• Corona , The University , Research

“Making contact is more important than the money”

On Good Friday the Eindhoven University Fund (UF/e) launched an appeal among alumni to donate funds for TU/e research intended to help tackle the corona crisis. By Tuesday April 14th, via the site made for this purpose, 12,500 euros had already been received. Karen Ali, director of the UF/e and the Alumni Relations Office, is very happy with the sum, “but more important than this sum of money are the warm relationships this is allowing us to forge with our former students.”

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Working at full stretch, her team launched the website via which alumni are being asked to support by way of a donation the various research projects started at TU/e that are keen to help solve the present corona crisis. “Our reason for doing this, first and foremost, is to demonstrate to our alumni that TU/e is actively working on this problem and to show all the ways in which our scientists are doing this,” says Karen Ali. “We are also keen to show that this work is happening in almost every field here, which means that attention is being given to the many different aspects of the problem.”

That the counter on Tuesday morning already stands at 12,500 euros is a great result, Ali feels. “That a fair amount of money has been received is something we are obviously very pleased to see. But of even greater importance to us is the fact that this is allowing us to build new contacts with former students. The donations have come from 132 alumni in all. It's not the size of the amount you donate that matters, rather your donation shows that as an alumnus you value that your alma mater is focusing its attention - in a whole host of research fields - on such an important global problem.”

Rapid financial injection

The distribution of the resources donated, says Ali, will depend on which research project would benefit most from a rapid financial injection. “Similar campaigns are now underway at other universities, such as Leiden University, where they are cooperating with LUMC and have limited themselves to a single research project. The sum of almost six hundred thousand euros has already been collected there,” says Ali.

Not that Ali expects to secure this level of donations, "especially because in Leiden it's all about highly specific virological research." But she points out that TU/e alumni can also contribute in other ways. “Offers of expertise, the provision of coaching, or the sharing of your network are also welcome.” How long the campaign will continue she cannot yet say.

Anyone with questions or who would like more information can contact Karen Ali via email.

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