To content
Guest talk

Prof. Dr. Anna Kosmützky & Dr. Romy Wöhlert

Collaborative Research Projects

Forms, research conditions, and challenges

Portrait photo of Prof. Dr. Anna Kosmützky © Anna Kosmützky
Prof. Dr. Anna Kosmützky (Leibniz University Hanover, Germany)
Portrait photo of Dr. Romy Wöhlert © Romy Wöhlert
Dr. Romy Wöhlert (Kindervereinigung Leipzig e.V., Germany)

A so-called 'collaborative turn' and 'research collaboration revolution' is transforming contemporary scientific knowledge production and related practices. Collaborative research has a high reputation both within and outside the scientific community; it has been increasingly promoted by science policies, and by national and international funding agencies and foundations in the last few decades in a context of increasing dependence of research on competitive external grant funding. Such transformations shift the nature of collaboration more and more from informal collaborations without funding, or with institutional funding, to formal collaborations with project funding. Thus, conducting collaborative research today means to a considerable extent to design, launch, and carry out research in the form of a project, characterised by defined goals and tasks, a limited duration, short-term planning and often with specifically dedicated resources.

Our talk will focus on such collaborative research projects. Building on previous work (Kosmützky, 2018; Kosmützky & Wöhlert, 2021), we will provide a conceptualization of collaborative research projects as temporary organizations. Based on this conceptualization we will distinguish different forms of collaborative research projects and their research conditions and challenges. Finally, we will make suggestions for further research, and discuss some policy implications.

References

  • Kosmützky, A. (2018). International Team Research in Comparative Higher Education: Shedding some Light on its Social Side. Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education, 10(Fall), 14–23.
  • Kosmützky, A. & Wöhlert, R. (2021). Varieties of collaboration: On the influence of funding schemes on forms and characteristics of international collaborative research projects (ICRPs). European Journal of Education, 56(2), 182–199.

Anna Kosmützky is a sociologist and professor for the "Methodology of Higher Education and Science Research" at the Leibniz Center of Science and Society (LCSS) at the Leibniz University Hanover. She is an expert in international comparative research, and her research interests include higher education research, science research, and organizational studies with a focus on methodological issues, globalization of higher education, and organizational and institutional change of universities. Currently, she conducts empirical research projects on multiple competition dynamics in higher education, collaboration networks of organizations, and collaborative team research.

Romy Wöhlert holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Bielefeld and currently works as a research project manager for the Kindervereinigung Leipzig e.V. in a BMBF-funded collaborative research project. Prior to that, she gained profound experience in collaborative research and international project management through her work at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, the University of Leipzig, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her expertise lies in inter-group relations and team dynamics, international comparative methodology, and international and intercultural communication, with a special focus on academic communication and collaborative research teams.

Wednesday, 19 January 2022, 4.00–5.30 p.m. | Online
Center for Higher Education (zhb)
Professorship of Higher Education

Presentation

Location & approach

The campus of TU Dort­mund University is located close to interstate junction Dort­mund West, where the Sauerlandlinie A 45 (Frankfurt-Dort­mund) crosses the Ruhrschnellweg B 1 / A 40. The best interstate exit to take from A 45 is "Dort­mund-Eichlinghofen" (closer to Campus Süd), and from B 1 / A 40 "Dort­mund-Dorstfeld" (closer to Campus Nord). Signs for the uni­ver­si­ty are located at both exits. Also, there is a new exit before you pass over the B 1-bridge leading into Dort­mund.

To get from Campus Nord to Campus Süd by car, there is the connection via Vogelpothsweg/Baroper Straße. We recommend you leave your car on one of the parking lots at Campus Nord and use the H-Bahn (suspended monorail system), which conveniently connects the two campuses.

 

TU Dort­mund University has its own train station ("Dort­mund Uni­ver­si­tät"). From there, suburban trains (S-Bahn) leave for Dort­mund main station ("Dort­mund Hauptbahnhof") and Düsseldorf main station via the "Düsseldorf Airport Train Station" (take S-Bahn number 1, which leaves every 15 or 30 minutes). The uni­ver­si­ty is easily reached from Bochum, Essen, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Duisburg.

You can also take the bus or subway train from Dort­mund city to the uni­ver­si­ty: From Dort­mund main station, you can take any train bound for the Station "Stadtgarten", usually lines U41, U45, U 47 and U49. At "Stadtgarten" you switch trains and get on line U42 towards "Hombruch". Look out for the Station "An der Palmweide". From the bus stop just across the road, busses bound for TU Dort­mund University leave every ten minutes (445, 447 and 462). Another option is to take the subway routes U41, U45, U47 and U49 from Dort­mund main station to the stop "Dort­mund Kampstraße". From there, take U43 or U44 to the stop "Dort­mund Wittener Straße". Switch to bus line 447 and get off at "Dort­mund Uni­ver­si­tät S".

 

The H-Bahn is one of the hallmarks of TU Dort­mund University. There are two stations on Campus Nord. One ("Dort­mund Uni­ver­si­tät S") is directly located at the suburban train stop, which connects the uni­ver­si­ty directly with the city of Dort­mund and the rest of the Ruhr Area. Also from this station, there are connections to the "Technologiepark" and (via Campus Süd) Eichlinghofen. The other station is located at the dining hall at Campus Nord and offers a direct connection to Campus Süd every five minutes.

 

The AirportExpress is a fast and convenient means of transport from Dort­mund Airport (DTM) to Dort­mund Central Station, taking you there in little more than 20 minutes. From Dort­mund Central Station, you can continue to the uni­ver­si­ty campus by interurban railway (S-Bahn). A larger range of in­ter­na­tio­nal flight connections is offered at Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), which is about 60 kilometres away and can be directly reached by S-Bahn from the uni­ver­si­ty station.

 

Interactive map

The facilities of TU Dortmund University are spread over two campuses, the larger Campus North and the smaller Campus South. Additionally, some areas of the university are located in the adjacent "Technologiepark".

Campus Lageplan Zum Lageplan