Ukraine Conference: Support Also for Universities and Historical Monuments
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During the conference, NRW Science Minister Ina Brandes announced a new project titled “DniPRONrw” to be funded with around 100,000 euros starting in 2025. The project is led by Prof. Björn Rothstein from the German Department of Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and Elena Resch from the UA Ruhr Liaison Office for Eastern Europe/Central Asia. The aim of the project is to help rebuild educational offerings and structures at universities in the Dnipro region. “We will contribute training and educational offerings to close the gaps caused by the war-induced personnel shortages and thus relieve the teaching staff at Ukrainian universities,” says Prof. Björn Rothstein.
The project gives Ukrainian lecturers access to digitally available courses from the participating UA Ruhr universities, which they can use and further develop; their students can count these courses as digital guest listeners towards their studies. Additionally, discussions with Ukrainian partners will address how AI and freeware can support teaching.
The exchange of digital courses within the participating Ukrainian universities will also be promoted.
“DniPRONrw can draw on established German-Ukrainian networks – like the partnership between Donetsk-Vinnytsia-Essen-Bochum, intercultural German learning and teaching cooperation projects, or Ukraine Peer (up!), teacher training through digi-Fellowships, or even collaboration with the Ukrainian Association of German Teachers and German Philologists,” says Elena Resch, head of the UA Ruhr Liaison Office for Eastern Europe/Central Asia. The funding for the new project is not only an incentive to continue supporting Ukraine, but also recognition of UA Ruhr’s commitment.
Digital models of Ukrainian monuments
In the second funding project, “Engagement Global” with funds from the State Government supports a project at TU Dortmund University, which scans significant historical buildings in the NRW partner region and generates digital models from them. The architectural group Skeiron, based in Lviv, Ukraine, had specialized in the digital recording of buildings and cultural objects even before the war. Since 2022, they have been creating digital twins with the purpose of documenting important monuments to be able to reconstruct them in case of destruction by Russia. Additionally, these digital twins can make the up-to-now relatively unknown Ukrainian architectural heritage known worldwide.
A first exhibition, facilitated by the Cultural Heritage Protection Network Ukraine/Ukraine Art Aid Center, took place in September 2023 at the Baukunstarchiv NRW in Dortmund. Now, Prof. Wolfgang Sonne and Prof. Barbara Welzel from TU Dortmund University presented the project at the Ukraine Conference. More newly recorded buildings will be presented in an exhibition at the Landtag (State Parliament) in Düsseldorf, which will open on 11 March 2025.
