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The Leibniz Science Campus “Eastern Europe – Global Area” (EEGA), initiated by the IfL and Leipzig University, will be funded for another four years. The Leibniz Association is providing around 800,000 euros for the second phase of the cooperation project.

“After four years of successful work, the approval of the second funding phase is a sign of confidence in our concept of networking young scientists internationally,” explains Sebastian Lentz, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) and one of the spokespersons of the EEGA Campus. Since its foundation in 2016, the joint project has increased the international visibility of the Leipzig-Halle-Jena Science Region by stimulating regional and supra-regional research collaborations on the topic of globalisation in Eastern Europe. With this approval, the Leibniz Association now takes positive stock of the networking, publications, events and activities through the EEGA.

In future, nine partners will work together on the campus: the universities of Leipzig, Halle-Wittenberg and Jena, the Leibniz Institutes for Regional Geography (IfL, Leipzig), for Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO, Halle), for History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO, Leipzig), for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow (DI, Leipzig), the Fraunhofer Centre for International Management and Knowledge Economy (IMW, Leipzig) and the Max Planck Institute for Ethnological Research (Halle).

Research focuses on the question of how societies and actors in Eastern Europe position themselves in global processes and conflicts. To this end, the participating researchers work closely with colleagues in Eastern Europe and jointly accompany the social discourse on the region. A fixed component of the campus is also the regular exchange with the public and the communication of research results to the media. Twice a year, the Campus invites to the EEGA Science Lounge.

A newly established research area will focus on populist movements and regimes in the second funding period of the EEGA Science Campus. Here, the scientists expect synergy effects with the newly founded Social Cohesion Research Centre, a research association of eleven institutions in ten German states, which was founded in 2019. At the Leipzig location, an interdisciplinary research group is working on, among other things, the manifold manifestations of populism from the 19th century to the present.
With the new funding period, there are 25 Leibniz Science Campi nationwide, in which Leibniz Institutes, universities and often other research institutions work together on an equal footing. The Leibniz Association, one of Germany’s major research organisations, thus aims to provide targeted support for cooperation between university and non-university research.