We are delighted to announce that the European Centre for Advanced Studies has recently secured substantial funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture to support a new round of joint project grants under the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme.
This funding not only reinforces the commitment of both regions to the continued promotion of academic excellence and international knowledge production, but more importantly offers another generation of early career researchers the opportunity to engage in collaborative projects of their choice. 

ECAS is delighted to extend a warm welcome to twelve exceptional early-career beneficiaries who have been selected to participate in the esteemed Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme. These accomplished individuals represent the final round of grant recipients for the research period until the end of 2023. The programme received applications from regarded postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students hailing from renowned higher education institutions in both regions.

We are pleased to announce the publication of our very first White Paper. It is the result of the third edition of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Joint Forum, which took place in a hybrid format at the University of Glasgow in November 2022. 

The Joint Forum focussed on the highly topical subject of Renewable Energies and Sustainability. Thereby, it embraced the vision of Lower Saxonian Prime Minister, Stephan Weil, to develop a Strategic Energy Partnership between both regions, which received further encouragement by the respective Lower Saxonian and Scottish ministries dealing with climate change, the environment as well as energy policy.

The next application period for postdoctoral applicants for the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme ends on 31 March 2023. Please find all information about the programme and the application process here.

We are looking forward to receiving your submission!

The deadline for applications for the third Open Call for the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme has been extended to March 31, 2023. The decision of the selection committee and the announcement of the new fellowships will be published in April 2023. 
Thus, the start date of all upcoming fellowships has been moved to 1 May 2023, while 31 December 2023 remains unchanged as the intended end date. As the maximum duration of the fellowship has thus been reduced to eight months, the individual short-term stays are now limited to four months per fellow and will be funded with up to 1,400 EUR per person per month spent abroad.

We are looking for the earliest possible date for a Student Assistant (20 – 30 hours/month) who will support our team in continuing to build and shape ECAS as a successful research institution that can draw from the expertise of one of the oldest universities in the world, as well as of one of the most dynamic ones in the German university landscape.

We at the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS) are excited to remind you that the current application period for the LOWER SAXONY – SCOTLAND TANDEM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME ends in just two weeks! 

Proposals are invited from early career researchers, postdoctoral researchers or persons holding a postdoctoral position who have completed their PhD within the last ten years and have an employment contract (which extends for the length of the fellowship) with a Lower Saxonian or Scottish university, university of applied science or recognized higher education institution.

The European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS) is pleased to announce that the new application period for the LOWER SAXONY – SCOTLAND TANDEM FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME is now open! 

Proposals are invited from early career researchers, postdoctoral researchers or persons holding a postdoctoral position who have completed their PhD within the last ten years and have an employment contract (which extends for the length of the fellowship) with a Lower Saxonian or Scottish university, university of applied science or recognized higher education institution.

From Tuesday, 12 October, until Friday, 14 October 2022, several delegates from Lower Saxony as well as members of the ECAS team travelled to Scotland to meet with representatives from the universities of St Andrews, Stirling, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. In addition, the delegation had the opportunity to engage with new and departing beneficiaries of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme, who respectively presented their projects and reported on the experiences with the completed fellowships.

The second Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Conference was held at the University of Stirling on 13 and 14 October 2022.
The Fellow Conference is an annual two-day hybrid event to inaugurate each new generation of tandem projects. At the same time, it provides a platform for the outgoing generation to share experiences and present the results of their completed fellowships. To promote the international research partnerships supported by the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme, the conference is organised in partnership with a different participating higher education institution each year – this time we were honoured to work with the University of Stirling, Scotland.

The network and information platform for Lower Saxonian higher education institutions comprises more than 40 advisors at universities in Lower Saxony, who aim to facilitate access to European funding opportunities and to promote the international networking of higher education institutions.

Since the first Open Call in mid-2021 commenced the initial phase of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme, the initiative has proven to be an excellent opportunity for early-career academics to conduct research in a cross-national exchange at the most recognised universities in Lower Saxony and Scotland.
The second Open Call was published in February 2022 and extended the programme for a further round of applications. Today, ECAS is pleased to present the list of new joint project proposals as well as the corresponding researchers who have recently been awarded a fellowship.

