The Global Young Faculty is an initiative of Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with the University Alliance Ruhr and is coordinated by the Mercator Research Centre Ruhr in Essen. The program brings together outstanding and dedicated young researchers from universities and non-university research institutions based in the Ruhr area. It supports them in their efforts to forge new professional contacts and share ideas beyond institutional and disciplinary borders.
The Ruhr metropolitan area is characterized by a great variety and multitude of research institutions. The Global Young Faculty provides a platform for outstanding and dedicated young scholars from the region to meet and get to know one another, to work on interdisciplinary projects and to receive new stimuli for their own academic research. The goal of this network is to support promising young researchers in their future careers and to offer them an opportunity to work with leading experts from Germany and abroad.
The Global Young Faculty brings together approximately 50 young academics selected from universities and non-university research institutions based in the Ruhr area. The program enables them to work autonomously in interdisciplinary groups and allows them to choose the subject and format of their work. It supports scholars in their efforts to forge new professional contacts and share ideas beyond institutional and disciplinary borders. This exchange of ideas offers new scope for the development of innovative approaches to research and for discussion of the societal implications of scientific activities.
The Global Young Faculty was initiated in 2009. Since then, four cohorts have successfully worked together in smaller working groups on various topics. The members of the sixth round of the Global Young Faculty met in early October 2019 for the official kick-off. Over two days, they identified their future projects and working groups. In this sixth round, young researchers connected with young professionals from companies within the Ruhr area. This cooperation was additionally supported by the Initiativkreis Ruhr.
The members of the seventh cohort will be selected in the summer of 2021 and will work together for three semesters. Stiftung Mercator is providing the Global Young Faculty VII with a total of 461,000 Euros over two years (until March 2023). In addition to financial resources for the working groups, each member also receives an individual travel budget.
The Global Young Faculty network is an initiative of Stiftung Mercator in cooperation with the University Alliance Ruhr (UA RUHR), which comprises the universities of Bochum, Dortmund and Duisburg-Essen. The Global Young Faculty is coordinated by the Mercator Research Centre Ruhr (MERCUR) in Essen.