uni.news

» Published on 20. Dezember 2013

Digital transformation in the academic world: New service and infrastructure to provide open access to research data

Bielefeld University calls on academics to publish their research data

Whether the coalition agreement of the three ruling political parties, the CDU, CSU, and SPD, the German Research Foundation (DFG), or the European Commission with its new billion Euro research and innovation programmes – the calls for better access to scientific data are prominent. But what do these political demands mean for research at universities? How can data be made available for further analyses beyond the borders of the laboratory?  And where can research data to be found online? Bielefeld University is the first higher education institution on Germany to pass a resolution by the Rektorat calling on its academics to make research data easier to find and as accessible as possible to further analysis. And the decisive aspect here is that the coordination centre for research data [Kontaktstelle Forschungsdaten] at Bielefeld University library is delivering an immediate response to this by providing new digital advisory and publication services.

» Published on 19. Dezember 2013

Deciphering the secret of the sugar beet

Scientists from Germany and Spain announce the sequence of the sugar beet genome

An international team of researchers from Bielefeld University, the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, Spain, the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG), Department of Vertebrate Genomics (H. Lehrach) in Berlin and further partners from academia and the private sector, have been able to sequence and analyse for the first time the sweet genes of beetroot. The results of the study, that will be published next 18th December in Nature, shed also light on how the genome has been shaped by artificial selection.

» Published on 18. Dezember 2013

250,000 Euro for international research cooperation

Renowned expert on sociological inequality research comes to Bielefeld

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has granted the Anneliese Maier Research Award to the American sociologist Donald Tomaskovic-Devey. The 250,000 Euro award will be used to fund the research cooperation with Bielefeld University’s Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 882 ‘From Heterogeneities to Inequalities’. One of Tomaskovic-Devey’s projects will be to help build up an international research network on explanations for the causes of social inequalities. The sociologist is one of eight award winners announced on 17.12.2013 by the Humboldt Foundation.

» Published on 29. November 2013

The more the better!

Study of the University Bielefeld and TU Braunschweig shows the impact of polyandry on reproductive success in fire salamanders

Researchers at Bielefeld University and the Technische Universität Braunschweig are the first to confirm the benefit of multiple paternities for a vertebrate under completely natural conditions. Together with their team, Dr. Barbara Caspers and Dr. Sebastian Steinfartz have shown that female fire salamanders mate with several males under natural conditions
(so-called polyandry). This grants them fitness-relevant benefits by increasing their number of offspring. The results of their study are being published this Friday (29 November) in the Early View version of Molecular Ecology: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.12577/full. For a long time, it was assumed that females in the animal world are monogamous, that is, they mate with only one male. Males, in contrast, can increase their reproductive success by mating with several females. Nowadays, however, polyandry is assumed to be the rule in the animal world and monogamy to be more of an exception.

» Published on 26. November 2013

First prize for Bielefeld University in the Corporate Health Award:

Praise for 20 years of health management      

Health management at Bielefeld University has been awarded first prize in the category ‘Sonderpreis Hochschule’ [Special prize for universities] of the Corporate Health Award 2013. For the fifth time in succession, the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, the TÜV SÜD, and EuPD Research Sustainable Management have awarded prizes to the healthiest companies in Germany. The award-giving ceremony was held on Wednesday evening (20 November) in Frankfurt am Main. The Corporate Health Award 2013 went to companies in 10 sector categories and one special category. This year, a total of 323 companies – more than ever before – and 20 universities entered the competition.

» Published on 13. November 2013

Announcement of the deutsch-französischer Parlamentspreis

Award goes to senior lecturer at Bielefeld University      

Privatdozentin [senior lecturer] Dr. Nicole Colin, a temporary lecturer at Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies, has been awarded the deutsch-französischer Parlamentspreis by the German Parliament and the French Assemblée Nationale. She is a professor at the University of Amsterdam. On 18 November she will be awarded the 10,000 Euro prize in Paris for her post-doctoral habilitation Deutsche Dramatik im französischen Theater nach 1945. Künstlerisches Selbstverständnis im Kulturtransfer [German drama in the French theatre since 1945: cultural transfer of an artistic self-concept].

» Published on 6. November 2013

iGEM competition: First runner up to world champion for Bielefeld

Great success for Bielefeld University’s team with its microbial fuel cell       

Many months of laboratory work, numerous challenges, and, finally, good reason to celebrate: Ten students from Bielefeld University have been taking part in this year’s International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) organized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – and they gained second place (First Runner Up). They had already won the European region preliminary round (11–13 October) with their construction of a microbial fuel cell to generate energy directly from bacteria. The final World Championship Jamboree was held from 1–4 November at the MIT in Boston, USA. The Bielefeld team competed successfully against 80 teams from all over the world. Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer, Rektor of Bielefeld University was openly delighted at the success of the young researchers. ‘I heartily congratulate the Bielefeld team for this fantastic result. This very good achievement underlines the international level of research and teaching at Bielefeld. And I wish to thank the students for helping to make Bielefeld University even more visible throughout the world.’

» Published on 28. Oktober 2013

Researchers discover a new protein fold with a transport tunnel

Biochemists from Bielefeld, Toronto, Boston, and Kiel publish study in ‘Nature’

The protein LIMP-2 is vital for both humans and animals. If it is absent – due, for example, to a hereditary disease – substances of an unknown nature, probably lipids, accumulate in the organism. Up to now, scientists were unsure what the protein looks like and how exactly it functions. Privatdozent [senior lecturer] Dr. Michael Schwake from the Faculty of Chemistry at Bielefeld University (Germany) is doing research on the protein – and thereby preparing the way for future therapies. Together with colleagues in Kiel, Toronto, and Boston, he has now discovered that the protein LIMP 2 possesses a novel protein fold together with a nanomicroscopically small transport tunnel. The researchers have published their findings on Sunday (27 October) in the globally renowned scientific journal ‘Nature’.

» Published on 23. Oktober 2013

The molecular clock of the common buzzard

Bielefeld biologists reveal the influence of genes on dispersal behaviour

Be it hibernation or the routes of migratory birds: all animal behaviour that is subject to annual rhythms is controlled by a molecular clock. Although this has been known for a long time, in many cases it is still unclear how far genes are involved in setting this internal clock. Up to now, this also applied to the common buzzard and its migration from parental breeding grounds. Behavioural scientists in Professor Dr. Oliver Krüger’s team at Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Biology have now confirmed that a genetic clock determines when young buzzards leave their parents’ territory. The key to these findings were observations from the general public who reported tagged birds to the researchers. The researchers have now published their study in the journal Molecular Ecology.

» Published on 22. Oktober 2013

1 faculty – 3 disciplines – 40 years

Bielefeld University’s History, Philosophy, and Theology celebrate their jubilee

From 23–31 October, the Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology will be celebrating forty years of research and teaching in its disciplines at Bielefeld University. The jubilee offers an occasion to discuss the trends in topics and methods over the past decades with both international partners and academics from neighbouring disciplines. At the opening ceremony on Wednesday 23 October at 15.30 in Lecture Hall 14, Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer will greet the visitors. Then the Dean, Professor Dr. Angelika Epple, will look back at the history of the faculty.