Stuttgart Research Partnership (SRP) "NUPUS" (History)

The Stuttgart Research Partnership "iNterdisciplinary Union of Porous media research at the University of Stuttgart” (SRP "NUPUS") was founded as successor of the International Research Training Group "Non-linearities and upscaling in porous media" (IRTG 1398 "NUPUS"). IRTG 1398 was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for nine years and expired on 31st December 2015. The funding of SRP "NUPUS" by the University of Stuttgart started on 2nd August 2015 and ended on 31st July 2018.

However, even if the funding of SRP "NUPUS" expired, it continues to exist. SRP "NUPUS" is integrated in SFB 1313 "Interface-Driven Multi-field Processes in Porous Media -- Flow, Transport and Deformation", which has been funded since 1st January 2018 by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Spokesman: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Rainer Helmig

Coordinator: apl. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Holger Class

There is a number of institutes of the University of Stuttgart that initiated SRP "NUPUS". A list of the founding members is available here.

Within SRP "NUPUS", the University of Stuttgart signed cooperation agreements with numerous national and international institutions. The aim of these agreements is to promote research cooperations with a view to contribute to the advancement of scientific research and technological development in the field of flow and transport in porous media.

A list of the corresponding partners is available here. All collaboration agreements are now also binding for SFB 1313. In summary, the international environment of SRP "NUPUS" represents one basis for the scientific exchange within SFB 1313.

Our emphasis was to foster communication and interaction between all scientists with different educational backgrounds and to facilitate a common scientific language for international and interdisciplinary research in the field of porous media. Furthermore, SRP "NUPUS" provided a platform for comprehensive and dedicated soft-skill development, so that participating scientists were not only able to communicate their research to other scientists, e.g., via conference talks and workshops, or publications and posters, but also to the (non-academic) society.

Summerschools

• "Discretization of the groundwater transport equation", University of Stuttgart, Germany, 4th October 2016 (Lecturer: Rainer Helmig).
• "Upscaling techniques for mathematical models involving multiple scales", Hasselt University, Belgium, 26th to 29th June 2017 (Lecturers: Knut-Andreas Lie, Sorin Pop).

Short Courses

• "SRP NUPUS Day 2017", TU Delft, The Netherlands, 12th May 2017 (Local Organizer: Hadi Hajibeygi; Speakers: Steffen Berg, Giovanni Bertotti & Kevin Bisdom, Michael Celia, Florian Doster, Sara Gasda, Rainer Helmig, Rien van Genuchten).
• "Multiscale methods for multiphase flow in fractured porous media", University of Stuttgart, Germany, 18th to 19th September 2017 (Lecturer: Hadi Hajibeygi).
• "DuMuX Course 2017", University of Stuttgart, Germany,12th to 13th October 2017 (Lecturers: Bernd Flemisch, etal)

Workshops

• "Modeling and benchmarking of fractured porous media: flow, transport and deformation", University of Bergen, Norway, 8th to 9th June 2017 (Local Organizers: Inga Berre, Wietse Boon, Alessio Fumagalli, Ivar Stefansson).

Student Trip

• Students from the University of Bergen visit the University of Stuttgart, Germany, and the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 16th to 20th January 2017.

From 2015 to 2017, SRP "NUPUS" offered scholarships to talented students working on their Master's Thesis. The subject had to be related to the field of porous media. The scholarship was granted twice a year and open for M.Sc. students enrolled in Stuttgart or in one of the SRP "NUPUS" partner institutions.

The successfull applicants were expected to carry out their work, at least partly, at one of the partner institutions. It was not in accordance with the aims of the SRP that the scholarship holders remain at their home university.

A list of Scholarship Holders is available here.

The research programme is divided into four research areas (RA). All research projects associated to the SRP "NUPUS" will be assigned to an RA.

As a platform to promote SRP "NUPUS" and to bring together the internal and external participants, all SRP "NUPUS" members and partners were invited to the annual meetings to be held in Germany. These meetings gave an opportunity to exchange ideas and transfer know-how.

The funding of SRP "NUPUS" ended in 2018. Since then the annual SRP "NUPUS" meetings continue to be organized under the name of "SFB 1313 Statusseminar".