Collaboration

Academy in Exile (AiE) at TU Dortmund University supports cultural producers and scholars in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and law who are at risk because of their academic work and civic engagement in human rights, democracy, and the pursuit of academic freedom. Since 2017, AiE has created 76 hosting arrangements through two-year fellowships, emergency stipends, artist-in-residence fellowships, and guest professorships, enabling people from 18 different countries to continue their work safely in Germany. A new cohort of international fellows is joining AiE in 2025.

Smart Urban Areas (SUA) is a federally-funded research project within the Research Group of Spatial Information Management and Modelling (RIM) in the Department of Spatial Planning at TU Dortmund University that investigates sustainable building management and performance through monitoring a smart city under development in Hanoi, Vietnam. The greening of buildings, efficient rain and greywater usage, energy management, and other approaches are being employed and monitored to tackle growing urbanization, global economic developments, and accelerating climate change.

University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) is a consortium of TU Dortmund University, Ruhr University Bochum, and the University of Duisburg-Essen, and an international strategic partner of the University of Cincinnati. In a testament to a shared vision and commitment as universities deeply embedded within their respective communities, TU Dortmund University and the University of Cincinnati are joining forces with a multidisciplinary approach for the GARDEN(S) OF REFUGE project. This initiative epitomizes a dedication to actively engaging with and contributing to the Ruhr communities, while also solidifying the Dortmund-Cincinnati corridor as a bridge connecting the two regions.

A partner garden at UA Ruhr’s strategic partner, the University of Cincinnati, in Cincinnati, Ohio, will be inaugurated in Spring 2025 and offer the possibility for exchange with TU Dortmund University on creative and scientific responses to climate-related forced migration. Exchange between faculty and students of the University of Cincinnati and UA Ruhr institutions will contribute to the institutions’ existing strategic partnership and help generate possibilities for transatlantic resource sharing and the internationalization of the respective institutions. 

Image credit: Tobias Kuester-Campioni //////////////////////////////////////////////// Garden at the University of Cincinnati