The Erasmus Mundus project ELECTRA has been launched in 2012 to foster the cooperation between the European Union and their Eastern Neighbouring countries to tackle environmental, energy and sustainable development issues through research, education and innovation.

During the academic years 2013-2017 the project awards 248 grants to students, researchers and staff for visits in partner universities. Study, research and job opportunities are available for citizens of European Union and nationals from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarusia, Georgia and Ukraine.

On the kick-off meeting held in November 2012 all partners agreed on specific research and study fields like there are environment information management systems, resource and waste management, renewable energy, land use management and biodiversity.

Source: www.electra-project.eu

On 18 October 2012, the project partners of the EU project Groen Gas (Green Gas) met for the kick-off meeting at the Papenburg shipyard.

The project is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the project partners with a total volume of EUR 10.0 million as part of the Interreg IV A programme. These include the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the provinces of Drenthe, Groningen, Friesland, Overijssel and Gelderland as well as the Federal States of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. A total of 63 partners from business, research and public authorities are working together in 18 sub-projects to eliminate bottlenecks in the value chain. This involves topics such as the centralised processing of biogas into green gas, laws and regulations, infrastructural opportunities and problems, innovations in the use of green gas as a transport fuel, industrial raw material or as normal natural gas.

The University of Oldenburg is involved in four sub-projects with total funding of EUR 500,000. Dr Thomas Klenke and Dr Alexandra Pehlken from COAST are leading and coordinating three sub-projects, working closely with the Department of Information Systems - Very Large Business Applications headed by Prof Marx Gómez. The research will focus on the sustainability assessment of the technology, for which newly developed software will be used. The fourth sub-project, entitled A level playing field for the European green gas/biogas market, is headed by Prof Dr Eisennack (Chair of Environmental and Development Economics).

Further information: groengasproject.eu

Source: blog.coast.uni-oldenburg.de

As an EU educational programme, the Tempus programme has been supporting the further development and reform of the higher education sector in partner countries since 1990. The aim of the MSC.ESE (Exporting Master Programme in Enterprise Systems Engineering to Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt) project is to develop a Master's degree programme in Enterprise Systems Engineering to strengthen the design, development, introduction, use and maintenance of operational socio-technical application systems. This network comprises a total of 13 partners from the EU and the southern Mediterranean region. As part of the MSC.ESE project, a successful kick-off meeting was held on 13 and 14 November 2012 at the German Jordanian University in Amman, Jordan.

In the form of Curriculum Invoking Bologna-aligned Education Leading to reform in Environmental Studies (CIBELES) TEMPUS project, the Business Information Systems in Oldenburg University had successfully organised a workshop regarding doctoral schools establishments in Central Asia and Caucasus Partner Universities. This workshop had guests from:

• Ilia State University, Georgia
• Urgench State University, Uzbekistan
• A.Baitursynov Kostanai State University, Sefullin Kazakh Agro-Technical University and Kokchetau State University, Kazakhstan
• Turkmen State University, Turkmenistan
• Issyk-Kul State University and Osh Technological University, Kyrgyzstan
• Tajik National University, Tajikistan.

The main theme of this workshop was to present and discuss the guidelines and best practices of how to establish structured doctoral PhD programmes. Prof. Dr. Jorge Marx Gómez and Dipl. -Inf. Tariq Mahmoud from the Very Large Business applications (VLBA) department had organised this event from 24th till the 26th of October 2012. Invited speakers: Prof. Dr. Bernd Siebenhüner, Prof. Dr. Heinz Welsch, Dr. Roland Hergert, Julia Rudman and Nils Giesen had held presentations in this workshop about their expertise in PhD studies.

As part of the recently approved project "Developing and Stengthening Industry-driven Knowledge-transfer between developing Countries" (DASIK for short), the kick-off meeting with all partners will take place at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in the week from 5 - 11 November. The project focuses on the knowledge transfer of competences in the field of business information systems (enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, business process management, business environmental information systems and mobile computing) for companies in South Africa.

On Sunday, a delegation consisting of the project coordinator Prof Dr Jorge Marx Gómez, Prof Dr Andreas Winter, three employees from the VLBA department and representatives of the German companies ecco Unternehmensberatung GmbH and IMBC GmbH will travel to Port Elizabeth together with a guest from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The kick-off meeting will be organised there by colleagues from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) under the auspices of the VLBA department. Representatives of the South African companies and branches of ICT Incubator, IBM, Microsoft, Ovations Group, SAP, SYSPRO and VW are among those invited.

