Kick-Off Meeting „German-Ukrainian Cores of Excellence“ (8 February 2022)

On 8 February 2022, the online Kick-Off Meeting “German-Ukrainian Cores of Excellence in Ukraine” took place, jointly organised by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MESU).

With the funding programme „Establishing German-Ukrainian Excellence Centers (CoE) in Ukraine“, the BMBF is supporting the establishment of excellent German-Ukrainian working groups in the Ukraine, thereby expanding bilateral research and development expertise on a sustainable basis. The German-Ukrainian research group of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, University of Konstanz, National Technical University of Ukraine Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Space Research Institute is one of the projects selected in a competitive procedure. Since November 2021, in addition to our project (AIDA&TI), eleven other German-Ukrainian teams have been developing concepts for setting up the cores of excellence, some of which will eventually be funded and established.

Anka Feldhusen, German Ambassador to Ukraine, welcomed all participants to the kick-off meeting and wished the project groups successful cooperation and the establishment of a sustainable relationship between the Ukrainian and German project partners within the framework of the funding programme. Dr Jens Brandenburg, Parliamentary State Secretary at the BMBF, Prof. Oleksii Shkuratov, Vice Minister for European Integration at the MESU, and Prof. Anatolii Zahorodnii, President of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Ukraine, welcomed the participants as well.

Professor Eduard Siemens presented AIDA&TI projects as a short pitch. The goals of the project are: establishing a sustainable trans-national research group of highly skilled personnel; strengthening German-Ukrainian development of innovations; increasing knowledge and technology transfer in the AI and Big Data technologies between Germany and East Europe region in basis research and applied; implementation of win-win cooperation strategy, including opening of high-tech markets and the mutual exchange of researchers and policy makers; establishing a sustainable international knowledge and innovation network.

The kick-off meeting was attended by around one hundred people, including representatives of the BMBF, the project administrator German Aerospace Center (DLR), the MESU, the German Embassy in Kiev, project participants from Ukrainian and German research institutions and universities, national and EU research and funding organisations, as well as other German, Ukrainian and European institutions.