German-Polish Exchange
Since many years a fruitful and very active cooperation is established between our department and the department of Environmental Analytics of Prof. Piotr Stepnowski (University of Gdansk). This German-Polish cooperation concept based on education and capacity-building for talented young people through summer schools, lectures by invited guest scientists, lab courses and joint research tasks. Since the students involved are not only chemists and environmental chemists but also biologists, pharmacists and engineers, the research is of a highly inter- and multidisciplinary orientation.
Since 2009 PhD students, postdocs and staff have frequently been exchanged between both groups, financially supported mainly by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Erasmus programme. More than 70 people-to-people exchanges have taken place with internships lasting from 7 days up to 12 months. The internships have included experimental and theoretical training in either instrumental analysis or biotesting. Based on the exchanges and the joint research, almost all ongoing PhD and habilitation theses contain parts and chapters that have been performed at the partner institute. Additionally, a total of >30 peer-reviewed joint research articles have been published to date.
As a result of the intensive exchange of people, ideas, and the mutual use of infrastructure, the groups in Bremen and Gdańsk have literally merged to form one single research team.