Press release: Southern Lower Saxony’s Welcome Centre poised and ready

Nr. 193/2017 - 10.10.2017

Partners develop a comprehensive concept to optimise their welcoming culture

(pug) The project partners of the "Welcome Centre of the Campus Göttingen and the Region of Southern Lower Saxony" have designed a structure for the future Welcome Centre. Alongside the central Welcome Centre – or "Gateway to the Region" – in the city of Göttingen, several regional offices are being set up in the districts of Göttingen and Northeim. Initiated and managed by Göttingen University, the project, which is being carried out in cooperation with the Southern Lower Saxony Foundation “SüdniedersachsenStiftung”, aims to professionalise the welcome packages for professionals and executives who arrive from other parts of Germany and from around the globe. The Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Labour and Transport will be supporting the project for an entirety of two years, providing a total of around € 350,000 from the European Social Fund. The partner network will be contributing approximately € 1.9 million in equity capital to the project.

"With this new structure, we are setting up centre for comprehensive and highly professional advisory and support services in South Lower Saxony. In this form, it should act as a model in the Federal Republic," says Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne, Vice President for International Affairs at Göttingen University and manager of the project.

The newly developed concept envisages a regional office for each administrative unit in the district of Göttingen: the “medium-level centres” in Duderstadt, Osterode and Hann.-Münden, as well as the “core centres” in Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg – also to serve the surrounding communities. The regional offices will be housed either within the citizen offices themselves or at one of the business promotion agencies. The district of Göttingen, as well as the city itself, also opened up and filled a joint post for the project as early as in June this year.

Rolf-Georg Köhler, the Lord Mayor of Göttingen, adds, "What we want to offer in terms of information, advice and services is not just the further development of Southern Lower Saxony as an attractive location. It empowers our welcoming and receptive culture, whilst adding outstanding workers, professionals, executives to the workforce alongside excellent scholars, scientists and researchers – all of whom will hopefully stay with us for years to come.“

“In addition to the SNIC (South Lower Saxony Innovation Campus), the Welcome Centre is a flagship for Southern Lower Saxony," said Göttingen’s District Administrator Bernhard Reuter, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the “SüdniedersachsenStiftung”, at the partner meeting for the project. “Within the framework of the Southern Lower Saxony programme, this project boasts excellent cooperation between districts, communities, companies and universities.”

In Northeim, a central regional office will be set up for the district of Northeim that is to be occupied as of October 2017. This is intended to offer the Welcome Centre’s services to professionals and executives who are interested in working in the district or have recently secured a new post. “The regional office in Northeim will manage the medium-level centres in Northeim, Einbeck, Bad Gandersheim and Uslar, as well as the other seven communities belonging to the district," says Stefan Wolfgang, head of the Staff Unit of Economic and Project Funding in the district of Northeim.

In addition to the regional offices, contact persons will be available within each of the communities. The regional offices will work closely with the head office of the Welcome Centre in Göttingen. This will be responsible, in particular, for coordinating the structure, maintaining the website and joint digital database, for ensuring marketing development and, when necessary, supporting international professionals and executives. Göttingen’s Welcome Centre will be staffed all day long with someone available to make initial contact with professionals and executives from all over the region.

More than 40 partners are behind the Welcome Centre project for the Göttingen Campus and Southern Lower Saxony region, including universities, economic enterprises, central associations and communities from the districts of Göttingen and Northeim, as well as the two cities and districts themselves. This innovative research and development project aims to combine and expand on existing offers at Göttingen University and the "SüdniedersachsenStiftung", whilst developing, testing and evaluating new opportunities for support and collaboration. The aim is to centre support around the scientists, scholars, researchers, professionals and executives coming to the region. Further information is available at www.welcome-to-suedniedersachsen.de.

Contact.:
Professor Hiltraud Casper-Hehne
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Vice President for International Affairs
Wilhelmsplatz 1, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)551 39-13110

Email: hiltraud.casper-hehne@zvw.uni-goettingen.de

Website:
www.uni-goettingen.de/de/vizepraesidentin-fuer-internationales-prof-dr-hiltraud-casper-hehne-/110984.html

The partners of the "Welcome Centre of the Campus Göttingen and the Region of Southern Lower Saxony" project from districts, communities, companies and science at the second partner meeting in Göttingen.