Matariki Network of Universities (MNU)

Success Story of Research Collaboration with Uppsala University in the Fields of Women’s Mental Health

A long-term collaboration in the fields of women’s mental health between researchers from the Universities of Tübingen and Uppsala was rewarded with a grant for the International Research Training Group (IRTG) by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Prof. Dr. Birgit Derntl, research group leader at the Tübingen University Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, had organized in 2018 and 2019 – after delegation visits at Uppsala and Tübingen in the years 2016/17 – two winter schools at Tübingen and Uppsala together with her Uppsala colleague Prof. Dr. Inger Sunström Poromaa (now the Uppsala IRTG speaker) and other researchers from both universities. These winter schools have been part of the Matariki Research Theme Brain and Mind. Integrative Neuroscience. On this basis and within their joint research project (incl. a mini IRTG) on “Pregnancy and the Brain”, funded by the Tübingen Center for Integrated Neuroscience (CIN), the leading researchers have developed the DFG application during the years 2020, 2021.

The International Research Training Group “Women’s mental health across the reproductive years” will be funded by 7 Million Euro over five years, starting on 1st January 2023.

A quote from the English abstract:

"The IRTG strives to enhance interdisciplinary research and education on a topic of high clinical and societal relevance: women’s mental health across the reproductive years. … Within our IRTG we aim to better understand the associations between hormonal transition phases and women’s mental health by addressing specific hypotheses in the context of sex hormone variation. … Our long-term perspective is to improve prevention, detection and treatment of mental disorders in women. … Doctoral candidates will be supervised by a German and a Swedish researcher and mentored by Germen/Swedish teams, enabling them to profit from an elaborate mentoring program. Thus, our IRTG strives to establish a productive and interdisciplinary environment for high-level education of young scientists putting Tübingen and Uppsala at the forefront of research and education in women’s mental health across the reproductive years."

Contact
University Hospital Tübingen
General Psychiatry and Psychotherapy with Outpatient Clinic
Research Group  Leader Innovative Brain Functional Processes
Prof. Dr. Birgit Derntl
Calwerstr. 14, D-72076 Tübingen
 Phone: +49 7071 29 85437
E-mail: birgit.derntlspam prevention@med.uni-tuebingen.de  

Matariki Global Citizenship Fellow Exchange Scheme

In the framework of multilateral cooperation in the Matariki Network, the University of Tübingen offers funding opportunities for Master and PhD students as well as for postdoctoral researchers of the Universities Dartmouth, Durham, Otago, Queen’s, Uppsala, and UWA in two different funding schemes:

Matariki Global Citizenship Fellow Exchange Scheme for Doctoral / Master Students from Matariki Universities 2020-2022
3 Master / PhD Students from our Matariki partners per year for stays at the University of Tübingen of 3 weeks up to 6 months, for the years 2020-2022

Applicants shall be engaged in one of the areas of the Matariki Global Citizenship Programme sein. More information: http://matarikiglobalcitizen.org 

Matariki Lecture Series 2021: #Race, Racism and Decolonisation

The second Matariki Lecture Series of this year: Race, Racism and Decolonisation, presents at three events between 21^st and 27^th October 2021 a sequence of 3-5 short lectures given by researchers from all seven Matariki partner universities, followed by an interactive Q&A and panel discussion.

Link: Matariki Lectures – Matariki Network 

Event # 1 – "Racism and social determinants of health": https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoDT3ZU3FLTmXcZT5JSHY1n5yjt8Dfb5z  

Event # 2  - "Practical impacts of racism on everyday living": https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoDT3ZU3FLTmW6qAy8BtYu3aNbXAqdKH7  

Event # 3 – "Decolonisation": https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoDT3ZU3FLTlMFVm4EiM5hhx2JKRogQEk 

The University of Tübingen will be the host of Event 2. At this event as well as at Event 3 Tübingen researchers will participate: Dr. Nicole Hirschfelder, Dr. Debarchana Baruah and Arhea Marshall. Staff members from Tübingen Campus TV Studio (Oliver Häussler et al.) are undertaking the logistics in close cooperation with the Matariki Secretariat (Lucy Turzynski).

1.    Thursday 21st October – “Health and social determinants of racism”
2.    Monday 25th October – “Practical impacts of racism on everyday living”
3.    Wednesday 27th October – “Decolonisation”

All events are open to colleagues both within and outside of the Matariki Network (pre-registration required). All presentations will be recorded and uploaded to the Matariki YouTube channel, to be accessed at a later date.

