Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

ence and research has been flying high in Bremen and
Bremerhaven over the last two decades. It has been an
undisputed fact in the scientific community for a long
time, but now at the latest on giving Bremen University
the status of a University of Excellence in 2012, the general
public has also become aware of the fact that the State of
Bremen is one of Germany’s prime research locations.
In some areas, its universities, universities of applied
sciences, institutes and scientists are counted not just
among the best in the country but also among the best
in the world.
The State of Bremen has set clear accents here. To lead the
field in every sector is illusory, but not to belong to the
national or international lighthouses in certain areas.
Bremen puts the focus on five scientific sectors: marine
sciences, material sciences, information and communication
sciences, social sciences and healthcare sciences.
Close cooperation between all those concerned is an important
factor for success. Excellent multidisciplinary and
cross-institutional cooperation among the best scientists
prevails at institutions inside or outside the universities
and universities of applied sciences, in Bremen or Bremerhaven,
at state or private establishments.
The marine sciences are probably the best example. Here
it doesn’t matter whether researchers in Bremen belong to
the University’s Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences
(MARUM), the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology
(MPI), the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology
(ZMT) or whether their counterparts in Bremerhaven belong
to the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine
Research (AWI): it’s the issue that counts. Which role do the
oceans play in the earth’s climate system? What is the
effect of microorganisms in oceans and inland waterways?
What happens in tropical coastal eco-systems?
What kind of future will the reefs have? What do the Arctic
and Antarctic mean for our planet? These are the kind of
questions that the marine experts look into every day, with
activities that generate eye-catching answers. Diving
robots, research ships, polar stations: marine scientists
from Bremen and Bremerhaven are on the scene wherever
answers are being found to fundamental questions of our
planet.
Material sciences cover the full range from the single atom
to a huge component. A large number of renowned institutes
inside and outside the universities and universities of
applied sciences are very successful in this field, thanks
among others to their intensive cooperation. The large
number of institutions cover practically all areas. Whether
it’s a case of researching and developing one single
material right down into the very last detail or creating
completely new, more efficient production facilities and
processes, the solution often comes from Bremen or
Bremerhaven. The Institute of Materials Science (IWT), the
Frauenhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and
Advanced Materials (IFAM Bremen) and the Frauenhofer
Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology
(IWES Bremerhaven), the Bremen Institute for Applied
Beam Technology (BIAS) or the Bremen Fibre Institute
(FIBRE) are just a few examples for many of Bremen’s institutions
in this field. The solutions they produce are important
for the many branches of industry with which they
cultivate close relations: aviation and aerospace, wind
energy and environmental technology, the automotive
branch, shipping and many others benefit both from the
pure research and also from highly specific applicationbased
projects.
Activities naturally also repeatedly overlap with other
areas. Who knows that there’s a lunar surface in Bremen?
The Space Exploration Hall of the German Research Centre
for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is the setting for the development
and testing of mobile robot systems that will perform
complex tasks on land, on water, in the air or in outer
space for complex tasks, with a natural proximity to the
material sciences or communication and information
technologies. Another section of the DFKI also develops
systems to assist in everyday situations, such as electric
wheelchairs and Rollator walkers, so that the DFKI is also
involved in Bremen’s focal area of healthcare sciences. This
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