Further increasing the attractiveness of Saxony's science locations

Chemnitz Science Forum kicks off new communication and exchange process

With the first Chemnitz Science Forum, an important communication and exchange process between regional players in the knowledge society was launched today. The forum is the prelude to further communication and networking meetings in Dresden and Leipzig later this year.

"Science forums are places for dialogue on future issues, places for the involvement of diverse stakeholders in regional planning and design processes, places for the exchange of information and experience. Together with these stakeholders, the Saxon Ministry of Science would like to develop strategies, measures and concepts to meet the challenges we face," said Saxony's Minister of Science Sabine von Schorlemer at the opening ceremony.

The Science Forum is a communication platform for universities, business, culture, non-university research institutions and study academies, state institutions, local authorities, associations and chambers as well as student representatives of a science region.

The aim is to increase the attractiveness of science locations in Saxony and to further optimise science-supporting structures. The topics discussed at the Science Forum are then continuously and bindingly worked on. To coordinate this work in the working groups and the science region, the Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts is funding the position of a project manager in each case.

The following topics will be discussed at the Chemnitz Science Forum: Knowledge transfer between science, business and culture, increasing internationality, leveraging synergies through the joint use of infrastructure and services.

The keynote speaker at the Chemnitz Science Forum, Professor Matthias Kleiner, Head of the Institute for Forming Technology and Lightweight Construction at TU Dortmund University and former President of the German Research Foundation, explained: "Science and research only thrive in competition - the search for the best methods, leading findings and coherent solutions is best achieved in a debate with other ideas. When minds and capacities come together for this purpose, it strengthens the players involved in international exchange and encourages their centres of activity to shine far and wide, pointing the way and inviting other cooperation partners to participate - in the spirit of constantly advancing science."

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"In addition to the strategic expansion of existing partnerships between Chemnitz University of Technology, neighbouring universities and vocational academies as well as non-university research institutions, new networks in research and teaching should be formed in our scientific region together with the city of Chemnitz and the Free State of Saxony. These should increase the competitiveness of all players and contribute to their greater international visibility," said the Rector of the host university, Chemnitz University of Technology, Professor Arnold van Zyl.

For the region's non-university research institutions, private lecturer Welf-Guntram Drossel, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology IWU, where the first science forum took place, explained: "With a clear focus on user-oriented research and development for energy- and resource-efficient production, the Fraunhofer IWU has developed into an important pillar within the German and, in particular, Saxon science regions. We therefore recognise the importance of synergy effects in the interaction between research, teaching and application. We are therefore all the more pleased to support the Science Forum, which plays an important role here as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experience."

Source: SMWK media information from 26 April 2013