IEE Newsletter No. 33

Editorial

Dear Reader,

If you follow the news about Corona, you can see that the pandemic is far from being over. We learned that UN’s DGS, Amina Mohammed, was right when she stated in August last year that “no one is safe, until everyone is”. The international campaigns providing poor countries with vaccines gives hope in that regard; however, the limited global production capacity suggests that it will take time before everybody is safe and we can all return to a new normal.

During the last six Corona-months, the IEE team had to continue working from home, teaching and communicating online. In addition, we had to cancel the MADM start at the University of the Western Cape and integrated the students designated to study in South Africa into the RUB start. As students and lecturers never meet in person - only via video conferencing - the current cohort studies under conditions we all are not used to. However, thanks to the students’ extraordinary motivation and high willingness to perform, we were able to master the first online semester together and did it much better than I expected. We even found internship placements for all students; which, in such difficult times, is a great achievement.

Corona did not only affect teaching at the IEE but also research. Research is a lonely task per se and - in times of home office and isolation - becomes an even greater challenge. The IEE’s PhD researchers also suffered. We are very happy that they continued to stay in touch via cluster presentations and online meetings, which were enriched by Boaventura Monjane who stayed at IEE as a visiting scholar between 15.4. and 15.6.2021.

In the preceding newsletter, we told you about the new EU-funded European Joint Doctorate (EJD) ADAPTED that IEE is coordinating. Given the fierce competition in HORIZON 2020 programs (rejection rate in this call was 88%), we are particularly proud of this great success. ADAPTED is a consortium of principle investigators from European and associated universities, who, together with 15 PhD researchers will explore new pathways to eradicate poverty. Over the last months, we were busy with project-related paperwork and – out of 300 international applications – we now have selected the 15 PhD researchers who will work with us for the coming years. A special thanks to the IEE Alumni who shared the information about the vacancies with their networks! The current issue of this newletter provides some insights into the makeup of the consortium while future newsletters will report on the research done within the EJD ADAPTED.

Enjoy reading about our recent activities and stay healthy!

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Löwenstein

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