The Prime Minister of Saxony visits the transCampus in London

Traditionally, the "Tag der Deutschen Einheit" (Anniversary of German Unification) is also celebrated in the German Embassy in London. This year, a delegation of the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer visited the British capital on this occasion and seized the opportunity to take a closer look at the strategic partnership between TU Dresden and King's College London.

Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen emphasised the importance of the collaboration: "The close international cooperation between Dresden and London is a success story and a prime example of the lively exchange between academics and students." Prime Minister Kretschmer had time to form his own opinion on Friday, 5 October. He was received by Ed Byrne, Dean of King's College London, Prof. Antonio Hurtado, and Prof. Stefan Bornstein, Dean of transCampus, in the newly opened Science Gallery at Guy's Campus south of the Thames. They were able to report new successes: Both universities will extend their cooperation to the field of materials research. They expressed this new objective in the official signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding".

The initiator and founding dean of transCampus, Prof. Stefan Bornstein, stressed: "The MoU now agreed on is a further step towards a truly university-wide partnership." In 2015, transCampus started as a research alliance with a focus on medicine and biotechnology. Later, telecommunications was added to the cooperation.

With their merger, the scientists of the central scientific institution "Dresden Center for Computational Materials Science" (DCMS) of the TUD and of the "Thomas Young Centre" (TYC) want to establish an internationally leading research cluster in materials science. "Dresden is a leading centre of materials research in Europe and worldwide. The strengthening of our research network through international cooperation is a key element of our future strategy," says Prof. Gianaurelio Cuniberti, managing director of the DCMS. "Dresden and London's expertise in materials science complement each other perfectly. Both sides can hope for new input through this cooperation."

The event was overshadowed by the unexpected death of the director of the Thomas Young Centre, Prof. Alessandro de Vita, who was closely involved in research cooperation. The speakers on that day paid tribute to Prof. de Vita's outstanding scientific achievements and personal commitment and underlined that it would have been his unconditional will to continue working together.

To continue the "unique and groundbreaking partnership", as Prof. Hurtado called the transCampus, was also the tenor in view of the upcoming Brexit. The Saxon Prime Minister wanted to look into the future rather than back into the past, too. He found time for a discussion with Saxon students, who are just finishing a few months at King's, about their view of Saxony and Great Britain, the partnership, and the different university systems.