For the first time, Leuphana University Lüneburg and the University of Glasgow will offer double degree programmes for students in the Bachelor’s programme “International Business Administration & Entrepreneurship (IBAE)” from the coming winter semester. Selected Master’s students from the Master’s programmes “Management & Data Science”, “Management & Entrepreneurship” and “Management & Sustainable Accounting and Finance” will also have the opportunity to take a double degree.

Once again, we are pleased to announce that two fellowship holders of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme have come together to work on their project – this time at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr Lea Hartwich (University of Osnabrück) and Dr Helena Radke (University of Edinburgh) are investigating the motivations of young climate activists from the Fridays For Future movement.

At the end of March 2022, the Lower Saxonian Prime Minister, Stephan Weil, accompanied by a political delegation as well as members of the ECAS team, was scheduled to visit the University of Glasgow.
Although the Prime Minister did not arrive in Glasgow due to travel disruptions, the visit was nevertheless a successful event, as the excellent cooperation prospects and important academic objectives of both Lower Saxony and Scotland continue to be enhanced by the European Centre for Advanced Studies.

The second edition of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Joint Forum, organised by the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS), took place on November 22 + 23 2021 in a virtual space. With over 300 participants, we can proudly announce that the conference was a great success!

We are looking for a STUDENT ASSISTANT (30 hours/month) at the earliest date possible. In this role, you will support our team in building and shaping ECAS as a successful institution by maintaining its online presence.

As announced last week, ECAS applied for the DFG Community Prize. Starting today, you can vote for us until 26 November 2021.

You have a total of 6 votes, of which you can give up to 3 votes to one project. If you vote for us, you help to build bridges between Lower Saxony and Scotland!

All you have to do is register here, scroll down to find our video ( title: “Scottish – Lower Saxonian Academic Region (ScoLAR)“ – Brücken über die Nordsee bauen) and click on the button “Abstimmen”.

Last week, the selected tandems of our Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme came together for the first time to present their research projects. The conference took place in a hybrid format: The fellows from Lower Saxony met at Leuphana University Lüneburg while their tandem partners from Scotland joined via Zoom.

Vote for ECAS from 15 to 26 November 2021!

The “Research in Germany” prize competition offers prize money for project ideas in the field of international research marketing. We participated in the call because we want to expand our marketing and thus reach even more people!

Register for online voting on the competition page from November 5. You can vote for the best concept ideas from 15 November 2021. Contest entries consist of a brief summary and a 3-minute pitch video.

The European Centre for Advanced Studies cordially invites you to the Tandem Fellowship Conference.We are pleased to announce that the Selection Committee of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme has selected the first four tandems, each consisting...

The preparations for the second edition of the Lower Saxony – Scotland Joint Forum are in full swing. Until the end of August 2021, ECAS has received excellent workshop proposals on subjects such as sustainability, biology and physics, education and many more. The second day of the Joint Forum is promising to be very interesting in terms of the quality as well as variety of workshops offered.

There are still a few last spots for the hosting of a workshop left. Thus, interested and motivated academics, staff and students from higher education institutions in Lower Saxony and Scotland are invited to seize this unique opportunity and apply now for one of the last available spots. Use your creativity and impress us with your innovative ideas for collaborative projects between both regions!

ECAS cordially invites you to the first of many editions of the Joint Seminar Series between Leuphana’s Faculty of Education and Glasgow’s School of Education. The seminar takes place on

Wednesday, 27 October 2021
3 pm – 4:30 pm GMT / 4 pm – 5:30 pm CET via Zoom

Prof. Stephen McKinney PhD (University of Glasgow) and Prof. Dr. Lars Alberth (Leuphana University Lüneburg) will talk about social inequities and social inequalities experienced during childhood.

Dong Nguyen, Marcus Pietsch, and Sedat Gümüş have published an article titled “Collective teacher innovativeness in 48 countries: Effects of teacher autonomy, collaborative culture, and professional learning” in the journal of Teaching and Teacher Education. The article maps out the effects of teacher classroom autonomy, school culture and professional learning on collective teacher innovativeness. It suggests that a collaborative culture would encourage teachers to participate in integrated professional learning activities, and that collective participation in professional learning would enhance teachers’ collective innovativeness.