Poster Event 1
Poster Event 2
Poster Event 3

Contact:
Oliver Häussler: CampusTV | University of Tübingen (uni-tuebingen.de)
Lucy Turzynski, Matariki Secretariat: Contact Us – Matariki Network 

Matariki 3MT® 2021

This October the University of Tübingen participates for the first time in the 3 Minute Thesis Competition (3MT®) of the Matariki Network. Our participants are a doctoral student and a postdoc who has just finished his PhD. 

Link: https://www.matarikinetwork.org/research/3-minute-thesis-competition-3mt/ 

The Matariki Network organizes the annual 3MT® competition since 2019. For the first time this year all seven partners join the competition with two research students each. The video presentations have been submitted until 4th October. From 11th October a jury of representatives from all Matariki partners judge on the submitted videos. In addition, there is a People’s Choice vote for the best video between 15th and 24th October. On 25th October the results of the main competition with the 1st place and the Runner-up will be announced as well as the People’s Choice winner.

The Tübinger participants are Monja Neuser (doctoral student of the neuroMADLAB, Translationale Psychiatry, University Hospital for Psychiatry) with her PhD project “Binge Eating und (neuronale) Variabilität” and Dr. Moritz Koch (just finished his PhD at the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Medicine on “Using metabolic engineering strategies to improve phototrophic cyanobacteria for the production of sustainable, biodegradable bioplastics”. Since 2021 he is a postdoc at the University of British Columbia. Both participants have several experiences in science communication and have already received prices for their research and engagement.

Award ceremony for Dr. Moritz Koch: News from the Faculty of Sciences

Contact: 
Dr. Martina Bross Link Team | University of Tübingen (uni-tuebingen.de)

Matariki Common Purpose Global Citizenship Programme

On 13th September 2021 the Matariki Common Purpose Global Citizenship Online Programme has started in the framework of the network’s activities on the theme of global citizenship.

Link Matariki GCP: https://www.matarikinetwork.org/education/matariki-global-citizenship-programme/; http://matarikiglobalcitizen.org/  

350 students from six Matariki partner universities signed up for this pilot three-weeks online course provided by Common Purpose (https://commonpurpose.org/), a non-profit organization specializing in global leadership programmes, 25 students from the University of Tübingen (17 of them have successfully completed the course). Over 9 asynchronous teaching hours (with 6 modules and 3 assessments) offered knowledge and best practice for understanding and practical experience of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Under the five character traits “Quick”, “Interconnected”, “Awake”, “Accessible”, and “Trustworthy” students as the future “Open Source Leaders” learned until 4th October by videos, interactive discussions, and individual and group work, how they could become quick in adapting to a changing world and capable for global networking, how they could be aware and counterbalance intolerance, and how they could become accessible and trustworthy leaders in the 21st century.

The online programme was organized by the Matariki Secretariat (Lucy Turzynski), on Tübingen side in cooperation with Dr. Christine Rubas, Director of the International Office (Division V). The Matariki Network has funded 180 student places from the central network budget, additional places have been subsidised by the individual partner institutions.

Contact:
Dr. Christine Rubas: https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/facilities/administration/v-international-office/ 

Matariki Lecture Series 2021: #Human Evolution

“Is human evolution more complicated than we first thought?” – This question was discussed in a live streamed Zoom webinar on Tuesday, 16 March 2021 with presentations by scientists from four MNU partners followed by a moderated interactive Q&A session. Recording of the Matariki Lecture on Human Evolution

The four speakers are:

• Prof. Dr. Madelaine Böhme, University of Tübingen
• Prof. Per Ahlberg, PhD, Uppsala University
• Prof. Jerry DeSilva, PhD, Dartmouth College
• Prof. Sarah Elton, PhD, Durham University

Press release
Poster

Matariki Mobility Scheme for Doctoral/PhD students and Post-doctoral researchers in the years 2020-2021

2 doctoral/PhD Students or postdoctoral researchers from our Matariki partners per year for stays at the University of Tübingen of 2 weeks up to 3 months, for the years 2020-2021

Applicants shall identify a professor at the University of Tübingen who agrees to host them

Priority research fields are the Matariki Research Themes (https://www.matarikinetwork.org/research/), but doctoral candidates/postdocs from other existing collaborations can also apply

• How to apply

In addition, other funding opportunities in the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the University of Tübingen can be found here: https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/33496