We are pleased to inform you, as students of the University of Oldenburg, about an additional offer from our Business Information Systems / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) department in cooperation with SAP Education.

In addition to our regular courses with SAP content, we are offering students from the University of Oldenburg and all other universities in Germany the exclusive opportunity to take part in a training course including official SAP certification. The course from 11 March to 22 March 2013 and a subsequent certification exam is aimed at students from all degree programmes and Schools.

TERP10 stands for "Training Enterprise Resource Planning in 10 days" and is offered as a two-week block course regularly during the lecture-free period. During the course, you will acquire knowledge in the field of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and also gain practical experience in working with SAP systems. The course concludes with an examination to become an "SAP Certified Solution Architect ERP-Integration of Business Processes". After passing the exam, you will receive an official SAP certificate that is fully recognised on the job market.

Of course, we are also available for personal counselling Andreas Solsbach or Dirk Peters. Registration for the TERP10 course is now open.

We hope you enjoy the course and look forward to welcoming you to one of our next events.

On Wednesday, 10 October 2012, the founding members of the newly established Bremen - Oldenburg Material and Energy Flows Working Group met for the first time at the Department of Information Systems - Very Large Business Applications. The working group brings together expertise in the field of material and energy flows from the Institutes at Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the University of Bremen and Carl von Ossietzky University. The research departments are directly involved:

• Department of Technology Design and Technology Development at the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen (headed by Prof. Dr Arnim von Gleich)
• Institute for Integrated Product Development at the Faculty of Production Engineering at the University of Bremen (headed by Prof. Dr Klaus-Dieter Thoben)
• Institute for Environmental and Biotechnology at Bremen University of Applied Sciences (headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. H. Albers) in cooperation with the Institute for Energy and Circular Economy (headed by Dr Martin Wittmaier)
• Department of Information Systems - Very Large Business Applications (headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jorge Mary Gómez)

Among other things, the meeting dealt with joint activities in teaching (use of life cycle assessment software) and interdisciplinary research ideas focussing on material and energy flows. The working group now meets regularly once a quarter and will alternate between the participating institutions. Contact: Dr Alexandra Pehlken(alexandra.pehlken@uni-oldenburg.de)

The C.v.O. University is currently launching a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which is investigating which skills small and medium-sized enterprises need in order to successfully develop the topic of sustainability for their organisations. The result of the project should be customised qualification offers for companies in the region.

As part of the project, the participating companies have the opportunity to comprehensively assess the state of affairs on the topic of sustainability for their own organisation and, if necessary, to develop existing opportunities for corporate management oriented towards sustainable goals for themselves - the participating companies can therefore benefit very directly from the project.

Anyone wishing to take part can do so free of charge.
The contact person for the project is Meike Cordts / 0441 - 77905120441 - 7790512).

The former doctoral scholarship holder Mahmoud Amer successfully completed his thesis defence on Thursday, 04.10.2012 on the topic "Measuring Electronic Service Quality in the Business-to-Business Domain". Mahmoud Amer had been a doctoral scholarship holder of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation since 1 October 2008 and was supervised by the Department of Information Systems / VLBA. The examining board consisted of Prof Dr Jorge Marx Gómez (1st reviewer), Prof Dr Thorsten Raabe (2nd reviewer), Dr Ute Vogel (WiMi representative) and Prof Dr Andreas Winter (Chair). After completing his thesis defence, the newly-awarded "Dr." hosted a celebratory reception. We would like to congratulate Mahmoud Amer and wish him all the best for his future career!

Over the next three years, the University of Oldenburg will be supporting partner universities in Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt in the introduction of Master's degree programmes in the field of business informatics.

"Exporting Master Programmes in Enterprise Systems Engineering to Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt" is the name of the project, which is headed by Oldenburg business informatics specialist Prof. Dr Jorge Marx Gómez. The European Union is providing around 1.1 million euros for its implementation through the EU university cooperation programme "Tempus IV". "Tempus IV" aims to modernise the higher education systems of EU neighbouring states - so-called target countries - in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East through joint projects.

In addition to the University of Oldenburg, the University of Magdeburg, the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave (Barcelos, Portugal), the Pompeu Fabra University Barcelona (Spain) and the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) are involved in the project. Of the target countries, two universities each in Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and Egypt are taking part in the project. "Our partners there are excellent universities that have the best prerequisites for establishing a promising and innovative degree programme," says Marx Gómez. He is also delighted that his project is the only one funded by Tempus IV that supports co-operation with Syria.

