(21.12.20) In mid-December, the DFG and the German Academic Exchange Service hosted the tenth “German-Russian Week of the Young Researcher” at the German House for Research and Innovation. Discussion focused on the current challenges facing cross-border research cooperation and the new role of research in society as a whole.
(12/17/20) For the first time, the “Research in Germany” initiative presented the German research landscape to the international community in the field of artificial intelligence at this year’s virtual NeurIPS (Neural Information Processing Systems) conference with a virtual information booth and an online seminar.
(17.12.20) Two German-Japanese projects are being funded under the second funding period of the DFG Priority Programme 2041 “Computational Connectomics”, which was launched in 2016. The projects “The Role of Dynamic Functional Connectivity for Semantic and Emotional Aspects of Natural Thought Processes” and “Computational and Physiological Approaches to the Study of the Fear Connectome in Primates” were proposed for funding in the review process on both sides.
(11.12.20) The nature of society and equality across age groups, industry, habitats and public policy are among 13 exciting new projects, which will enable researchers in Canada, France, Germany, the UK and Japan to collaborate on the social sciences and further strengthen international cooperation.
(11.12.20) Colombia is an important partner for Germany, not only commercially, but also in the scientific and academic field and the DFG has good cooperation with the country. To present and disseminate the opportunities for scientific cooperation between Colombia and the Germans, the “Scientific Workshop on Colombian-German Cooperation” was held on 28 October.
(05.11.20) On November 4, the virtual Mexican Science Day will take place. The event is organised by the Mexican Embassy in Berlin as part of Berlin Science Week and brings together Mexican and German scientists to present and discuss their projects in health sciences.
(05.11.20) In 2015, the DFG Executive Committee adopted an Africa concept that aims to establish optimum framework conditions for research cooperation between sub-Saharan Africa and Germany through collaboration with DFG partner organisations. Given the heterogeneous nature of this rapidly developing region, opportunities for collaboration are to be identified as quickly as possible so as to enable the set-up and support of initial scientific cooperations.
(05.11.20) For 10 years, TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences for the Advancement of Science in Developing Countries) and the DFG have promoted cooperation of up to 50 postdoctoral researchers from sub-Saharan Africa and their hosts at research institutions in Germany.
(05.11.20) Collaborative and interdisciplinary research is becoming increasingly successful worldwide. The exchange of ideas that emerges as a result of varied academic experience has proved productive not just for the scientific community but for society as a whole.
(30.10.20) The DFG Office India, in its endeavor to reach out to the best researchers in India, is organizing virtual meetings with scientists of key higher education institutions in India. In its first round of virtual meetings, DFG visited the IIT Guwahati, Central University of Sikkim and the University of Hyderabad. More such meetings are planned for the future.
(26.10.20) The DFG together with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will launch a bilateral call for collaborative research proposals bringing together Arts and Humanities researchers in the UK with Humanities (including Law and Linguistics) researchers in Germany to conduct outstanding joint UK-German research projects. This is the third in a series of annual bilateral DFG/AHRC calls, following successful calls launched in 2018 and 2019. The detailed call for proposals is planned for 19 November 2020 with a deadline on 24 February 2021.
(20.10.20) On 26 September 2020, the launch event for the "Year of Germany in Russia 2020/2021" took place with the participation of DFG Office Moscow. Organised by the German Embassy in Moscow, with the support of the Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut in Russia and the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce Abroad, this joint initiative promotes exchange and dialogue between the two countries through events in Russia, also in the field of research and education.
(19.10.20) The DFG will be participating in the “Open Window Day” organised by the German Centre for Research and Innovation São Paulo (DWIH São Paulo) on 6 October. Once a year, the DWIH São Paulo opens its doors to the public to present its supporters’ activities. This year the event will take place online, though still involving the same broad range of German institutions. During the event, the DFG will present its work in Latin America and its most important funding programmes.
(19.10.20) The annual meeting of the two German-Brazilian research initiatives BRAGECRIM (Brazilian-German Collaborative Research Initiative on Manufacturing Technology) and CRI-SCMfg (Collaborative Research Initiative on Smart Connected Manufacturing) took place on 29 September 2020. Due to the corona pandemic, this year's meeting was purely virtual. The originally planned personal meeting in Hamburg was postponed to 2021.
