LMU expands strategic partnership with Stellenbosch

Since 2025, the LMU-SU Research Cooperation Program has been expanding and deepening research collaboration between LMU Munich and Stellenbosch University—one of the best and most research-intensive universities in Africa.

In the first round of funding in 2025, 13 research projects are currently being supported. The funded disciplines include medicine, physics, chemistry and pharmacy, social sciences, mathematics and computer science, psychology, and education.

One of the funded projects is in the field of biotechnology and is the result of a postdoctoral visiting fellowship financed by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: Professor Willem van Otterlo from Stellenbosch University and junior research group leader Dino Berthold from LMU are researching the synthesis and subsequent biological and pharmaceutical evaluation of naphthylisoquinoline natural product derivatives.

These compounds, which were originally isolated from lianas, have in the past been tested primarily against treatment-resistant types of cancer, such as pancreatic and ovarian cancer. Due to the very limited quantities of naturally derived naphthylisoquinoline compounds available, the results obtained so far have been only partially conclusive—but nonetheless very promising. The goal of this research collaboration is therefore to use modern, targeted synthesis methods to produce these and unnatural derivatives in larger quantities.

“The Memorandum of Understanding signed this week in Stellenbosch in the presence of Minister President Söder marks the beginning of a new phase of collaboration between LMU and SU. The strategic partnership will be deepened through the joint supervision of doctoral candidates in the field of biotechnology, and we hope this will also serve as a model for other areas of research,” says Professorin Alexandra Kertz-Welzel, Academic Coordinator of the LMU-SU Research Cooperation Program at LMU.

Call for proposals for the new 2026 funding period

The call for proposals for the new 2026 funding period of the LMU-SU Research Cooperation Program has now been completed. The selection committee will meet next week to make its decisions. The program supports joint research projects, with various funding instruments—such as conferences, workshops, or individual mobility—available for flexible combination. A new call for proposals is planned for next year.

To further strengthen the network among the various projects, a joint networking week is also planned to take place in Munich in June 2026.