Over the next three years, the academics and experts will be developing a Master's degree programme in Information Systems that is based on the Bologna Process. They will design new teaching modules and seminars, but also incorporate courses, teaching materials and the expertise of the European partner universities. The speciality: Compared to other degree programmes in business informatics, a focus is placed on research, emphasises Marx Gómez. "The latest research results are incorporated into teaching and students are involved in research. In addition, modules on environmental and sustainability topics are also being developed - areas that have rarely been the subject of research in business informatics."

The first phase of the project will focus on the analysis, design and accreditation of the Master's degree programme in the target countries. This will be followed by intensive networking between business and universities as well as between academics. In addition, workshops and seminars will be organised at the EU partner universities to provide participants with the latest developments in the field of teaching and enable the exchange of research findings.

Source: uol.de/aktuelles/artikel/am/2012/08/02/wirtschaftsinformatik-eu-foerdert-projekt-mit-11-millionen-euro/

On 19-20 June 2012, the symposium "Sustainable material life cycles in wind energy - How sustainable is wind energy really?" took place at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst. The approximately 40 participants discussed questions from various areas of material flows in connection with wind energy in a relaxed atmosphere. International developments were presented by the keynote speaker on the first day, Jeetendra Bisht from Suzlon Energy Ltd, India, and the keynote speaker on the second day, Athanasia Arapogianni from EWEA, Brussels. Other sessions dealt with the topics of sustainability, life cycle considerations (including recycling), logistics and rotor blades. The successful symposium - organised by Dr.-Ing. Alexandra Pehlken, University of Bremen, and Dipl.-Wirt. Inform. Andreas Solsbach, University of Oldenburg - research and projects from the field were presented during the two-day workshop. The event was supported and sponsored by ForWind, the Centre for Wind Energy Research and the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst.

The Department of Information Systems I / VLBA at the University of Oldenburg was selected alongside the University of Würzburg to conduct research on a HANA system provided by the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI). HANA is the name of SAP's new appliance platform, which uses a combination of hardware and software to enable data management and analysis based on in-memory technology that is many times faster than conventional systems. In this context, the University of Oldenburg's "Smart Windfarm Control" project is analysing offshore wind farms in order to make the time-consuming maintenance of wind turbines more efficient, for example. On 24 May 2012, Professor Marx Gómez and two other members of staff visited the HPI in Potsdam for a workshop where they presented the project.

On 30 May 2012, a VLBA project outline was successfully presented to the PTJ. An idea in the field of wind energy was presented as part of the 6th Energy Research Programme.

The programme, which was developed under the leadership of the BMWi and with the participation of the BMU, BMELV and BMBF ministries, sets out the basic guidelines and priorities of the federal government's funding policy in the field of innovative energy technologies for the coming years and creates the conditions for ensuring that the restructuring of the energy supply in Germany can be environmentally friendly, safe and cost-effective. The VLBA was able to present the project idea convincingly and is now preparing a full proposal.

As part of the long-standing co-operation between the University of Oldenburg and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) Port Elizabeth in South Africa, Master's students Clayton Burger and Thabo Tlebere are currently visiting the Department of Business Information Systems VLBA. The Computing Science students are gaining a deep insight into the activities of the department through their thematic focus on Business Environmental Information Systems (BUIS) and are thus gathering valuable information as input for their final theses. They also have the opportunity to discuss with experts from the department and gain new experiences in a country that was previously unfamiliar to them.

On Tuesday 9 May 2012, a working group of Bolivian university lecturers from the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA, www.umsa.bo), the partner university of the Universities of Oldenburg and Bremen in La Paz (Bolivia), once again visited the faculty to find out about previous experiences of cooperation, particularly with regard to South-South-North relations. The focus here was on issues relating to the conditions for developing postgraduate programmes (doctoral programmes) and research projects. Elizabeth Salazar, Hugo Victor Chavez and Carlos Fernández Mariño. (DAAD scholarship holders of the international doctoral programme of the CEPIES Institute of the UMSA with the University of Bremen) discussed the specific conditions of such cooperation programmes and related research questions with the international doctoral candidates in Information Systems. Victor Hugo Chavez presented his empirical research project on security in virtual Latin American educational networks in detail. This meeting was part of a successful series of previous working consultations with the Department of Education and Educational Sciences at the University of Bremen (Prof. Dr Rolf Oberliesen), the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (Institute CEPIES) and the Department of Information Systems at the University of Oldenburg (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jorge Marx Gómez).

