(26.07.21) A message from DFG President Katja Becker opens the current issue of the quarterly journal Vestnik published by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), which is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the partnership between the RFBR and the DFG. In her message, the President says that the decades of collaboration between the two partner organisations not only reflect excellent relations, they also mark an important milestone in research cooperation between Germany and Russia.

She emphasises the fact that academic pursuit is capable of bringing societies together – something that is particularly important in times of crisis and under difficult circumstances. This is why the DFG looks forward optimistically to further cooperation with Russian partner organisations, she says. In the foreword to the journal, Vladislav Panchenko, Chairman of the RFBR Council, also stresses the importance of developing institutional relations at the international level and recalls that the DFG was one of the RFBR’s first international partners.

The agreement between the organisations was signed in 1995. Since then, many thousands of researchers have received funding for more than a thousand bilateral research projects under joint calls. The first joint call for proposals in 1996 attracted more than 700 submissions. A statistical analysis of jointly funded projects and developments in terms of the number of proposals under bilateral calls over the past 25 years reflects a growing interest on the part of researchers. The journal also features an illustrative overview of the projects jointly funded by the DFG and RFBR at different times, with research topics covering a range of fields from the natural sciences and engineering sciences through to the social sciences and life sciences.

For the full version of the journal in Russian and in electronic form, see the RFBR website

• To the Journal

Further information:

• RFBR Website