Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT) becomes the main shareholder in Jacobs University Bremen (JUB)
BREMEN, Germany, September 23, 2021 – Schaffhausen Institute of Technology (SIT) has announced it has become the main shareholder in Jacobs University Bremen. A partnership between SIT and Jacobs University Bremen will drive interdisciplinary science, technology and education in Europe and beyond.
Headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, SIT offers Master’s, Ph.D. and PostDoc programs at the intersection of eight focus areas: Quantum Technology, Advanced Materials, Software Engineering, Machine Intelligence and Computer Science (MICS), Quantum Business Science (QuBus), Life Sciences, Autonomous Systems and Robotics, Cyber Protection and Information Integrity. According to Serguei “SB” Beloussov, Founder and Chairman of the Board of SIT and Founder of Swiss-Singaporean tech unicorn Acronis, “Both SIT and JUB are places of interdisciplinary excellence in science, technology and education.” Furthermore, Beloussov is convinced that “SIT’s scientific excellence in eight focus areas will add tremendous value to Bremen’s ecosystem - Automotive, Aerospace, Logistics and Sea Port, Life Sciences - that could leverage new insights from autonomous driving and robotics, cyber security and integration systems, business sciences and more.”
The deal was strongly supported by the SIT Strategic Advisory Board, which lists eight professors from the world’s best universities and two industry experts, including Nobel Prize Winner in Physics Konstantin Novoselov, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Wolfgang Wahlster - founding director German AI Research Center, Mikhail Lukin - professor at Harvard, Andrea C. Ferarri - professor at Cambridge, Arthur Ekert - professor at Oxford, Nicolas Gisin - professor at University of Geneva, Serguei Netessine - vice dean of Wharton School of Business, Mark Kamlet - professor and former provost of Carnegie Mellon and others.
Wolfgang Wahlster, founding director and long-time CEO and scientific director of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), as well as the newest SIT Strategic Advisory Board member, said he is “excited to see how this partnership will spearhead the region’s competence in quantum technologies, smart materials and AI.”
“Jacobs University has a unique tradition and atmosphere. SIT is a vibrant and bold new institute focusing on technology and applied sciences. I am excited to see that those two institutions will now join forces to innovate education and research,” says Wolfgang Ketterle, a German Nobel prize winner in physics and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
SIT will implement at Jacobs a new hybrid teaching approach that would enable the university to grow the number of students and become self-sustainable without having to expand its physical campus. The university is expected to generate its own funding and be mindful of its branding, reputation management, marketing, and sales expenses. Together with SIT, the university will launch an institute for advanced studies focused on its eight focus areas.
Andrea Herzig-Erler and Professor Thomas Auf der Heyde, Managing Directors of Jacobs University, say: “We welcome the decision of the Senate of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen to approve the sale of the majority shares held by the ‘Association for the Promotion of Scientific Research in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen’ to the Schaffhausen Institute of Technology Genossenschaft. With SIT as the new majority shareholder, along with the other shareholders – the Jacobs University Bremen Alumni & Friends Foundation and the Reimar-Lüst Foundation – as well as Jacobs University, with its more than 420 employees in research, teaching, and administration, there is now a common perspective for a sustainable and successful future.”
These opportunities will arise thanks to the SIT extensive network of companies, including SIT Campus, SIT StartGarden, SIT Autonomous, SIT Capital, SIT Alemira, SIT Academy and SIT Rolos, that will bring JUB new corporate collaborations, startups, joint research projects, and entrepreneurial ventures.
The SIT Campus will offer state-of-the-art services, software, and technologies developed and adopted to move research, education, and business operations beyond traditional university management. SIT campus will be a unique example in continental Europe, attracting the best students, scientists, and technologists worldwide.