Again Technische Universität Dortmund proves successful in an advanced field of research: on 1st April the “Graduate-Cluster for Industrial Biotechnology” starts as a joint post-graduate school of TU Dortmund and the universities Bielefeld and Düsseldorf. The Europe-wide biggest PhD-program in this field of research is embedded in the NRW-network “CLIB2021 Cluster Industrial Biotechnology”. TU Dortmund is the speaker university of this unique PhD program. The program, ending in December 2012, allows 84 young scientists – 28 of them in Dortmund – to take their doctoral degrees on the internally highest level. The North Rhine-Westphalian Innovation Ministry supports the 7.2-million euro project with 4.1 million Euros. The rest of the money comes from the universities and the biotechnology companies organized in CLIB2021.
“With the new graduate cluster TU Dortmund and its two partner universities become the first international address for highly-qualified young researchers in industrial biotechnology”, TU-rector Prof. Ursula Gather is delighted. And Prof. Gerhard Schembecker, speaker of the new post-graduate college, accentuates that, above all, the close interaction with the industrial practice is a unique feature of the new graduate program. The research orientation towards questions relevant for the industry and the involvement of companies in the education are integral components of the post-graduate program”, states the Professor for Plant and Process Design at TU Dortmund.
In Dortmund the bio- and chemical engineers work together with renowned partners like Bayer and Evonik. But small high-tech companies from the periphery of the university like, for example, the “bitop AG” in Witten or “InterMed Discovery GmbH”, situated at the BioMedizinZentrumDortmund (BMZ), are also among the cooperation partners. Here the university benefits from the contacts within the network CLIB2021 which joins chemical industry, young biotechnological companies as well as science institutes in NRW and which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research with 20 million Euros.
The 84 participants of the post-graduate program are selected by means of international tendering and highly-qualified students, among others, from the fields chemistry, biology, process engineering or medicine can make an application. The young scientists are funded by a monthly grand in the amount of 1.500 Euros.
Thematically the cluster is based on four technology fields. In the field “Polyomics” the research program deals with the question how processes within a cell can be influenced in such a way that they specifically generate requested products. In the context of the field “Expression” it is examined, how these products can be transported through the cell walls, so that they can, for example, be used as catalysts or enzymes. In the third field, the “Biocatalysis”, it is tried to use the product produced in the cells – or even the whole cell – for new chemical reactions, for example, to produce primary products for plastic from regrowing natural resources. And the purpose of the field “Processing” finally is to create suitable methods to separate byproducts or pollutants which emerge during biochemical reactions.