Under the auspices of the European universities united in the Aurora Alliance, the University of Innsbruck organised a completely unique Erasmus double BIP (Blended Intensive Programme) from 20 to 25 October 2024. More than 40 educators, scientists and administrative staff from Palacký University, the University of Innsbruck, the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Université Paris-Est Créteil, the University of Iceland and, last but not least, the Universitat Rovira i Virgili combined the two areas of the project. It became clear that the natural sciences, mainly represented in the Sustainable Development and Climate Change working group, and the humanities and social sciences, represented in the Culture: Diversity and Identity working group, have many common topics. Although it might seem that organic farming and manure management are not of interest to literary scholars, the opposite was the case. The point of contact in this case was ecocriticism and natural resources, both from the point of view of conservation and their embedding in literature and culture.
During the first four days, the scholars worked on multidisciplinary research projects and joint teaching activities (such as COIL – cooperative international learning), distance learning programmes or bilateral cooperation. As Dean Janette Walde noted, ‘It’s incredible how many ideas and possibilities for implementation can arise in such a short time!’ Added one of the main organisers, Prof. Barbara Buchenau from the University of Duisburg: ‘The beautiful backdrop of the Austrian mountains and the seclusion of the venue are balm for the soul, which uses the power of nature to fully develop scientific ideas.’
During the first part, students from various fields of study, from chemistry to medicine to literary history, had the opportunity to learn about the methodology of scientific work. The main focus, however, was on getting to know the so-called 3MT presentations. This is a format that was originally developed at the University of Queensland in Australia and enables a very compact presentation of scientific work, including the results. Handouts are not allowed. The authors can only modulate their voices and have only one static PowerPoint slide. Ask yourself if you could present your research in this limited space in three minutes. Isn’t that impossible? No. After a few hours of proper coaching by Suzanne Whitby and Toby Wikström, tentative first attempts turned out to be top performances in scientific mini-stories.
The absolute highlight of the entire week of events was the competition on Friday, in which the international jury evaluated the already outstanding performances of all the finalists. The evaluation was not easy, because all the participants showed enormous courage in performing in front of a multidisciplinary audience that was eagerly awaiting their presentations. In the end, the competition had three winners! The first, Marharyta Hodeieva, represented Palacky University with her lecture ‘How to heal with stories’. Another colleague, Stéphanie Chedid from the Université Paris-Est Créteil, won the audience award and impressed the jury with her lecture ‘Travel: from plants to airplanes’. The third gold medal went to Juliette Direur from the University of Paris, who talked about ‘The dangers of breathing’.
The organisation of the meeting, led by Christina Raab and Katerina Hochstaffl-Nazarova, ran like a well-oiled machine, for which they deserve a big thank you, because without their enthusiasm and patience, this successful double BIP would not have been possible. See you next year at another Aurora University.
