“Hello, my friend”

What is the importance of the EELISA Alliance for FAU? An interview with Joachim Hornegger, Johanna Hojer and Melanie Viebahn.

Eight countries, ten universities, one alliance – that is the European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance, or EELISA for short. In May 2024, students, researchers, members of staff and presidents of the involved universities met in Erlangen for the EELISA Grand Meeting. Among those present were FAU President Joachim Hornegger, who is head of the EELISA Governing Board from March until November 2024, Johanna Hojer and Melanie Viebahn from the FAU EELISA team.

What made the biggest impression on you during the EELISA Grand Meeting?

Joachim Hornegger: I was very impressed by the friendly atmosphere. Now our communication has become much more cordial. It is just great if a president writes “Hello, my friend!” That gives the conversation a personal touch and is the basis for the type of collaboration we would like to see at EELISA.

Johanna Hojer: Shortly beforehand, we attended a more formal meeting in Bucharest. Now was time for the more informal part. We wanted to pave the way for cultural exchange on a more personal level. We even all went to the Bergkirchweih beer festival together!

What are FAU’s goals for EELISA?

Joachim Hornegger: My goal is that at some point FAU members do not only see themselves as FAU members but also some time in the future as EELISA members. One of our common goals, for example, is for our students to use the opportunities for exchanges. I think we have huge potential in this respect. The aim of the EU is for 50 percent of our students to spend time abroad as part of their studies. EELISA offers the perfect framework.

Johanna Hojer: It is not only students who have the opportunity to go abroad. Members of staff also could and should travel, learn from their colleagues abroad and gain valuable experience. No matter whether they work in research or administration. For example, we have organized a staff week at TalTech in Tallin specifically for research support staff.

Melanie Viebahn: We also have a lot of plans in the pipeline when it comes to innovation. A series of events with the FAU Ambassador and innovation manager John Bessant is starting next month, for example, and lots of people have already signed up for it. In addition, the lawyer Andrea Zehetner is giving a course on intellectual property that is popular not only with FAU students but also at our partner universities.

What feedback have you received so far from participants?

Johanna Hojer: We have received a lot of positive feedback from students. Just recently a student sent us chocolate and a handwritten letter thanking us. A lot of students are very keen to have the opportunity to spend a few days abroad. That is easier to integrate into their degree program than a whole Erasmus semester. These opportunities allow students to get together and learn from each other. Of course, that also helps our other major goal: Connecting the individual innovation ecosystems within EELISA to a common network.

Melanie Viebahn: We hope that in future even more students, researchers and members of staff will find out about the opportunities offered by EELISA and end up being just as enthusiastic as we are.

EELISA, the European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance, is an alliance of ten universities from eight European countries, and FAU is a member. The European University Alliance was founded in 2020 with EU funding in order to strengthen collaboration between the universities in teaching, research, studying and innovation. The special feature of EELISA is its interdisciplinary, international and solution-oriented approach to collaboration. Members of FAU benefit from networking and collaborating with partner universities in Paris, Pisa, Madrid, Budapest, Bucharest, Zürich and Istanbul: Researchers from all subject areas, students, and stakeholders from business and politics come together in EELISA communities to tackle the challenges of a sustainable future together.

Author: Miriam Weigand

This article is part of the FAU magazine

Innovation, diversity and passion: Those are the three guiding principles of our FAU, as stated in our mission statement. At FAU, we live these guiding principles every day in all that we do – in research, in teaching and when it comes to sharing the knowledge created at our university with society.

This, the second issue of our FAU magazine, underlines all of the above: It shows researchers who tirelessly keep pushing the boundaries of what has been believed to be possible. It introduces students who work together to achieve outstanding results for their FAU, talks about teaching staff who pass on their knowledge with infectious enthusiasm and creativity. And it reports back on members of staff with foresight and a talent for getting to the crux of the matter who are dedicated to improving the (research) infrastructure at FAU as well as people in key positions who are there for their university and are committed to its research location.