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(23.03.17) On 7/8 March 2017, a workshop was held at the Heidelberg Center for Latin America in Santiago to intensify German-Chilean cooperation in nanoscience. The meeting was initiated by Dr. Oleg Prymak from the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) with the aim of strengthening scientific cooperation between the two countries in this field. Thanks to support from the liaison office of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) in Latin America, the Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE) and the Center for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Chile (CEDENNA), the event saw the first steps being taken towards a German-Chilean scientific network in nanotechnology.

Scientific contacts with Latin America originated with the research groups of Prof. Dr. Matthias Epple (UDE, Germany) and Prof. Dr. Cristiano Oliveira (Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil) in the context of DAAD/CAPES and FAPESP programmes, which were later expanded to include partners in Argentina (Universidad de Buenos Aires) and Uruguay (Universidad de la República). During the workshop, which had around 15 participants, Arpe Caspary from the DAAD, Prof. Dr. Gudrun Kausel, the DFG’s Liaison Scientist in Chile, and Juanita Castaneda from Fraunhofer Chile Research explained what funding opportunities are available for international research projects. This included information on programmes from CONICYT, the DFG’s partner organisation in Chile. There were also sessions with the scientific representative from the German embassy in Chile, Inga Heuser, and the Uruguayan ambassador, Octavio Brugnini.

The event enabled fruitful dialogue not only between researchers from Germany and Chile, but also with scientists from other Latin American countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. This gave rise to some promising concepts for future collaboration.