(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.

As well as the responsible line ministries in the two countries, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Ministry of Science and University Education (MON), representatives of different research and funding organisations reported on the future format of German-Russian scientific relationships. The meeting was attended by the DFG and its partner organisations, the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), the Russian Science Foundation (RSF) and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

The agenda for the meeting was determined by the 10-year German-Russian Roadmap for Cooperation in Education, Science, Research and Innovation of the BMBF and MON of 2018, which is divided into four subject pillars:
1. Large-scale research infrastructures
2. Thematic priorities
3. Early career support
4. Innovation, science and society.

The DFG is predominantly involved in pillar (2) with its open calls with its Russian partner organisations and pillar (3) with the funding of international Research Training Groups and the German-Russian Week of the Young Researcher. The RFBR congratulated the DFG on its 100th anniversary. For its part, the DFG referred to three anniversaries in the bilateral cooperation with its Russian partner organisations, which will be jointly celebrated in 2020:

• 50 years ago (1970), the DFG signed the first cooperation agreement with the Academy of Sciences of the USSR;
• 25 years ago (1995), the DFG established relations with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR);
• 5 years ago (2015), the DFG had its first joint call with the recently established Russian Science Foundation (RSF).

On the basis of this agreement and in particular its local presence through its Moscow office, the DFG was able to fund over 300 projects with Russian participation in the last three years alone (2017-2019). Top-level research and early career support are pursued in these multiple collaborative ventures not only in the natural and engineering sciences, but in all fields of basic research, including the humanities and social sciences.

The announcement of the next DFG-RFBR call in late 2020 was met with a great deal of interest. The partner organisations are also leveraging their close cooperation to tackle current issues in the coronavirus crisis, enabling Russian and German researchers to pursue joint solutions in pandemic research

Report of the Russian science ministry (Minobrnnauki)
Открыть в новом окне Россия и Германия готовы искать совместные ответы на глобальные научно-технологические вызовы

Report of the RFBR
Открыть в новом окне РФФИ и DFG: совместные конкурсы как ответ на вызов пандемии COVID-19