ICC Water & Health Foundation Symposium

20. May 2019, 15:00 in the Festsaal of the Karl Landsteiner Private University for Health Sciences

The founding symposium of the Inter-University Cooperation Centre Water and Health (ICC Water & Health - ICC W&H) was held on 20 May 2019 as part of the series of talks on health perspectives at the Karl Landsteiner Private University for Health Sciences (KL). This was the ceremony for the official founding of ICC W&H after the end of the funding period by competitively raised funds from the Ministry of Science's Higher Education Structure Fund (HRSM), which expired in May 2019. In the course of the HRSM, the participating university institutions, the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Wien), the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) and KL implemented the sustainable establishment of the ICC Water & Health. The ICC W&H developed on the basis of many years of successful cooperation between the participating researchers at TU Wien and MedUni Wien, and KL became its third partner in 2017. The three universities thus set up a centre that is dedicated to the topic of water quality and its significance for human health in a comprehensive way. The approach to this complex topic is based on excellent basic research and applied science, university and postgraduate teaching and training, and in particular on the development and implementation of proposed solutions to societal challenges at the national and international level.

The foreword to the festive occasion of the official founding of ICC W&H was spoken by the representatives of the three rectorates involved. Rector Rudolf Mallinger, Vice-Rector Michaela Fritz from MedUni Wien and Vice-Rector Johannes Fröhlich from TU Wien emphasized the importance of the network and praised the resulting research achievements. This was followed by a thematic introduction by the ICC leadership - the two co-leaders Prof.in Regina Sommer and Prof. Andreas Farnleitner. They presented the Centre's fields of activity, presented an overview of its achievements and research results over the past seven years. Afterwards, the leaders (Ao. Prof. Dr. Alfred Paul Blaschke, Prof. Dr. Andreas Farnleitner, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexander Kirschner and Ao. Univ.-Prof.in Dr.in Regina Sommer) of the four participating working groups presented the focus of their professional activities and their employees.

Dr. René Mayer, Dr.in Julia Derx, Dr.in Julia Vierheilig, Dr.in Sílvia Cervero-Aragó and Dr. Georg Reischer gave an overview of five selected research projects, quasi along the water cycle, from the source to the tap. The interested audience, which consisted of representatives from the three cooperating universities, colleagues from other higher education institutions such as the Technikum Wien, the IMC Fachhochschule Krems and the Danube University Krems, from authorities such as the provinces of Lower Austria, Vienna and Burgenland, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Agency for Health and Food Safety and EVN Wasser, followed the project presentations with interest.

The symposium was rounded off with a tour of the KL laboratory facilities. The symposium ended with animated conversations with bread rolls, wine, grape juice - and water.