As users of smartphones, laptops and the like, we are obviously the only ones who enjoy technology, and for ever shorter (usage) periods of time. The audience and experts agreed on this on 10 May 2012 at the panel discussion organised by three students as part of their voluntary action week on the topic of "Green IT?" at the C.v.O University of Oldenburg under the moderation of Prof. Jorge Marx Gómez. Speakers Dr Gunnar Schomaker from the OFFIS Institute and Dr Ralph Hintemann from Borderstep Berlin began the evening by providing input from their research and demonstrating what is already possible today in terms of saving energy in servers (green IT trends, low-resource data storage). But the focus was also on the sustainability of the entire production chain. From the mining of raw materials - Dr Alexandra Pehlken from the University of Bremen spoke about "Rare Earths" - to the human and environmentally harmful cannibalisation of "old devices" in developing countries, there is still a lot to be done. The students are demonstrating a small but important approach with the old mobile phone collection campaign at the university until 15 May: "The mobile phones are professionally recycled by the company Dr. Handy in Germany and the proceeds for each old mobile phone go directly to the renaturation of the Lower Havel, the largest and most important inland wetland in western Central Europe," explained Sabine Lemke from NABU e.With good prospects: "Within 5 days, around 80 mobile phones had already been collected in the collection boxes," said Dietmar Kunze, Cecilia Homilius and Robert von der Ahe, the initiators of the campaign week with the support of the AStA of the University of Oldenburg.

We are pleased to inform you, as students of the University of Oldenburg, about an additional offer from our Business Information Systems / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) department in cooperation with SAP Education.

In addition to our regular courses with SAP content, we are offering students from the University of Oldenburg and all other universities in Germany the exclusive opportunity to take part in a training course including official SAP certification. The course from 20 August to 31 August 2012 and a subsequent certification exam is aimed at students from all degree programmes and Schools.

TERP10 stands for "Training Enterprise Resource Planning in 10 days" and is offered as a two-week block course regularly during the lecture-free period. During the course, you will acquire knowledge in the field of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and also gain practical experience in working with SAP systems. The course concludes with an examination to become an "SAP Certified Solution Architect ERP-Integration of Business Processes". After passing the exam, you will receive an official SAP certificate that is fully recognised on the job market.

Of course, we are also available for personal counselling Andreas Solsbach or Dirk Peters. Registration for the TERP10 course is now open.

We hope you enjoy the course and look forward to welcoming you to one of our next events.

Pablo Michel Marín Ortega from the partner university Universidad Central de las Villas (Cuba) will be a guest at the Department of Information Systems I / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) at the University of Oldenburg from 5 April to 5 May 2012.

During this time, he will present his research as part of his dissertation ("Framework for designing a business intelligence") and work on projects at the institute. His stay is supported and funded by the Developing Sustainability project.

The DAAD Alumni Summer School 2012 in Environmental Management Information Systems and Sustainable Development covers topics from the fields of BUIS, business environmental informatics, sustainable development and IT for Green. Many projects in this field have already been carried out at the University of Oldenburg and funded by the DAAD. Through these projects, a network of international partners from the Universidad de Quintana Roo (Mexico), Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (South Africa), University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Universidad Central de las Villas (Cuba) and the Institute of Technology Surabaya (Indonesia) has been established. A strong international exchange has already taken place through this network. These partners, existing company networks and other specialist groups were involved in the public relations work and recruitment of participants for the summer school. The University of Oldenburg thus offers the 25 alumni from over 20 countries several days of both thematic and organisational exchange about their experiences in previous projects from research and business.

The DAAD Alumni Summer School 2012 will take place in Oldenburg from 14 to 22 April. This will be followed by a visit to the Hanover Trade Fair lasting several days. Here, the Oldenburg participants will meet the same number of "alumni" from Cottbus. The days at the Hannover Messe are organised directly by the DAAD.

Detailed information can be found on the English pages of the Summer School.

The Department of Information Systems / VLBA is looking forward to welcoming the participants of the DAAD Alumni Summer School 2012 in Oldenburg.

Last Tuesday, 3 April 2012, former research assistant at the Department of Information Systems / VLBA Daniel Süpke successfully completed his thesis defence on the topic of "Reference architecture for dialogue-based sustainability reporting in Web 2.0". The examining board consisted of Prof. Dr Jorge Marx Gómez, Prof. Dr Andreas Winter, Priv.-Doz. Dr habil. Ralf Isenmann and Dr Ute Vogel. After completing his thesis defence, the newly minted "Dr" hosted a celebratory champagne reception. We would like to congratulate Daniel Süpke and wish him all the best for his future career!

