The Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft in the Netherlands is considered the largest faculty of its kind in Europe. The Aeronautics Research Centre Niedersachsen (NFL) in Braunschweig is an alliance of the aerospace engineering institutes of the TU Braunschweig, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH). Both universities, TU Delft and TU Braunschweig, carry out excellent research in aeronautics with a focus on sustainable flying. The agreement on a strategic partnership adds a new, far-reaching dimension to the existing cooperation.
On 7 February 2020, Professor Henri Werij, Dean of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at TU Delft, and Professor Rolf Radespiel, Chairman of the NFL, signed a joint declaration in Braunschweig. This defines common goals for their basic research, geared towards sustainability in aviation.
What is special about the agreement between the two universities is its quality: It goes far beyond customary university agreements, and establishes a particularly close cooperation. Both universities have agreed to share their research facilities and unpublished research data. The Memorandum of Understanding also introduces so-called cross-supervising, i.e. the scientific lead of research projects and the supervision of doctoral students at the partner university. In addition, the two parties will work together on student exchange, aimed in particular at Honours Students and interns.
“This is a special alliance of international partners at eye level: TU Delft has one of Europe’s leading faculties in aviation research. At TU Braunschweig, we are internationally visible and recognised with our top-level research in the Cluster of Excellence “Sustainable and Energy-efficient Aviation” (SE2A) and our collaborative research with DLR and LUH”, says Professor Radespiel.
Professor Werij: “These two universities are partners, because they both have a very strong drive to make aviation truly sustainable and recognize the need for collaboration to reach extremely ambitious goals. The fact that we have the same vision and speak the same language will make our partnership extremely powerful and fun at the same time.”
After the signing of the joint declaration between TU Braunschweig and Technische Universiteit Delft we talked to Professor Werij about the cooperation, the key issues in aviation research in the future and about flying to Braunschweig: youtu.be/l2GN4OP3nYM