Matariki Executive Board Meeting

On 15th and 16th July 2019, the Matariki Executive Board Meeting was held at the University of Tübingen. The Presidents/Vice-Chancellors of the Matariki partner universities as well as responsible executive staff members for International/Global Relations and several Matariki Coordinators came to Tübingen. At the meeting, the Chairmanship of the Matariki Network was passed from Dartmouth College to the University of Western Australia; at the same time, the University of Tübingen took on the duties of Vice-Chair and will start to have the Chairmanship of the Network from 1st January 2020 for two years. The agenda of the meeting included discussions of the recent developments in the network with respect to activities in research and education, ongoing benchmarking projects and planned funding programs for students and faculty. After the meeting Professor Bernd Pichler presented the Tübingen excellence cluster “Image-Guided and Functionally Instructed Tumor Therapies (iFIT)”, followed by a lab visit at radio-pharmacy.

2nd Winter School “Pregnancy and the Brain”

The 2nd Winter School of the CIN-funded Mini International Research Training Group (MRTG) entitled “Pregnancy and the Brain” was organized on 27-28 February 2019 at Uppsala University. From the University of Tübingen a group of eight researchers and six students attended the winter school: Professors Birgit Derntl, Manfred Hallschmid, Ingeborg Krägeloh-Mann, Hubert Preißl, Tobias Renner, Martin Walter, J-Prof. Vanessa Nieratschker, PD Dr. Melanie Henes and the students Ilena Bauer, Ann-Christin Kimmig, Marina Krylova, Carolin Lewis, Elisa Rehbein, and Ferdinand Soerensen. From Uppsala University, four researchers are involved in the MRTG as supervisors: Professors Inger Sundström Poromaa, Anna-Karin Wikström, Fotis Papadopoulus, Alkestis Skalkidou. At a strategic meeting of the supervisors and PIs from Tübingen and Uppsala it was agreed to write a joint application for an International Research Training Group (IRTG) to be submitted to the DFG in the course of this year or early 2020.

Another joint activity of researchers of history from Uppsala University and the University of Tübingen was an Erasmus+-funded  faculty exchange combined with a lecture series (Studium Generale) in Tübingen in the winter semester 2018/19. The exchange shall be continued in spring-summer 2020. From Tübingen Professors Ewald Frie, Johannes Großmann, Ellen Widder, Dr. Philip Hahn and Dr. Daniel Menning travelled to Uppsala; from Uppsala the researchers Gudrun Andersson, Lars M. Andersson, Louise Berglund, Carl Mikael Carlsson and Dag Lindström came to Tübingen. The title of the lectures series in Tübingen was “Borders and Transgressions from the late Medieval Period to the Present”, jointly organized by Gudrun Andersson and Daniel Menning.

Both bilateral activities between the Universities of Tübingen and Uppsala are based on individual collaborations between the involved researchers and have been highly promoted and strengthened by the strategic cooperation in the Matariki Network of Universities.

Matariki Lecture in Tübingen 2018

On Wednesday 24 October 2018, Professor Dr. Alexander Densmore, Institute of Hazard, Risk, and Resilience and Department of Geography of Durham University held the Matariki Lecture 2018 in the Auditorium Maximum of the University of Tübingen (Neue Aula, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz) on The use of science in earthquake risk reduction: lessons from the 2015 Nepal earthquake. After the Lecture, Vice-Rector (Research) Peter Grathwohl hosted a reception at the Kleiner Senat of the University. Prof. Densmore met with students and staff members of the Earth System Dynamics Research Group of Prof. Todd Ehlers at the Dept. of Geology and Geodynamics on the day after. The lecture was recorded by the Tübingen Media Competence Center, the video can be found here:

The Matariki Lectures have been started with an initiative of Queen’s University in February 2017 by Professor Denise Anthony, Vice-Provost for Academic Initiatives des Dartmouth College, at Queen’s in Kingston. More information here: https://matarikinetwork.org/events/matariki-lecture-2017. The Tübingen Matariki Lecture was the second, the third Lecture will be organized at the University of Otago next years.

Tübingen - Durham Seedcorn Fund

Bilateral funding programme between Durham University and the University of Tübingen for academic staff, including early-career researchers and postgraduate students. For more information see http://www.uni-tuebingen.de/de/33496.

Contacts: Elenora Haag (Tübingen) international.researchspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de and Jemima Lloyd (Durham) international.partnershipsspam prevention@durham.ac.uk

Winter School „Sex Hormones and the Brain“, 31 January – 2 February 2018

The international winter school “Sex Hormones and the Brain” was organized on 31 January – 2 February in Tübingen. The Organizers have been the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) of the University of Tübingen and Uppsala University. The winter school is part of the Matariki Research Theme „Brain and Mind (Integrative Neuroscience)“.

