Discover the new Gateway Office in Bordeaux: interview with Bérénice Kimpe

9 Mar

Open since September 2020, the Gateway Office Bordeaux organised “UBT at a glance”, its first digital event in January 2021 to incentivize contacts between the University of Bayreuth, institutions in Bordeaux and North Africa. Let’s meet its manager, Bérénice Kimpe , who tells us more about this event and her activities to strengthen international cooperation.

Hi, Bérénice! You joined the International Office of University Bayreuth in September last year, as Gateway Office Manager in Bordeaux. That is the third to open after Shanghai (2016) and Melbourne (2018). Can you tell us what your activities are?

Bonjour! My main mission is to facilitate the connection and interaction between the academics of the University of Bayreuth and Bordeaux, North Africa, Southern Europe. I aim to incentivize new joint projects for mobility, education and research. A second mission is to support the implementation and development of such projects: on the administrative or logistical level, but also by identifying funding schemes the projects could benefit from. Finally, I help to increase the visibility of UBT in the regions I am in charge of, and to recruit international students and researchers.

Do you enjoy it?

Yes, a lot, even if I really miss “real” face-to-face meetings! I am lucky to work with great people, invested in the internationalisation of higher education and research. Despite the situation we have been through for one year now, it is nice to see that international never stops, that our current and future partners still come to us to develop joint programmes. It helps to move forward.

Bordeaux as strategic partner

Within its internationalisation strategy, the University of Bayreuth has identified priorities and strategic partners. Bordeaux is one of them. What does that mean exactly?

The first thing is that the wish for strengthening the links between the University of Bayreuth and Bordeaux is there and strongly supported, on both sides. The Gateway Office will encourage all the initiatives in this sense and offer its support. It also means that academics from Bayreuth can apply for funding from the Bayreuth Humboldt Centre if they want to organise strategic scientific workshops with their partners in Bordeaux.

It is important to keep in mind that Bordeaux refers to the whole site and not the University of Bordeaux only. It includes for instance the institute for political sciences IEP Sciences Po, with which our African studies scholars have a close relationship, or Bordeaux INP where a collaboration in polymer sciences is in progress, as well as the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, our partner for joint degrees and for the future European University Alliance. As a result, Bordeaux offers plenty of opportunities for collaborations including with the Bayreuth focus areas (African Studies, Advanced Materials, Polymer & Colloid Science, Energy Research & Energy Technology, Ecology & the Environmental Sciences, Food & Health Sciences). We already have an ongoing double degree in law and discussions underway to develop joint degrees in economics.

This being said, it is not enough to have a global overview of what could be overlapping. I need to deepen my exploration and identify the best fitting partner. Being on site makes the identification of synergies and partners easier. That is the reason why I am currently located in Bordeaux, and not somewhere else in France!

A digital event to highlight the University of Bayreuth’s core research areas

Does it mean that the digital event “UBT at a glance” was organised to help you identify potential partners?

Yes, it clearly was, especially among the scientific community in Bordeaux and North Africa. As they were not necessarily familiar with the University of Bayreuth, it was of utmost importance to give them a first overview of our core research areas, especially in the early times of the establishment of the Gateway Office Bordeaux. I wanted to give them the opportunity to get a glimpse at the kind of research done in Bayreuth and above all to exchange ideas directly with our scientific coordinators.

From January 18 to 25, 5 focus areas were presented by our coordinators whom I would like to thank warmly for their friendly participation: Prof. Samimi for African Studies, Prof. Peiffer for BayCEER, Prof. Glatzel for Advanced Materials, Prof. Clemens for Food and Health, Prof. Danzer for BayBatt. The managing director of the Bayreuth Humboldt Centre, Dr Horn-Schott, participated in the sixth session which was dedicated to the funding schemes available to fund Bayreuth-Bordeaux or Bayreuth-World mobility projects. All the sessions are now available online and will be used for further marketing activities.

Did the event meet the objectives?

It did. Following the event, I received some contact requests from international early-career researchers looking for PhD or postdoc positions at the University of Bayreuth. Some professors and researchers from Bordeaux and North Africa showed interest in collaborating with Bayreuth research teams for different kinds of projects: mobility, joint programmes, EU-grant proposals, and so forth. The next step will be for me to organise bilateral meetings so that they can go deeper into the scientific content and complementarity. I am really looking forward to seeing what will come out of this!

Future developments

Do you intend to repeat this experience?

I would love to, especially by extending it to the other focus areas. But I also need to enlarge the concept so that scholars from Bayreuth and Bordeaux can really meet and exchange ideas. Online meetings are always a good start but they are not enough. As soon as the situation allows for it, on-site events to develop networks will take place, ideally alternating between Bordeaux and Bayreuth.

How can we contact you?

For any of your projects in relation with Bordeaux, Southern Europe and North Africa, please do not hesitate to contact me at bordeaux@uni-bayreuth.de. I would be happy to meet you and discuss how I can help. A bientôt!