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Federal Minister of Research Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan and her Russian counterpart, Education and Science Minister Andrej Fursenko, announced that 2011 is to be the German-Russian Year of Science in Yekaterinenburg on 15 July. On the occasion of the XII German-Russian Government Consultations, the ministers discussed the further development of the Strategic Partnership in Education, Research and Innovation agreed by the two countries’ heads of government in 2005.

“Such a Year of Science especially highlights the diversity of German-Russian cooperation in education and research,” Schavan stressed. The ministries and research managers and scientists of both countries are to get to know each other more closely at conferences, trade fairs and public events and initiate joint projects. Similar bilateral years, e.g. with Egypt, Israel, China and, currently, Brazil, have already set clear new impulses for academic cooperation between the partner countries. Minister Schavan also welcomed that in future, too, cooperation with Russia in important fields of the High-Tech Strategy, such as biotechnology, will be taking place based on existing agreements on subject areas.

The bilateral subject agreements aim to identify common thematic interests and then develop joint funding instruments. “We intend to enable cooperation in major collaborative top-level research projects and contribute to more integration of scientists and enterprises in the two countries,” Schavan said. Germany and Russia also agreed to cooperate in the context of the funding priority area CLIENT (International Partnerships for Sustainable Technologies and Services for Climate Protection and the Environment) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). With CLIENT, the BMBF is funding projects with Russia and other important emerging economies on technologies to combat global warming and protect the environment with up to 60 million euros.

More information: www.internationales-buero.de/de/4039.php (in German only)

Contact: International Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)
ib@dlr.de