The Kulmbach site: The development of a new faculty 

The newly founded Faculty of Life Sciences: Food, Nutrition and Health of the University of Bayreuth is being established on a new site campus in Kulmbach. The core idea behind the plans for the University of Bayreuth's seventh Faculty is a perspective based on the natural sciences, a methodological revolution in biosciences, and modern conceptions of economics, law, social sciences, and behavioural sciences. The combination of these disciplines in a way that has not yet been realized in Germany is reflected in research and teaching on the new location called Campus in Kulmbach: Through efficient, interdisciplinary research, fundamental insights can be gained and corresponding social initiatives developed. Innovative, internationally oriented Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes will be established.

Faculty  of Life Sciences - A joint project
University management, founding commission, internal planning group and external advisory board consisting of independent, high-level experts worked closely together to draw up a concept for Faculty of Life Sciences of the University of Bayreuth within just a few months.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Clemens (head of the planning group and founding dean) was at the reins, and maintained the lines of communication to Kulmbach. The former Head Mayor Henry Schramm supported this project right from the beginning and with greatest efforts. Since May 2020, a very committed team around Head Mayor Ingo Lehmann is working towards our common goal: a Faculty of Life Sciences: Food, Nutrition and Health of the University of Bayreuth on the Campus Kulmbach.

New and innovative in the field of nutrition
The concept for the Faculty of Life Sciences follows a holistic approach. According to the tradition of the University of Bayreuth, it is about interdisciplinary research and teaching on the great challenges of our time:

•    What are the causal relationships between risk of disease and life style and/or nutrition?
  
•    Which individual, social, cultural, and/or socio-economic factors hinder healthy lifestyles and diets?
•    How can providing people with sufficient quantities of healthy food be improved?

The Faculty of Life Sciences: Food, Nutrition and Health aims to find answers to these questions and challenges through its interdisciplinary approach, and to develop innovative solutions. To this end, the natural science perspective, which focuses on current, far-reaching methodological revolutions in the life sciences, is combined with modern concepts from the economic, legal, social, and behavioural sciences. The special competencies offered by the Kulmbach site and the proven strengths of the University of Bayreuth will be taken up and consolidated.