(19.10.20) Even though the coronavirus pandemic is currently restricting life in general, science and research cannot stand still. For this reason, the now traditional information event on postdoctoral opportunities in Germany will be held in virtual format on 9 and 10 November. The DFG will be taking part.
(16.10.20) The DFG is funding nine artificial intelligence projects in cooperation with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST, Japan). Researchers from all three countries will be cooperating on these projects, which will receive funding amounting to approximately €7 million from the institutions involved.
(16.10.20) The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is funding nine artificial intelligence projects in cooperation with the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST, Japan).
(30.09.20) On 15 September, the final conference of the “German-Russian Theme Year of University and Science Cooperation” took place under the title “German-Russian Dialogue in Science and Education: Shaping the Future Together”. Under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, high-ranking representatives of both countries met – both physically and virtually – in Berlin and Moscow.
(30.09.20) On 15 September, the final conference of the “German-Russian Theme Year of University and Science Cooperation” took place under the title “German-Russian Dialogue in Science and Education: Shaping the Future Together”. Under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, high-ranking representatives of both countries met – both physically and virtually – in Berlin and Moscow.
(09/23/20) A heated debate surrounding COVID-19 has resulted in preprints being heavily criticized as a source of misleading information. The American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) organized a group of experts to discuss the subject at the latest ESOF conference, and invited DFG President Katja Becker to take part.
(09/09/20) Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 20th annual meeting of the German Academic International Network (GAIN) was held virtually for the first time on August 28th and 29th to foster the dialogue between postdocs, early career researchers, and the international science community as well as German research institutions, research funders, and science policy-makers.
(08/27/20) Together with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and German university liaison offices, the DFG North America Office team gave advice on the subject of study and research stays in Germany to participants at a virtual careers fair held as part of the 46th Annual Conference of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE).
(27.08.20) The brochure summarises the key results of the 9th German-Russian Week of the Young Researcher, held at Moscow State University last year. Even amid the restrictions imposed by coronavirus, the DFG and DAAD plan to continue the series this year under the aegis of the German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH Moscow) with an event for young researchers to be held in Moscow in November.
(08/24/20) 'Moving Chemistry from Bench to Market' was the motto of this year's conference, at which the Research in Germany initiative promoted Germany as a place to research. This year, in addition to the academic discussion, it was also an opportunity for participants to discover whether the networking aspect of scientific conferences can adequately be fulfilled in a virtual format.
(15.07.20) In late June, the Joint German-Russian Commission for Scientific and Technological Cooperation (WTZ) between Germany and Russia convened via video conference. At the regular meeting, both sides agreed to continue many collaborations in the area of education, research and technology. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) referred to the open calls with its Russian partner organisations and three anniversaries in the bilateral cooperation.
(07/01/20) Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and growing trends towards isolation in US politics, transatlantic scientific relations are currently facing a probably unprecedented combination of two problems – each serious in itself. At a virtual town hall meeting for German researchers in the USA, representatives of German funding organisations together with the Consulate General in New York answered pressing questions and were able to offer some reassurance.
(03.06.20) Germany and Russia have a long history of cooperating in higher education and science, which have shaped bilateral relations. The German-Russian Year of University Cooperation and Research 2018–2020, taking place under the auspices of the two foreign ministers, is designed to raise awareness of scientific cooperation between the two countries.
(05/27/20) The request sent by the DFG’s North America office to early career researchers is met with a pleasantly refreshing response from research fellows offering numerous original reasons why research matters to them.
(14.05.20) The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and DFG wish to inform the Indian and German scientific communities that they are resuming their joint programme in the Life Sciences. Effective immediately, teams of Indian and German researchers can seek synchronised funding for integrated Indo-German fundamental research projects in the academic disciplines covered by the DBT with a duration of up to three years. This resumption of the programme follows a short break caused by changes to the European data protection law.
