Expanding Global and Local Collaborations

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Nov 07, 2018
by Louise Hallman
Expanding Global and Local Collaborations

Salzburg Global Seminar and University of Salzburg launch new partnership

Salzburg Global Vice President Benjamin Glahn and University Rector Heinrich Schmidinger

To meet its mission of challenging current and future leaders to shape a better world, Salzburg Global Seminar seeks to foster lasting partnerships and to connect local innovators and global resources. It was in this vein that a renewed partnership was established this year with the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg

Speaking about the partnership, Salzburg Global Vice President Benjamin Glahn highlighted the long history of engagement the organization has had with higher education institutions and welcomed the new expanded partnership with the local university. 

“Since 1947, when we were founded, universities have represented an important source of thought leadership for all our programs. Of the more than 36,000 individuals from 170 countries who have taken part in our various programs over the last 70 years, a significant number have come via university partnerships,” Glahn said.

“The University of Salzburg has long been an important partner of Salzburg Global Seminar in ensuring that this tradition has continued,” he continued. 

“Countless faculty members such as yourselves have participated in our global programs in Schloss Leopoldskron and abroad, and both Salzburg Global and the University have benefited from exchanges between their respective networks.

“As of this year, Salzburg Global Seminar and the University of Salzburg are renewing our partnership with a focus that builds on this tradition and aims to provide concrete benefits to each of our institutions.

“We are grateful for the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research for the further development of the partnership between Salzburg Global Seminar and the University of Salzburg.”

The new partnership will see an increased number of faculty, researchers, staff and students from the University attend sessions at Salzburg Global, and in turn, Salzburg Global Fellows from other institutions will develop stronger ties with the University. 

The first participants to benefit from this new partnership were able to take part in both the University’s International Week and a Salzburg Global Seminar program in March. Two members of the University’s faculty joined the session Climate Change, Conflict, Health, and Education: Targeting Interdisciplinary Research to Meet the Sustainable Development Goals, and three Salzburg Global Fellows attended an evening panel discussion event at the University. 

Claudia Woehle, professor of financial management and financial services, and Stefan Keinberger, senior researcher at the Department of Geoinformatics, both attended the session at Schloss Leopoldskron. Hilligje van’t Land, recently appointed secretary general of the International Association of Universities (of which the University of Salzburg is a member), delivered a keynote speech on “Universities in a Global Setting,” at the University’s International Week, followed by a panel discussion featuring Salzburg Global Fellows, Jude Fransman, a research fellow at the Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology in the UK, and Bertram Mapunda, the principal of Jordan University College in Tanzania, as well as Benjamin Glahn, and Josef Strobl, professor and head of the department of Geoinformatics at the University of Salzburg. Dr. Mapunda’s participation in the Salzburg Global session also provided the chance for the finalization of a partnership agreement between his university and the University of Salzburg.

Speaking at the International Week event and recognizing the importance of internationalizing higher education in order to address global challenges, Prof. Dr. Sylvia Hahn, the University’s Vice Rector of International Relations and Communication, welcomed the renewed partnership with Salzburg Global in advancing the University’s own efforts to expand its international engagement.

Prof. Dr. Heinrich Schmidinger, Rector of the University, echoed her sentiments at an information evening for university faculty and staff hosted at Schloss Leopoldskron in October, saying: “I am glad that the decades long cooperation between the University of Salzburg and Salzburg Global Seminar can be continued with the new cooperation agreement and that our academics can get involved in the outstanding projects of this wonderful institution also in the future.”

Over the past 70 years, Salzburg Global has launched numerous dedicated initiatives focused on higher education and expanding international collaborations, including the long-running Universities Project and parallel Visiting Advisors Project (1997-2010), aiding higher education institutions in post-Soviet countries; the Mellon Community Fellows Initiative and Mellon Global Citizenship Program (2008-2017), creating sites of global citizenship at Appalachian College Association members and Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States; and most recently the program with the Global Research Challenges Fund (2018), addressing the need for interdisciplinary research to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The new partnership with the University of Salzburg seeks to promote and optimize the role of academic institutions and research in achieving the SDGs; promote North-South exchange focused on these development goals between key academic voices from the University and counterparts within the Salzburg Global Fellowship in developing countries; and leverage such exchange to found new and deepen existing partnerships to advance the University’s internationalization strategy.
Schloss Leopoldskron, home of Salzburg Global, will also host visiting academics to the University. 

“We have gained much from conversations we’ve held with the Centre for European Union Studies, the Department of Geoinformatics, and the University’s International Office, and we look forward to working together in the coming years,” said Glahn.

“I would like to express our gratitude to Rector Schmidinger, Vice Rector Hahn and Peter Mayr [Director of International Relations], with whom we have worked closely.

“Where Salzburg Global can utilize its convening power, our partner network around the world, or our facilities at Schloss Leopoldskron to advance your own globally-focused projects, we would welcome the chance to work together with the University ever-more closely.”


University of Salzburg staff and faculty who wish to participate in programs at Salzburg Global Seminar are encouraged to contact Marietta Bauerberger (marietta.bauernberger@sbg.ac.at) to apply.