On Monday, 16.09.2024, the 2nd annual conference, “Regionale Transformation Gestalten”, organized by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), took place in Essen. In the panel discussion with the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Dr. Robert Habeck, Prof. Martina Havenith presented how a region can be shaped by excellent research and overcoming boundaries.
In her role as head of the Chair of Physical Chemistry at Ruhr University Bochum and as spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence Ruhr Explores Solvation (RESOLV), Prof. Havenith was invited to take part in the panel discussion with the Federal Minister. Under the topic “Success stories of transformation”, Prof. Havenith explained how the success story of the Excellence Initiative in the Ruhr region unfolded. “I have learned not to focus only on the risks. You simply have to put your good ideas into action,” said Prof. Havenith in response to the question of how much willingness to take risks is required for transformation.
“Contrary to what was thought at the time, we were successful with our Cluster of Excellence proposal. This brought the Ruhr region together. It was only by overcoming the boundaries between the individual universities that we are now as strong as the international competition,” says Prof. Havenith. Innovative structures have been developed that enable us to recruit the best international researchers. Another important point is the cooperation with the industry located in NRW. NRW is home to international chemical companies with a total of 90,000 jobs. “We have the best players in NRW, who must now learn to play together in order to pursue creative paths of transformation.” For a successful transformation, industry and science must work together like the striker and defenders in a soccer team. RESOLV actively promotes collaboration between research and industry to quickly translate scientific findings into applications and thus find solutions for various societal challenges. With RESOLV, a place has been created that can be seen as the nucleus of the transformation of the Ruhr region.
Federal Minister Habeck also spoke about the central role of spaces that enable people to come together. “More spaces need to be created where people can physically meet,” said Dr. Habeck. One of his most important insights from the discussions at this conference was that effective exchange requires physical spaces that bring people from different backgrounds together. This enables an exchange that can hardly be achieved through digital offerings.
About the annual conference “Regionale Transformation Gestalten”
The BMWK is organizing this conference to enable a systematic and interdisciplinary exchange of experiences on the topic of “regional transformation processes”. In addition to numerous high-profile speakers, including Federal Minister Dr. Robert Habeck, there were panel discussions and a large number of workshops on various regional development topics. In addition, an excursion to various practical examples of regional transformation made it possible to experience the remarkable economic changes that the Ruhr region has undergone in recent decades. In Bochum, the MARK 51°7 innovation quarter was visited.