News

Legal scholar Clarissa Groß on European values at the EU’s external borders

The tense situation in the Spanish exclave of Ceuta has been making headlines for weeks. The exodus of thousands of Moroccans has once again placed migration and border policy at the very top of the EU’s agenda. Clarissa Groß, a research assistant at the Institute for European Law, is examining the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the design and practical implementation of the new border procedures, and their compatibility with the right to personal liberty as part of her doctoral thesis. She recently visited the Greek island of Lesbos, which remains a migration hotspot, to assess the situation on the ground.

Graz is a magnet for 750 physicists: international conference on campus

Whether in mobile phones, medical devices or solar power systems: physical phenomena are part of our everyday lives. The vast scope of this discipline will be explored at a major conference taking place at the University of Graz from 20 to 25 September 2026. More than 750 scientists will transform the campus into a European hub for physics.

A fresh start, a calling, holidays: what draws people from other career paths to teaching

They used to develop software; now they teach maths in the classroom. Career changers are expected to help address the shortage of qualified teachers in Austria’s schools. In their doctoral theses at the Institute for Educational Research and Teacher Training at the University of Graz, Melanie Gürentz and Claudia Mair examined how these new teachers perceive their new professional roles.

Talent Talks bridge the gap in career guidance

The Styrian Chamber of Commerce (WKO Steiermark), the Styrian Chamber of Labour (AK Steiermark) and the AMS are joining forces when it comes to training young people and, through the “Talent Talks”, are creating a seamless pathway to career guidance. This takes preparation and follow-up support – just in time for the start of the term and the scheme’s tenth anniversary – to a whole new level. A new survey conducted by the Talent Centre among 2,687 former participants to mark the anniversary shows just how important this development is. Of the young people who received follow-up support from the Talent Report, 74.6 per cent stated that they had a good understanding of their own strengths and talents following the Talent Check. Without follow-up support, the figure was 66.5 per cent – a significant difference of 8.1 percentage points.

ERC Starting Grants: three million euros for two researchers at the University of Graz

Two researchers from the University of Graz have secured prestigious and generously funded grants from the EU. Starting Grants from the European Research Council (ERC), each worth 1.5 million euros, have been awarded to the human geographer Heide Bruckner and the social scientist Silvana Weiss.

Austria’s emissions rose in 2025: University of Graz researchers analyse the causes

The Environment Agency Austria has today published the figures for the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2025. While emissions fell sharply year on year from 2022 to 2024, they rose again by just under 0.7 per cent in 2025. Researchers at the University of Graz have analysed how much of this increase was due to structural changes in the economy and how much was attributable to external factors over which there is little control. “In 2025, the colder winter compared with 2024 increased emissions by 0.81 per cent, while the weak economy reduced them by 0.38 per cent. If we factor out these influences, we find an underlying increase of 0.26 per cent compared with the previous year,” reports economist Karl Steininger. “This clearly means that Austria is not on track to meet its climate targets, which require a substantial reduction in emissions by 2030.”

Ecosystems in a changing climate: exploring nature in the Gesäuse National Park

Electrifying: Researchers film the first moments on the way from light to electricity

Physicists at the University of Graz (Austria), in collaboration with colleagues from Marburg University and Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), have achieved a scientific breakthrough. For the first time, the generation of electrical energy from light has been filmed and described theoretically. This work is of far-reaching significance, not least for optimising sustainable energy production from photovoltaics. This is because it provides fundamental building blocks for understanding the physical processes that take place, for example, in organic solar cells. The paper was published in the journal Physical Review X, one of the world’s most prestigious physics journals.