together in research as well as in teaching. The cooperating departments are:
- Molecular Bioscience, Biotechnology, Plant Science
- Chemistry and Chemical Technologies
- Earth, Space and Environmental Science (ESES)
- Fundamental and Applied Mathematics and
- Physics
The names for the fields of action of the cooperation are NAWI Graz teaching , NAWI Graz research and NAWI Graz organization.
prehistory
The collaboration arose, among other things, from the geographical proximity of both universities, from overlaps in the range of courses and from existing collaborations in the field of research.
As early as the late 1990s, the chemical institutes of both universities tried to work together more closely in teaching alongside successful joint research projects. In the field of geosciences, there was a cooperation with regard to the subject of "technical geology" in the diploma course . In 2004, the then rectors, Alfred Gutschelhofer and Hans Sünkel, confessed to carrying out the major NAWI Graz project.
successes
Joint teaching started in the 2006/07 winter semester with bachelor's degrees in chemistry, molecular biology and earth sciences, as well as the earth sciences master’s degree. As of the winter semester 2017, a total of 21 NAWI Graz courses are being offered together: 6 NAWI Graz Bachelor courses and 15 NAWI Graz Master courses (eight of which are entirely in English). The joint range of courses for around 5,500 students (as of 2018) now includes all specialist courses in the five NAWI Graz departments.
In addition, the "Graz Advanced School of Sciences" (GASS) was set up in the fields of life sciences, chemistry, geosciences, mathematics and physics as a NAWI Graz framework for the training of around 600 doctoral students (as of 2017).
The activities of NAWI Graz research also address the promotion of jointly acquired / used scientific infrastructure (individual devices, central labs, core facilities) and the joint approach to filling professorships: On the one hand, appointments committees with people from both universities are sent, on the other hand, NAWI Graz Fulbright professorships jointly appointed.