A conversation between Beate Böckem, Head of Research Affairs, and Florence Balthasar, Head of International Affairs. Topics include cooperation, the diversity of research and their understanding of international research.
Beate Böckem: I perceived 2020 as a very intense year, which involved different and contradictory developments. On the one hand, we experienced a kind of standstill as a result of lockdown and the measures adopted to tackle the pandemic. On the other hand, certain research topics and areas pressed on unabated and gained a lot of momentum at the strategic level.
«I would therefore say 2020 was the year of increased access.»
Florence Balthasar: Yes, this was similar in my area. The existing international cooperations largely continued without difficulty. But consolidating fledgling partnerships proved more difficult. This also includes international research cooperation. We wanted to further develop certain cooperations in a targeted manner, which we still haven’t managed to do due to the circumstances. However, digitalised communication also has positive aspects. Take the ELIA 2020 Biennial: as a rule, no more than ten ZHdK representatives attend this important conference. Moving the event online, however, enabled many more members of our university to attend and benefit from the 2020 edition. I would therefore say 2020 was the year of increased access. But still: do you feel that some ZHdK departments and their disciplines have benefitted more from digitalisation than others?
Bea: Yes, that’s certainly my impression. Already in April 2020, the Research Affairs Office conducted a survey among researchers on how the pandemic was impacting research. The results revealed disciplinary differences. Consider, for example, those areas that are strongly tied to their research infrastructure or where digital data collection and access were only possible to a limited extent or not at all. Besides, some research areas are anchored chiefly at the national level and therefore face fewer restrictions than ones whose organisational logic requires them to transcend this local anchoring.
Florence: That makes sense. For me personally, artistic research is a new field. I find the understanding of interdisciplinarity within the arts and design at ZHdK very interesting, also because all of these artistic disciplines meet under the same roof here. Internationally, this makes us a strong and attractive partner for collaborations. In the future, we should highlight this asset even more and position ourselves where interdisciplinarity is relevant. In particular «Shared Campus» our international flagship project, focuses on interdisciplinary cooperation and holds great potential for possible research collaborations.
«Depending on the economic context different research areas are
supported nationally as well as internationally.»
Bea: What has not changed in the understanding of international research at ZHdK is the basic stance: considering the most diverse formats as independent, and creating good and logical access and opportunities for these formats. The pandemic, however, has changed things, especially in the visual and performing arts. Research in these disciplines has indeed been restricted in terms of opportunities, access and output. This has further heightened the challenge of securing research funding in these fields. Something else that I’ve noticed is not necessarily related to the pandemic. Depending on the economic context, different research areas are supported nationally as well as internationally. As far as possible, we need to balance the support for sought-after research topics and strengthen less popular ones.
Florence: This is also plainly evident at the EU level. Two areas in particular are strongly impacting the various research fields. One is sustainability, the other digitalisation. Thus, certain research areas are benefitting more than others because of their affinity with these two overarching topics. Unfortunately, artistic research belongs less to this privileged group. Nevertheless, it is important to keep working and perhaps also to find new international vehicles suited to promoting artistic research. We are currently examining how possible participation in a large European consortium in the «Cultural and Creative Industries» could benefit all disciplines at ZHdK.
Bea: At the national level, we are working with an association of research directors from Swiss art and design universities so as to transform our competitive relationship into a collaborative one. We are seeking to preserve the autonomy of universities while jointly establishing and expanding international connectedness. I am sure that we can make excellent use of our synergies to achieve this goal! As regards ZHdK's future strategy, we can learn from the past years. We ought not strictly separate the perspectives on international and research topics, but always keep in view the big picture, that is, international research. In this way, we will act in the interests of the relevant higher education actors.
Florence: After the current university-wide strategy ends in 2023, it would be really interesting to establish the common goals of the two dossiers and to build a strategic pillar for the next five years on that basis. I consider ensuring more international research opportunities as a common future task of our dossiers. It will, however, be important to weight the different areas and to prioritise them for resource reasons. In any case, I look forward to continuing our good cooperation.