As part of the AUFBRUCH project, 37 doctoral students are to be trained and networked at a total of seven academic institutes. The overarching aim is to actively shape the structural change of the Rhenish mining area and contribute to making the region the first climate-neutral industrial region in Europe. AUFBRUCH is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a total of 12.5 million euros. The project kicked off with over 120 participants. During the event, keynote speeches and panel discussions emphasised, among other things, the great importance of cooperation between science and industry in the bioeconomy. Discussions also centred on how a sustainable transformation of the Rhenish mining area can succeed and how start-ups can contribute to this. Among the guests were Ina Brandes, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Oda Keppler, Director General from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Christian Dinnus from the Structural Change in the Rhineland Mining Region staff unit at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy (MWIKE).

RWTH Aachen University, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, the Cluster of Industrial Biotechnology (CLIB), Dortmund University of Technology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Jülich Research Centre, Cologne Technical University and Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences form the consortium of partners in and around the Rhenish mining area. This means that AUFBRUCH brings together expertise from the fields of biotechnology, chemistry, process engineering, logistics, economics, social sciences and spatial planning. Adrian Götting, supervised by Jürgen Howaldt, will realise his doctoral project for the Social Research Centre Dortmund as part of AUFBRUCH. The focus is thereby on the development of competences for a green transformation of the region's industry, particularly with regard to bio-based production processes in the chemical industry.

Further information:

https://www.revier-gestalten.nrw/projekte/aufbruch

https://www.rheinisches-revier.de/ein-aufbruch-im-wahrsten-sinne-des-wortes/

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