Two female junior professors at Ulm University are being funded by the Margarete von Wrangell Junior Professorship Programme of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science. The junior professors Ani Grigoryan, an expert in stem cell ageing, and Rebecca Halbgebauer, who researches multi-organ failure after trauma, have been accepted onto the programme. Both can each employ a recently graduated scientist for three years to reinforce their research expertise.
Junior Professor Ani Grigoryan is researching ageing blood stem cells at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Ulm University. She heads her own junior research group in which she is investigating how bone marrow changes with age, to what extent it influences the ageing of haematopoietic stem cells and what the underlying mechanisms are. In 2024, she received an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council totalling 1.5 million euros for her work. Grigoryan is being funded in tandem with Dr Yuan Xia, who is investigating the effects of breast cancer metastases on the haematopoietic system. The 35-year-old Young female scientist studied medicine and obtained her doctorate in China and has previously conducted research as a post-doc in the Department of Haematology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Medicine (China).
Junior Professor Rebecca Halbgebauer and her junior research group are based at the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Trauma Immunology at Ulm University Hospital. Her research interests include trauma-induced acute kidney injury, the role of fatty tissue after trauma, systemic inflammation and the significance of haemorrhagic shock as a cause of post-traumatic barrier and organ damage. The funding is being provided jointly with postdoctoral researcher Dr Farahnaz Rayatdoost. In her research, she is investigating how severe injuries affect the crucial coagulation and immune functions of the blood. The aim is to translate mechanistic findings into improved treatment strategies for trauma patients. Rayatdoost studied animal science in Iran and the Netherlands and specialised in experimental blood coagulation and its disorders at RWTH Aachen University. She is currently conducting research at the Dutch blood service provider Sanquin.
The Margarete von Wrangell Junior Professorship Programme will enable the two junior professors to expand their own field of research and thus improve their chances of obtaining a lifetime professorship. Dr Xia and Dr Rayatdoost, who recently completed their doctorates, will receive a full-time position for three years in order to further qualify themselves, for example for a junior research group leadership or a junior or tenure-track professorship.
The Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg (MWK BW) is focusing on the post-doctoral phase with the Margarete von Wrangell Junior Professorship Programme, which will be relaunched in 2023. "Reliable and transparent career paths in the post-doctoral phase, such as junior professorships, are crucial to advancing equal opportunities in the scientific community. With the Margarete von Wrangell Programme, we are providing the right incentives here. Attracting more women to scientific careers is not just a question of fairness. Our country thrives on creative people and good ideas from all perspectives," says Science Minister Petra Olschowski.
About the Margarete von Wrangell Junior Professorship Programme
The programme is named after Margarete von Wrangell, who was appointed as Germany's first full professor of plant nutrition at the Agricultural College (now the University) of Hohenheim in 1923.
9.13 million euros are available for the programme - financed by the state of Baden-Württemberg and the European Social Fund. A total of around 30 funding programmes are possible. The aim of the programme is to retain qualified women in the post-doctoral phase in the academic system. Although women earn the majority of degrees and 44 per cent of awards of a doctoral degree throughout Germany, the proportion of women in permanent, tenured professorships is only 23 per cent.
Information about the Margarete von Wrangell Junior Professors Programme
Text and media contact: Daniela Stang