(21.04.20) Professor Dr. Sebastian Faust, TU Darmstadt, and Professor Dr. Stefan Dziembowski, University of Warsaw, have been chosen to receive the 2020 Copernicus Award from the DFG and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) for their collaboration in theoretical cryptography and IT security. Since 2006, the €200,000 award has been presented every two years to two researchers, one from Germany and one from Poland.
(04/20/20) For the National Science Foundation (NSF), the first few months of 2020 brought an opportunity to look back on decades of continuous effort to promote basic research in the US. But change was also imminent at the top of the organisation, with NSF director France Córdova's six-year term in office due to end on 30 March.
(04/01/20) This year's reception for fellows and alumni of German universities and funding organisations in the San Francisco Bay Area welcomed a special guest of honour, Federal Minister Anja Karliczek. The reception on 23 February was the fourth such event to be organised by the German Consulate General in San Francisco. Some 200 researchers and alumni of various German universities attended the event, helping to strengthen a transatlantic network for research and innovation.
(23.03.20) The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is participating in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and on 19 March 2020 it launched a call for multidisciplinary research into epidemics and pandemics.
(10.03.20) Participants at the Universidad 2020 conference presented the research scenario in Cuba and discussed the objectives of a sustainable development agenda.
(03.03.20) “Data is the new oil” – with this enigmatic motto, Prof Ranjan Bose, Director of IIIT Delhi, inaugurated the fourth international spring school of the DFG-funded priority programme “Algorithms for Big Data” (SPP 1736), held in New Delhi in February 2020.
(28.02.20) In February 2020, following a major event in St. Petersburg, Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) also celebrated its 120th anniversary in Germany. Polytech Days 2020, which saw the participation of many German research institutions and funding organisations such as the DFG, formed part of the German-Russian Year of University Cooperation and Research at the Russian House of Science and Culture in Berlin.
(02/28/20) The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is not only the publisher of Science magazine, but also the world's largest and probably most important organisation for science communication and policy.
(27.02.20) On 16 March, the DFG is participating in a matchmaking event for PhD and postdoctoral researchers in Buenos Aires. The half-day event is aimed at anyone interested in studying and researching in Germany.
(02/22/20) Under the umbrella of Research in Germany, German universities and funding organizations successfully promoted Germany as a place to research at the MIT European Career Fair in Cambridge, MA
(01/31/20) The diversity of European funding opportunities and cooperation potential were the thematic focus of the 5th annual meeting, organized by EURAXESS North America in Washington, DC. The event was attended by representatives of embassies, universities, and research institutions in addition to researchers. The director of the DFG's North America office, Dr. Rainer Gruhlich, presented Europe's largest national funding organization and its international strategy.
(29.01.20) About a decade ago, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and CAPES, a foundation which coordinates efforts to improve the quality of Brazil's higher education personnel, published their first call in production sciences. This laid the foundations for the research partnership Brazilian German Collaborative Research Initiative in Manufacturing Technology (BRAGECRIM).
(29.01.20) Biodiversity is an essential foundation for our lives. It not only encompasses different species of animals, plants, microorganisms, fungi and genetic diversity within species, but also complex ecological processes and interactions in a wide range of habitats on Earth. But biodiversity is under threat, with anthropogenic influence inevitably leading to species extinction. There is only limited reliable information available on the extent and impacts of these losses.
(01/14/20) To begin the year, the research marketing initiative made its first appearance at an international conference in the field of economics. The annual meeting of the Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) in San Diego, California was an excellent opportunity to present German research and funding opportunities in economics, with an information booth and a Science Lunch.
(09.01.20) In early December, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) organised an evening event at the Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow with recipient of the Communicator Award and Leibniz Prize Prof. Dr. Onur Güntürkün. The biopsychologist from the Ruhr University of Bochum (RUB) attracted an audience of around 100 people from a number of research institutions in Moscow as well as representatives of German research organisations based there to the DFG Leibniz Lecture entitled “Cognition without a Cortex”.
(09.01.20) In early December 2019, a bilateral Forum for University Research was held as part of the ongoing German-Russian Year of University Cooperation and Research 2018–2020. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) took part in panels and reported on the cooperation with its Russian partner organisations and on ongoing project funding, such as the Collaborative Research Centre/TRR 160 and the International Research Training Group RTG 1956.
