Prof. Dr. Andrew Hurrell from the University of Oxford has been appointed Academic Director on the Oxford side of the Oxford/Berlin research partnership since May 1, 2021. Following the appointment of Prof. Dr. Çiğdem İşsever as Academic Director in Berlin at the beginning of the year, the academic dual leadership of the partnership between the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) and the University of Oxford is now complete. Together, they are responsible for the academic orientation of the partnership and support researchers from Berlin and Oxford in getting joint projects off the ground. They will also coordinate the Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), where researchers from Berlin and Oxford are conducting research on the Grand Challenge Initiatives "Social Cohesion" and "Global Health".

Political scientist Andrew Hurrell is professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and has been a member of the British Academy since 2011. His research interests include the history of thought on international relations and global governance theories. Andrew Hurrell was a visiting fellow at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) in 2015 and is currently working closely with researchers from Berlin as an Einstein visiting fellow in the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS) "I know Berlin as an inspiring and creative city for world-class research, and, as Co-Director of the Research Partnership, I look forward to bringing Oxford and Berlin even closer together. Through our collaboration we will empower the most talented researchers in Europe and beyond to tackle the great challenges of our time," says Andrew Hurrell.

The partnership of the BUA partner institutions, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, with the University of Oxford is aimed at facilitating excellent and interdisciplinary research collaboration between Berlin and Oxford and at helping to overcome institutional and international boundaries.