Management Project: ruhrvalley Management Office

At the start of the project on 1 January 2017, the Management Office was established in the city of Herne, the geographic centre of the region the three partner universities occupy. On the grounds of a former coal mine, today rises the Mont-Cenis Academy and its energy park, which has become an internationally well-known site with great symbolic meaning and currently houses the Management Office.

The Management Office handles outward communication as well as internal management. IT fulfils seven core functions:

• Project management: not only individual projects, but multi-project management as well in the sense that the Management Office keeps track of the interdependence between projects and the overriding general objectives.
• Partner management: identify and recruit new partners for ruhrvalley, and develop project-based cooperation efforts into long-term strategic partnerships.
• Human resources development: necessary for the long-term strengthening of the research core areas at the universities and the development activities of the SMEs.
• Teaching and further education: in order to transfer the knowledge generated by the projects, especially within the context of the Ruhr Master School.
• Innovation management: create new areas of innovation.
• Business start-ups: support for the creation of start-ups.
• Marketing & Brand Management: interactions with the market and the public.

In the area of Marketing & Communication, one of the core tasks of the Management Office is to build a strong, internationally positioned umbrella brand for the university and industry alliance. For this task, it is indispensable to rely on professional branding management that is up to the challenge of carrying out marketing activities nationally and internationally.