Following the 2021 memorandum of understanding between the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the University of Wrocław (UWr), the partnership between researchers in Saxony and Wrocław is strengthened with CASUSCON, a new conference aimed at identifying areas of future cooperation. The inaugural event takes place from July 11 to 14, 2022 in Wrocław. There, researchers from the HZDR, in particular from its Görlitz-based Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), will meet colleagues from different research institutions in Wrocław, namely from the University of Wrocław, the Wrocław Medical University, the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.
The new conference is inspired by the Polish-German HZDR institute CASUS, which was established in 2019 in Görlitz – halfway between the metropolitan areas of Dresden and Wrocław. The HZDR and the University of Wrocław are both among the founding partners of CASUS.
“This conference is a continuation of the successful joint efforts of the past few years, which among other things led to the founding of CASUS. This underlines how close and resilient our relationships are. The CASUSCON as a new type of scientific institution shows that the merging of the research communities in Saxony and Lower Silesia has enormous potential,” emphasizes Sebastian Gemkow. The Saxon State Minister for Science will host the opening of the conference on July 11, 2022 together with his Polish colleague, Wojciech Piotr Murdzek, at the General Consulate of Germany in Wroclaw. “Such cooperation not only strengthens the regions on the border, but all of Europe.”
As for CASUS, systems research will also be at the core of CASUSCON (UWr-CASUS-HZDR International Conference on Advanced Systems Research). The conference is organized by the University of Wrocław in cooperation with CASUS and HZDR and in association with the Wrocław Medical University and the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences. The four-day event is supported by the General Consulate of Germany in Wrocław and is under the honorary patronage of the Polish Minister of Education and Science. The program features nearly 60 invited speakers who will deliver presentations on health and life systems sciences, matter, and energy.
Saxony and Lower Silesia – succeeding together
“I am really pleased to see that the scientific communities of Lower Silesia and Saxony show commitment to enhance and strengthen scientific cooperation,” says Prof. Eugeniusz Zych from the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Wrocław and a conference chairman. “The event is a very important act of the activities that we plan to implement together with our partners from Saxony. I strongly believe in the success of this project, and the very good cooperation with the HZDR so far strengthens me in this faith. I also appreciate the support of the ministries of both sides for our efforts to turn the project quickly into an effective tool for the implementation of ambitious research at the highest world level.”
“In recent years we have succeeded in strengthening the relationship between Lower Silesia and Saxony – two strongholds of science in Poland and Germany. With this conference, we are taking a further step in expanding our cooperation: we want to join forces to bring world-renowned scientists to the region, successfully apply for substantial European research funds and exchange tried-and-tested concepts for knowledge and technology transfer,” explains Prof Sebastian M. Schmidt, Scientific Director of the HZDR.
About the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding
CASUS was founded 2019 in Görlitz/Germany and pursues data-intensive interdisciplinary systems research in such diverse disciplines as earth systems research, systems biology or materials research. The goal of CASUS is to create digital images of complex systems of unprecedented fidelity to reality with innovative methods from mathematics, theoretical systems research, simulations as well as data and computer science to give answers to urgent societal questions. Partners are the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig (UFZ), the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (MPI-CBG), the Technical University of Dresden (TUD) and the University of Wrocław (UWr). CASUS, managed as an institute of the HZDR, is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism (SMWK)