City of Aachen
The European Science Parliament was initiated by former Lord Mayor Dr. Jürgen Linden and the then-rector of RWTH Aachen University, Professor Burkhard Rauhut. While nothing makes more sense than a university engaging in science events, the fact that a city, i.e. politicians and collaborators of a municipality, is engaged in a scientific event, needs some explanation: Aachen is not only a city of history and picturesque charm, but also a city which has, ever since the beginning of industrialization in the 19th century, been associated with innovation and progress in science and technology.
Whether you look at new technologies of coal
mining and steel production in the 19th century
or at the introduction of high-technology, it has always been important for citizens, companies, and research institutes in Aachen to rank among the best in the competition between economic regions. From the difficult times of change from old industries (coal, steel) to high-technology (ICT, Life Sciences, automotive, new materials) anybody in Aachen is aware of the fact that our future depends entirely on our only „raw material": knowledge. From this omnipresent consciousness springs the excellent cooperation between the city and RWTH Aachen University, which has always aimed at bringing forward Aachen as an excellent destination of knowledge-based economy.
Some connoisseurs of European history say that this consciousness of education and knowledge as driving engines of progress was introduced already by Alkuin at Charlemagne's court. This special commitment to scientific and economic excellence would therefore be quite an old story. Equally deeply rooted in Aachen as the home of the „first unifier of Europe" is the special European consciousness of those who live in the region. If you live at a distance of two or three kilometers from two neighbouring cultures, you do not lack awareness of the importance of tolerance, exchange and cross-border mobility. The „European Science Parliament" combines three notions which have been important for citizens of Aachen for ages: a special European engagement, dependency on excellent science, and the parliament as the most outstanding form of organization for discourse and tolerance our European culture has ever invented.
Click here for contact and organisational structure.
RWTH Aachen University
RWTH Aachen University with her 260 departments belongs to the leading European Universities. Currently, there are 30.000 students enrolled in more than 100 study courses, among them are 5.500 foreign students out of 130 countries. Education at RWTH Aachen is mostly based on practical experience. Thus, graduates are sought after managers and every fifth management board member of German corporations studied here. National and international rankings certify RWTH-graduates the ability to solve complex tasks in teamwork and to take over supervising functions.
The work of the research centres of RWTH Aachen University is geared to the needs of the economy, why numerous patents and technical developments come about. Band width of research goes from the first idea to the completed product. Although specialisation is considered an important issue, RWTH competence centres advance interdisciplinary work through forums and organisations. Thus, study courses from the field of social sciences also receive considerable reference to engineering sciences, being the focal point of the University.
Dialogue-oriented mediation of science is brought forward with a fine tradition at RWTH Aachen University. Presentation of science shall be intelligible to all - and so shall reflection of tender subjects play an important role. The European Science Parliament could be the consequent continuation of this. Furthermore, the inclusion of modern communication technology is evidence of innovation.
There is a high amount of 1.250 business
start-ups, creating approximately 30.000 new
jobs around Aachen in the last 20 years.
In addition to that, RWTH Aachen University is the biggest employer and job trainer across the area. The University will shape the successful structural change from mining to high technology also in the future.
In this respect, RWTH Aachen University is supporting all measures to make this potential visible to the european public. The European Idea and science are two of the essential factors of Aachen, and by crosslinking these, the European Science Parliament shall represent Aachen as centre of science.
Research and teaching at the highest level are also starting point of the global cooperation of RWTH Aachen University. By networking together with other leading technical universities the standards are set, the IDEA League is only one example. The establishment of universities in Thailand an Oman based on the model of RWTH Aachen, this successful structure of science is advanced internationally Within the scope of the excellence initiative, RWTH Aachen University was given even more incentive for international competitive capability through authorisation of three clusters of excellence, a graduate school and the institutional strategy „RWTH 2020: Meeting global challenges".
Click here for contact and organisational structure.
