With the implementation of a.r.t.e.s. EUmanities into the existing structure of the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School, both the individual careers of the programme fellows and the whole institutional structure have achieved a sustainable impact on the regional, national and international level.
First and foremost, with the research projects selected under a.r.t.e.s. EUmanities the programme has funded in-deep research on the most challenging contemporary questions in the Humanities, relating to the most interesting research fields in the respective disciplines and to manifold areas of application in and beyond academia. The research results have been continuously disseminated in form of academic and non-academic publications, through the ESRs’ participation in conferences, workshops and public events, and as well as in individual intersectoral actions and through manifold cooperation with academic and non-academic partners.
The rich academic and intersectoral outreach of the fellows shows the impact of the innovative and ambitious training programme towards the overall objective of a.r.t.e.s. EUmanities to enable the ESRs to become aware of the relevance and potential of their research to substantially enrich public debates towards the formation of more inclusive, innovative and reflective societies in the EU and worldwide.
Moreover, through the improvement of transferable skills the programme strived to enable the ESRs to act as experts and mediators in public discourse und to contribute to societal debates by revealing new ways of interpretation from an, for instance, anthropological, epistemological and ethical point of view and with regard to the most challenging ideas of our time, e.g. on migration, technology, environment and populism.
The programme will have a sustainable and long-term impact on the whole institutional structure of the University of Cologne’s a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School, especially in regard to the following aspects:
- The selection and evaluation procedures including external experts and innovative eligibility criteria (minimizing the risk of background related bias and disadvantages during the selection procedure).
- The extension of the international partner network that will be further strengthened by concluding sustainable and long-time research cooperation.
- The vision of an intersectoral outreach of early stage research in the Humanities regarding both career orientation for the non-academic sector and towards the application of excellent research in the Humanities to non-academic contexts and challenging societal questions.
