Success with Philipp Schwartz initiative - Endangered scientist comes to Trier

Trier University of Applied Sciences thus received one of a total of 26 available grants out of 91 nominations by universities in Germany. "We are very pleased to welcome a Philipp Schwartz Fellow for the first time this year. As a cosmopolitan university, it is important to us to stand up for the freedom of science and to welcome persecuted researchers. The Philipp Schwartz Initiative offers us an ideal platform for this," says Prof. Dr. Stefan Diemer, Vice President for Research.

The fellowship will be awarded to an at-risk researcher from Cameroon, who will be given the opportunity to study the effect of therapeutic theatre in dealing with mental illness at the Gestaltung Campus from October 2021. Together with students from Trier University of Applied Sciences and regional theatre groups, he will develop a series of therapeutic theatre workshops, among other things. The researcher is supervised by Prof. Dr. Linda Breitlauch: "I am very impressed by his scientific work so far. I consider the field of research at the interface of theatre, therapy and communication in the context of mental health to be extremely relevant. He will be a great asset to international research and teaching at Trier University." In addition to the academic supervision, the Fellow will also benefit from the numerous offers for foreign researchers at Trier University of Applied Sciences, from language courses for learning German to mentoring programmes and offers for further academic qualification and career planning. In this way, Trier University of Applied Sciences would like to enable researchers at risk to have a long-term career perspective in Germany.

The Philipp Schwartz Initiative was launched by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation together with the Federal Foreign Office and enables universities, universities of applied sciences and non-university research institutions in Germany to award fellowships for research stays to researchers at risk. This initiative is funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Klaus Tschira Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation, the Stifterverband and the Stiftung Mercator.