Brazil is the official partner country of CEBIT this year. In this context, the International Bureau of the BMBF has invited 27 ICT scientists from Brazil and other Latin American countries to Hanover.

On Friday 9 March 2012, the group will go on an excursion to Oldenburg and visit OFFIS in the morning, where Mr Serge Runge will give a lecture on the subject of smart grids.

Afterwards - from around 13:30 - the delegation will be welcomed by Prof Marx Gómez at the Department of Information Systems I / VLBA. Here, the delegation will exchange ideas with other scientists from the IT sector, as well as gain an overview of the international activities of the University of Oldenburg and opportunities for cooperation.

The EU-Erasmus project TARGET II(Transfer of Appropriate Requirements for Global Education and Technology) offers scholarships to citizens from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The project offers mobility scholarships for students and staff from Central Asia to European partner universities. The deadline for online applications was 29 February. The University of Oldenburg received a total of 185 applications from 170 applicants, including applications for scholarships for 125 Master's students, 45 doctoral candidates, 4 post-docs and 11 research assistants. The following chart shows the distribution of applications by country. The review of applications began on 1 March 2012. The final list of approved mobility scholarships is expected to be drawn up and announced in mid-April at the selection workshop of the TARGET II project, which will take place in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.

We are pleased to inform you that 50 students from all faculties have been invited by SAP AG to register for free CeBIT tickets. These free tickets for CeBIT 2012 for students at the CvO University of Oldenburg come from the SAP University Alliance Programme of SAP AG in co-operation with the Department of Information Systems I / VLBA headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jorge Marx Gómez.

• Registration by name, email address (eTickets) only at the Office of the VLBA department or by email to
• Registration deadline until Thu 23.02.2012 until 16:00.

The FIFO principle (First-In-First-Out) applies.

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In the week from 20 to 24 February 2012, this year's BUIS workshop will take place in the Department of Information Systems I / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) at the University of Oldenburg. In this context, we are pleased to welcome the following guest researchers to our department:

• Dr Luis Mejía-Ortíz, Universidad de Quintana Roo, Mexico,
• Dr Stella Maris Udaquiola, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, Argentina,
• Prof. Dr Carlos Pérez Risquet, Universidad Central "Marta Abreu" de Las Villas / Santa Clara, Cuba,
• Prof Dr Horst Junker, IMBC GmbH, Berlin,
  
• Priv.-Doz. Dr habil. Ralf Isenmann, University of Kassel.

As part of the BUIS workshop, further plans, strategies and extensions to the "Export Master's degree course in Business Environmental Informatics to Latin America" programme, which has been running successfully since 2008, will be discussed.

Prof. Dr Rafael Espin Andrade from the partner university in Havana (CUJAE - Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría / Havana, Cuba) will be a guest at the Department of Information Systems I / Very Large Business Applications (VLBA) at the University of Oldenburg from 24 January to 23 March 2012.

The visit to Europe's No. 1 photo service provider takes place as part of the seminar "Operational IT in practice", but is open to all interested parties. As places are limited, we would ask you to make a binding registration.

You can register either

• for the company tour only (08:30-10:30) or
• for the factory tour and the lecture series (08:30-16:00).

The factory tour includes a very interesting guided tour through the production facilities of CeWe Color AG. During the lecture series, experts from CeWe Color AG will speak on topics from production, sales, retail, etc. in the context of corporate IT.

Please register by 22 January 2012 at the latest via the following link:
www.doodle.com/mx3sx34a4e38cf2n .

Last Thursday, Prof Dr Michael von Hauff (University of Kaiserslautern) gave a presentation entitled "Zero Emission Park - a cross-state project for the development of sustainable industrial estates in Germany" as part of the CENTOS Forum (Sustainable Business).

Prof Dr Michael von Hauff has kindly made his presentation slides available for download (PDF).

As part of the CENTOS Forum (Sustainable Management), we cordially invite you to a lecture by Prof Dr Michael von Hauff (University of Kaiserslautern) entitled "Zero Emission Park - a transnational project for the development of sustainable business parks in Germany".

The lecture will take place at the University of Oldenburg on 12 January 2012, 18:00 - 20:00 in A 14, Lecture Hall 3.

We would be very pleased about your participation.

Download poster (PDF)