DFG Presents Itself at Photonics Roadshow

(13.11.17) The research alliance Leibniz Health Technologies (Leibniz Gesundheitstechnologien) and the German House for Research and Innovation São Paulo (DWIH-SP) recently organised events in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo for early career researchers who wanted to learn about career and cooperation opportunities in photonics research and development, specifically in healthcare and life sciences.

Two workshops entitled ‘Brazilian Roadshow on German Research, Innovation & Higher Education in Photonic Health Technologies’ were held in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo on 23 and 24 October. The DFG Office Latin America was represented by Dr. Kathrin Winkler and Christiane Wolf, who presented the DFG’s funding programmes and its collaboration with local partner organisations as well as the available funding opportunities for bilateral research projects.

Building an effective and socially responsive healthcare system is one of the biggest challenges facing the societies of today, especially in view of current global demographic trends. The members of the alliance have thus joined forces to develop new methods for simpler early detection of disease and improved diagnosis, which can be tailored to individual patients. Medical professionals, scientists and engineers are working together to develop suitable solutions, for example the optimisation of imaging techniques, telemedicine and new point-of-care technologies. At the event, the audience was introduced to the various current research projects in the Leibniz Health Technologies initiative as well as the associated challenges.

Last year, at the 25th International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy in Fortaleza, seven institutions from Germany and Brazil signed a joint declaration stating Brazilian and German research institutions’ intention to cooperate more closely. On the German side, the key participants are the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena, the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut/Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) in Berlin and Ruhr-Universität Bochum. The Brazilian cooperation partners are the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), the University of Vale do Paraíba (UNIVAP), the Federal University of Pernambuco/Recife (UFPE) and the Center for Lasers and Applications (IPEN-CNEN) at the University of São Paulo.