The newly gained autonomy through the Universities Act 2002 made this possible. In 2004, TU Graz and the University of Graz decided to join forces and harmonise their natural science disciplines in terms of teaching, research, infrastructure and personnel issues. NAWI Graz was born.

Training together

Joint studies formed the basis for success. Whereas 20 years ago, each university offered separate degree programmes in the cooperation subjects, there are now 22 degree programmes in biosciences, chemistry, earth, space and environmental science, mathematics and physics in union. Around 5,300 students make use of this broad spectrum. Verena Lipic is one of them: ‘For me, NAWI Graz means combining the best possibilities for teaching and lecturers from both universities,’ says the 27-year-old, describing the cross-university cooperation. For her, one of the secrets of success lies in the interdisciplinarity offered in teaching and research. This is also reflected in Lipic’s personal career. Lipic started with physics, and after her bachelor’s degree she switched to materials science for her master’s degree. She is currently working at the Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry and is convinced of one thing: ‘NAWI Graz enabled me to gain a better insight into the working methods and fields of work of the other research areas and to organise collaborations in-house.’

The joint doctoral programme in the NAWI Graz Advanced School of Science (GASS) enjoys a high status, with over 600 doctoral students currently being taught. Doctoral candidates are integrated in the inter-university doctoral schools and profit from supervision from the teaching staff of both universities. Joint programmes such as DocDays – which are mini-conferences – bring young researchers together. ‘The DocDays are a kind of socialising platform that initiates an exchange between us students from a wide range of disciplines. This can lead to further collaborations as well as new ideas for our own research,’ explains Lipic, who is currently working on her doctoral thesis.

Conducting research together

Joint teaching also saves time. This time can in turn be invested in research, as Michael Kerber from the Institute of Geometry stresses. ‘The joint degree programme in mathematics, especially the fact that the large basic lectures are held alternately, reduces the teaching load, which indirectly benefits research.’ Around 450 joint projects are run in the NAWI Graz network. The joint commitment is also reflected in successful project acquisitions. The 36 institutes involved in the NAWI Graz cooperation raise 34.6 million euros in third-party funding, which corresponds to an increase of around 120 per cent since 2006. Joint NAWI Graz professorial appointments have also become common practice. Currently, 36 Section-98 professors have been appointed in a joint procedure.

In addition, NAWI Graz also focuses on large inter-university collaborative projects such as special research programmes and doctoral programmes (DK). These are subject to strict evaluation criteria with high quality standards, bring together interdisciplinary research groups from both universities and offer long-term prospects. The doctoral programme Molecular Enzymology was one such successful joint project; it ran from 2005 to 2019 with a funding volume of 13.5 million euros. Peter Macheroux from the Institute of Biochemistry was significantly involved in the doctoral programme. ‘NAWI Graz acted as a catalyst,’ he says, recalling the beginnings, ‘Through this cooperation we researchers got to know each other better, common ground emerged, and so we also applied for the doctoral programme together.’ 25 scientists from both universities were involved in the doctoral programme, the scholarly output was enormous: over 100 doctoral students were successfully trained and 408 articles were published in renowned journals with around 24,000 citations.

The Austrian Science Fund’s doc.funds project ‘Discrete Mathematics in Teams’, which will train 12 doctoral students, will start in October. Each doctoral student is supervised by two researchers on an equal footing (hence ‘in teams’), with 19 supervisors from TU Graz and the University of Graz involved. ‘By bringing together pairs of supervisors, we can work on new areas of research that have not previously been available in Graz,’ says Michael Kerber (Institute of Geometry). The research projects are not only cross-faculty, but also cross-university. ‘Two of our twelve projects are each supervised by researchers from TU Graz and the University of Graz, reflecting the success of NAWI Graz,’ emphasises the mathematician.

