For the first time ever, the DAAD Information Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam organised a half-day information seminar on “Research in Germany”. More than 180 graduate students, doctoral candidates, lecturers and researchers from southern Vietnam attended the event held at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) in Ho Chi Minh City.

The event began with a welcoming speech by Ms. Hannelore Bossmann, director of the DAAD Regional Office in Hanoi. This was followed by welcoming addresses by Dr. Bui Quang Cu, head of the VAST office in Ho Chi Minh City, and Prof. Dr. Johann W. Gerlach, member of the DAAD executive committee and president of the Kazakh-German University. Mr. Reimar Müller, head of the DAAD Information Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, presented an overview of the German research sector. Ms. Bossmann and Mr. Nguyen Viet Duc, the scholarship officer at the DAAD Regional Office in Hanoi, held presentations on various funding opportunities for researchers in Germany.

Due to the German-French Higher Education Fair taking place the next day, a number of university representatives from Germany happened to be in Ho Chi Minh City and used the occasion to speak at the “Research in Germany” seminar about the research opportunities offered by their respective universities. With the addition of these special presentations, the participants had the chance to gain insight into the specific research activities in Baden-Württemberg, at the University of Freiburg, the University of Passau, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the TU Dresden and the TU9 Institutes of Technology.

The strong interest in “Research in Germany” was evident by the many questions and lively discussion which followed the presentations and continued during the reception. And should any questions have remained, the participants had the chance to obtain even more information at the Higher Education Fair the following day.