About the Mercator Research Groups (MRG)
In a joint project with Stiftung Mercator, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum has established two “Mercator Research Groups”. In each Mercator Research Group three to four young professors form an independent research team supplied with state-of-the-art infrastructure, PhD students and generous funding. Each group is accompanied by a "Senior Scientists" of their own choice, who through his/her extensive experience can act as an advisor to the MRG professors. The leadership of the MRG, however, will remain exclusively in the hands of the MRG professors.
The first Mercator Research Group "Structure of Memory" started work in January 2010 and focusses on research in the neurosciences. Composed of experimental and theoretical neuroscientists as well as philosophers, the team investigates episodic and semantic memory processes and their relation to other cognitive functions.
The second Mercator Research Group “Spaces of Anthropological Knowledge – Production and Transfer” started its work at the end of 2010 and has got its research focus on the humanities and social sciences.
The total funding volume for the two Mercator Research Groups amounts to 10 Million Euro over a period of six years.
About the Ruhr-Universität Bochum
The Ruhr-Universität Bochum is one of Germany’s leading research universities. The university draws its scholarly strengths from both the diversity and the proximity of scientific disciplines on a single, coherent campus: the Life Sciences, the Natural Sciences, Engineering, the Social Sciences and the Humanities. This highly dynamic setting enables national and international students and researchers to work closely together in studying, teaching and research, and across traditional boundaries of academic subjects and departments. Host to app. 38,000 students and 5,600 staff, the university is a vital institution of the Ruhr area and one of the pillars of the University Alliance Metropolis Ruhr (UAMR).
About the Stiftung Mercator
Stiftung Mercator is a private foundation which fosters science and the humanities, education and international understanding. It specifically initiates, develops and funds projects and partner organizations in the thematic fields to which it is committed: it wants to strengthen Europe, improve integration through equal educational opportunities for everyone, drive forward the energy transition as a trigger for global climate change mitigation and firmly anchor cultural education in schools. Stiftung Mercator feels a strong sense of loyalty to the Ruhr region, the home of the founding family and the foundation’s headquarters.
