Ceremony with Prominent Guests / International Conference on ‘The Bronze Age in Europe’ in Collaboration with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation

On 16 October 2013 the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Russia/CIS Office with a ceremony at the State Historical Museum in Moscow. Russian researchers have been collaborating with German working groups for many years, and there are traditional close ties between funding organisations in the two countries. For ten years the DFG office in Moscow has been supporting the systematic development of institu-tional collaboration and the joint funding of collaborative projects in all areas of basic research.

Over 150 guests representing German and Russian research, politics and society will attend the an-niversary celebrations. They will include DFG President Professor Peter Strohschneider, the direc-tors of academy institutes and university rectors as well as the German Ambassador to Russia. The anniversary will also be marked by an international conference, supported by the DFG and its part-ners, on "The Bronze Age in Europe – Current Research and Prospects" and an exhibition entitled "Bronze Age – Europe Without Borders".

In his address, DFG President Peter Strohschneider will praise the work of the Russia/CIS Office and the various research collaborations: "German-Russian research groups are now working on joint projects all over Russia, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok and from the North Caucasus to the Kola Peninsula." He points out that this level of collaboration has "not only enabled more German scientists and scholars to carry out research in Russia, but has also promoted Russian integration in the European Research Area". The DFG can look back on the last ten years with pride, he says: "Together with our partners we have significantly widened the scope for research in Russia." This can be seen in the DFG's funding statistics: 10% of all international visiting researchers in DFG Collaborative Research Centres come from the Russian Federation, second only to the US. Strohschneider is already looking to the future: "In the course of the ongoing reform of the Russian university and research system, it will remain a priority for the DFG to maintain its visibility in Russia and remain a strategic partner in bilateral cooperation."

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Moscow office there will also be an international conference entitled "The Bronze Age in Europe – Current Research and Prospects", hosted by the DFG, the National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage and the Moscow State Historical Museum. The conference will give researchers from Russia, Germany and Denmark an opportunity to present their work. "This conference is intended to be a first step towards identifying future potential for greater collaboration between Russia and Germany in the field of ancient civilisation studies," says DFG Vice President Professor Peter Funke, who will attend the event. The conference will be ac-companied by an exhibition, "Bronze Age – Europe Without Borders", which opens in Moscow on 15 October 2013. The exhibition is a collaborative project between museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg and the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the National Museums in Berlin.