Shared infrastructure

One thing is obvious: successful research can only be carried out if the necessary equipment is available. NAWI Graz recognised this fact and began to promote cooperatively used research infrastructure in 2008. Research is currently being conducted in 28 ‘central labs’ (central labs pool thematically related equipment in one place) and core facilities (individual large-scale appliances that several research groups need) in accordance with international standards; around 160 appliances have been purchased and utilised in partnership. One of the oldest shared central labs is the Central Lab for Water, Minerals and Rocks, which was launched in 2011. Dorothee Hippler from the Institute of Applied Geosciences heads this central lab: ‘A valuable place for scientific collaboration, development and exchange,’ says the researcher. ‘Through this central lab, previous and current research projects can be supplemented by innovative and challenging, but also sophisticated analytical methods from the field of isotope geochemistry. Central labs thus successfully pool a highly developed and cost-intensive laboratory infrastructure for both universities,’ underlines Dorothee Hippler.

A shared path into the future

The NAWI Graz network is considered a model project throughout Austria and shows how an alliance between two universities can work – despite different organisational structures. With the construction of the Graz Center of Physics (GCP), the cooperation has now been taken to a new level. The ground-breaking ceremony for this inter-university centre, which will unite the physics institutes of TU Graz and the University of Graz in 2030, took place in June 2024. ‘The Graz Center of Physics is currently one of the largest university construction projects in Austria. 

In addition to the GCP, which is currently being built on the University of Graz campus, four other institutes of TU Graz and the University of Graz will also cooperate even more closely with each other in the NAWI Graz Geo Centre (planned for Campus Inffeldgasse). In this centre, synergies from geology and geotechnics are to be used in the best possible way. However, construction of this building project will not start before 2032. For Franz Tschuchnigg (Institute of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering and Computational Geotechnics), however, the advantages are already clear: ‘With the spatial consolidation, we will utilise shared resources and strengthen the exchange of knowledge in the various disciplines. This will be a unique combination that enables broader approaches to research topics and will open up many new fields of research.’ The (successful) story of NAWI Graz keeps on forging ahead. To be continued.

Interview: NAWI Graz “Benefits Everyone"

Two universities, one path. The two-decade alliance between TU Graz and the University of Graz is regarded as a best-practice model of university cooperation. The two chairs of the NAWI Graz Steering Committee, Joachim Reidl and Andrea Höglinger, give a glimpse into the NAWI Graz success story.

What does NAWI Graz mean to you?

Andrea Höglinger: NAWI Graz is an excellent example of how the universities in Graz work together in the interests of students and research. NAWI Graz is enriching – for students, for teaching staff and for inter-university cooperation at Rectorate level.

Joachim Reidl: NAWI Graz is a very efficient and close cooperation between two universities in the field of natural sciences, which is probably unique in Austria in its interlocking of teaching, infrastructure and research.

What advantages does NAWI Graz offer individual employees?

Joachim Reidl: Advantages include a high degree of collaboration, opportunities for the efficient use of expensive infrastructure and a vital exchange of research interests.

Andrea Höglinger: We are stronger and more broadly positioned together in terms of content, which benefits everyone.

What are the milestones/ highlights of this cooperation for you?

Joachim Reidl: Highlights are certainly the high quality of education for our students (the best of both universities) and a flagship structure that has developed from NAWI Graz and will also be spatially visible from 2030 in the form of the Graz Center of Physics (GCP), where the physics institutes of both universities will conduct research and teach in one place.

Andrea Höglinger: In the short year that I have been responsible for NAWI Graz at TU Graz, the trusting collaboration in the steering committee is certainly worth mentioning, simply because this cannot be taken for granted. Our predecessors at both universities have contributed a lot to this. I am pleased to be able to build on such an excellent basis for cooperation. My personal highlight was the opening of a joint “DocDay” – it was simply a pleasure to see doctoral students from both universities sitting together in a lecture hall and exchanging ideas about their work.

What are the challenges of inter-university cooperation?

Joachim Reidl: Without a doubt the merging of organisational structures, some of which are quite different.

Andrea Höglinger: I agree with that. In addition to the different organisational structures, the challenges also include different technical systems and cultures at the universities.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the Graz Center of Physics took place in June. Will there be further spatial and strategic collaborations in the future?

Joachim Reidl: Based on the developments of the GCP, further such collaborations could be carried out. I am thinking of the NAWI Graz GeoCenter in the field of geosciences and geotechnics.

Andrea Höglinger: Talking about strategic cooperation, I still see enormous potential in the area of research collaboration, and certainly also in the area of infrastructure. But of course that is always a question of budget.