Ulla Saari, Postdoctoral Researcher from the Tampere University in Finland, was a visiting researcher for six months at the Institute of Human Resources andWork Organisation at the Technical University of Hamburg (TUHH). Ulla Saari is the first visiting academic at TUHH granted with the ECIU (European Consortium of InnovativeUniversities) ResearcherMobility Fund of €5.000. With this fund, the ECIU, a close-knit network of 13 research-intensive universities, promotes academic cooperation and exchange amongst the ECIU member universities. The aim is to strengthen research in the fields of science, technology and innovation.
"The mobility program provides a great opportunity to establish international contacts and build research networks"
says Ulla Saari from the Laboratory of Industrial and InformationManagement. Together with Professor Christian Ringle and doctoral students at the TUHH, she has been working with the statistical software tool SmartPLS. The SmartPLS enables the mapping and analysis of variance-based structural equation models using an intuitive graphical user interface. The postdoctoral researcher would like to establish the software tool also at her home institution. “The use of methods and software leads to co-operation in common research projects”,explains Ulla Saari and refers thereby also to the mutual benefit from the ECIUResearcher Mobility fund. At the end of August, Professor Christian Ringle also did a teaching visit to the Tampere University and conducted there a course on PLS-SEM modelling with SmartPLS.
The ECIU is the world's leading consortium of research-oriented universities with a focus on innovation, creativity and society. In close cooperation with the thirteen international member universities, the aim is to promote a knowledge-based economy and promote the exchange of students and researchers. The ECIU was founded in 1997 by the TUHH and nine other universities.
Each ECIU member university has put €20.000 aside for mobility grants. Researchers are invited to apply for a travel grant of up to 5.000 Euros for a stay at one of the 13 partner universities in Europe and inMexico.