From 2 to 5 June, the University of Hamburg brought together researchers, external stakeholders and students from EUGLOH member universities for multiple days of thought-provoking lectures, engaging panel discussions, hands-on and student-led workshops as well as interactive networking opportunities – all with a focus on knowledge transfer in various forms.
During the opening ceremony, over 60 participants from around the Alliance were greeted by Prof. Dr. Sabine Maasen, Academic Director of the Knowledge Exchange Agency of the University of Hamburg. Her speech was followed by two keynotes by Prof. Dr. Dres. hc. Thomas Mettenleiter, Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg, and Dr. Bernhard Hesse, XPLORAYTION GmbH. The speakers shared their expertise in the fields of “one health” of both humans and animals at both the national and international levels – especially against the background of the recent global pandemic – and experience as a scientific service provider, respectively.
In the afternoon, simultaneous workshops explored topics of innovation, good scientific practice, and innovation with contributions from the University of Hamburg, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Tutech Innovation GmbH and MediGate GmbH. The week’s first day then concluded with a panel discussion on the requirements for transfer from academia to industry with insights from the health-related and digital technology start-up sector.
Over the course of the next few days, the participants had the opportunity to join workshops hosted by European XFEL, EMBL Hamburg, Centre for Structural Systems Biology CSSB, PIER, CHyN and others within the Science City Hamburg-Bahrenfeld ecosystem, giving them the opportunity to explore concepts related to entrepreneurship and health innovation from a wide variety of angles, with a particular focus on large-scale research facilities. Co-funded by the Claussen-Simon Stiftung, the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder and EUGLOH, the workshop week highlighted the importance of opportunities for international and interdisciplinary collaboration with a focus on knowledge transfer.