The Lower Saxony – Scotland Joint Forum 2021 is taking place in less than five months. Thus, this is a reminder that submissions for workshop proposals are still open until 31 August 2021. You may find the “Open Call for Workshop Proposals” the respective template here.

“The joint forum is an incubator for new collaborative ideas that are further developed after the breeding phase during the conference days”, explains Judith Crämer, senior academic coordinator of ECAS. Thus, size this opportunity and present your own ideas in a workshop during the conference. You may submit your workshop proposals until 31 August 2021. For further information visit our website https://joint-forum.org/.

ECAS launches the “Academic Matching Tool”, which is providing comprehensive information on the different research fields of the 21 Lower Saxonian and 18 participating Scottish higher education institutions. It is designed to facilitate the first steps in setting up an academic collaboration. Interested researchers can thus easily find suitable institutions in the partner region and also other researchers working on similar topics.

The European Centre for Advanced Studies invites you to online information sessions regarding the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme.
Tuesday, 6 July 2021 & Thursday, 5 August 2021.

Starting in fall 2021, young postdoctoral researchers have a chance to participate in the Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme. The programme is designed to foster ideas and generate new research proposals. “We want to enable young researchers to expand their own network and allow them to spend time collaborating with a partner in that region on a specific topic”, explains Ramona Tax, senior programme coordinator of ECAS.

In the context of ECAS’s project on “Crisis Litigation: Understanding the Roles of International Courts” there is an open position as research assistant to be filled at the chair for public and international law with a focus on sustainability of Prof. Dr. Jelena Bäumler. Seize this opportunity and apply for an interesting position in order to start your career in academia.

Christoph Kleineberg joined the European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS) as a managing director. He is taking over the responsibilities of Thorsten Kurtz who has been navigating ECAS in the foundation phase and established ECAS as the main hub for academic collaboration between Lower Saxony and Scotland. Christoph has been involved in various ECAS activities as a supporter and participant in recent years.

The Scottish government has set up a programme that is promoting academic collaboration between Scotland and the EU after Brexit. The programme is designed to work on solutions for challenges that may arise in the future.

Young postdoctoral researchers often have a high mobility but are lacking a reliable network to get started with research stays and developing research projects with partners abroad. The Lower Saxony – Scotland Tandem Fellowship Programme is designed to support postdoctoral researchers (up to 10 years after finishing their PhD) in developing ties between the two regions.

Professor Lorna Hughes, member of our Academic Committee, takes up the post of Dean for Global Engagement for Europe at the University of Glasgow. Find out more about her role and plans in this interview: https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/news/headline_791032_en.html.

The UK leaving the EU comes along with many questions on how cooperation in the future could look like. The European Centre for Advanced Studies (ECAS) of Leuphana University of Lüneburg and the University of Glasgow is working to promote the cooperation of not only both universities, but also between Scottish and Lower Saxonian universities. To facilitate cooperation ECAS has set up the Post-Brexit Information Hub.

[English version below]
“Hannover (dpa/lni) – Niedersachsen ringt angesichts des Brexits um eine Fortsetzung der Hochschul-Kooperationen mit Großbritannien. Insbesondere das Ende des Austauschprogramms Erasmus für Studierende bedauert die Landesregierung. «Es ist ein Anachronismus, wenn jungen Menschen in einer Zeit, in der die Welt zusammenwächst, beim internationalen Austausch Steine in den Weg gelegt werden», sagte Europaministerin Birgit Honé (SPD) am Sonntag. Wissenschaftsminister Björn Thümler (CDU) sagte, mit Großbritannien gehe ein wichtiges Partnerland mit vielen renommierten Universitäten verloren. Beide Minister wollen sich dafür einsetzen, bestehende Kooperationen zu erhalten und auszubauen.” (Quelle: dpa)

On the first day of the Joint Forum Monday, 23 November 2020, 162 participants from different institutions joined the welcoming addresses as well as panel discussions. They were joining mainly from the UK (Scotland) and Germany (Lower Saxony), but there were also participants from France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Spain and even South Africa. On the second day, Tuesday, 24 November 2020, the 23 workshops from researchers in Scotland and Lower Saxony even attracted a total number of 274 participants (some of which took part in various workshop sessions).