Research at EURAC

These five very different research departments share a common denominator: flexible interdisciplinary co-operation between the researchers' of diverse scientific and geographic backgrounds.

 

At the EURAC, linguists and computer scientists work together to compile digital learning dictionaries, legal experts from various countries explore models of autonomy and federalism to ensure the protection of minorities in the enlarging European Union, while ecologists develop future scenarios for the development of the Alpine region together with economists.

In 2004 the EURAC has created EURAC education, the new centre for the specialised training. EURAC education organises masters, courses and seminars for managers and high-level employees.

 

The EURAC sees variety, competition and transparency as its guiding principles: its work and results are readily accessible to the public and are communicated through various media.

The internet column News reports daily on current conferences, research results and new publications, while the quarterly popular science magazine ACADEMIA is sent free of charge to over 6,500 subscribers. The EURAC Arbeitshefte/Quaderni series of publications is addressed primarily to the scientific community.  In addition, the research institutes present the results of their work in press conferences, press releases and public meetings. 

 

The EURAC's doors are also open to the public: the EURAC library and EURAC café are more than just meeting places for EURAC employees.  The institute also hosts public exhibitions, concerts, cinema, readings and science festivals (explOra!) at regular intervals.

EURAC library

In addition to its variety of perspectives, the EURAC is distinguished for its aim of finding a just equilibrium between local and international concerns.  South Tyrol has always been a meeting point for three linguistic and cultural areas, German, Italian and Ladin. Taking advantage of this privileged position, the EURAC is able to conduct projects of immediate local interest while simultaneously pursuing research of international scope. Its studies thus provide an important basis not only for South Tyrol's autonomy, but also for Cyprus or Kosovo. Similarly, the data from the Institute of Alpine Environment contribute to the Alpine Convention, whose Permanent Secretariat has its office of technical operations at the EURAC. All the institutes of the EURAC are involved in collaborative projects in close co-operation with other international research establishments. The institute's international character is especially noticeable in the diverse origins of its staff: 120 researchers from eleven different European countries are currently active at the EURAC.

The concept of "applied research" is of particular importance to the EURAC, where special attention is given to providing a modern, performance-oriented organisational structure and corporate culture. This helps not only to support the scientific process, but also to ensure that research has practical applications and comprehensible results.