• Link to CIN-Website
• Link to MNU-Website

Spring School and Conference “High-Level Vision: from Mechanisms to Perception”, 10–13 April

The Spring School and Conference “High-Level Vision: from Mechanisms to Perception” was organized on 10–13 April 2017 in Tübingen.

• Matariki Research Theme “Brain and Mind. Integrative Neuroscience”

Humanities Colloquium “Language”, 9–12 October 2017

The Humanities colloquium “Language” in the framework of the Matariki Research Theme “Arts & Humanities Research for the World” was organized on 9–12 October 2017 in Tübingen. The four previous colloquia of the series took place in 2013 at Dartmouth College, 2014 at University of Otago, 2015 at Queen’s University, and 2016 at Durham University.

• Program
• Matariki Research Theme “Arts & Humanities Research for the World”

Continuation of the Teach-at-Tübingen program (T@T)

Since 2013, in total 28 doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from Matariki universities received a scholarship for a one or two semester teaching and research stay in Tübingen.

• Calls for application every half year in the framework of the German Excellence Initiative

Workshop “Quantum Science”, 19–23 March

A workshop on “Quantum Science” was held on 19–23 March 2016 at the University of Otago. It was a follow-up event of the workshop 2013 in Tübingen.

• Matariki Research Theme “Quantum Science”

Workshop “ASEAN and the EU: Regions in Crisis”, 2–3 June

A workshop on “ASEAN and the EU: Regions in Crisis” was held on 2–3 June 2016 in Tübingen in cooperation with researchers from the University of Western Australia.

Tübingen Research World Tour

Delegation visits at the Universities of Durham (21–23 September 2016) and Uppsala (3–5 October 2016).

Summer School “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”, 8–11 July

A Summer School on “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences” was held on 8–11 July 2015 in Tübingen. It was the follow-up event of the Spring School 2014 in Tübingen.

• Matariki Research Theme “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”

International conference “Digitizing Matariki Museum Coin Collections”, 22–23 October

The international conference “Digitizing Matariki Museum Coin Collections” was held on 22–23 October 2015 in Tübingen, in cooperation with Uppsala University and other Matariki partners. In 2016 the coin collections from Uppsala and Tübingen were included in the list of Matariki Shared Facilities.

• Matariki Research Theme “Digital Humanities”

Spring School “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”, 9–12 April

A Spring School on “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences” was held on 9–12 April 2014 in Tübingen. It was the follow-up event of the workshops 2011 in Tübingen and 2012 in Durham in a new format (teaching offer for doctoral students and medical students).

• Matariki Research Theme “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”

EU research project HAIRS, 2014–2017

The Tübingen EU research project “Hybrid Architecture for Quantum Information using Rydberg Ensembles and Superconductors” (HAIRS) in cooperation with Durham University and others is approved. Duration: 2014–2017.

Workshop “Quantum Science”, 1–4 July

A Workshop on „Quantum Science“ was held on 1–4 July 2014 in Tübingen.

• Matariki Research Theme “Quantum Science”

Workshop “Regulating Research in the Life Sciences in a Globalised World” , 18–20 July

The Workshop “Regulating Research in the Life Sciences in a Globalised World: Case Studies” was held on 18–20 July 2012 in Durham. It was the follow-up event of the workshop 2011 in Tübingen.

• Matariki Research Theme “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”

Workshop “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”, 26–29 October

The Workshop “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences – Agenda Setting for Research and Teaching” was held on 26–29 October 2011 in Tübingen.

• Matariki Research Theme “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences”

Tübingen funding program “Multilateral Strategic Partnerships”, 2011–2014

The Tübingen funding program “Multilateral Strategic Partnerships” (2011–2014), funded by the Baden-Württemberg SCHOLARSHIP for Students (BWS plus) of the Baden-Württemberg Foundation, was approved. With financial support of this program, the University of Tübingen was able to fund the first two Matariki Research Workshops in Tübingen on “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences” 2011 and “Quantum Science” 2013, as well as the Matariki Spring School “Research Ethics in the Life Sciences” 2014 in Tübingen. In addition, travel funds could be offered for Tübingen researchers participating at three Matariki Research Workshops 2012, 2013, and 2014 in Durham and Uppsala and scholarships could be given to 16 doctoral students in total, 3 of them from Matariki partners (Durham and Otago).