Launch of the German-Turkish Year of Science
The German-Turkish Year of Science has many points of contact.
2014 is a fitting choice for the German-Turkish Year of Research, Education and Innovation. German-Turkish relations in the field of research and education have now existed at government level for thirty years. Furthermore, teaching commenced at an outstanding institution of bilateral cooperation, the Turkish-German University in Istanbul, in the current winter semester. The visibility of scientific relations between the two countries will be increased by an ideas competition that will accompany the Year of Science and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The key topics of the Year of Science demonstrate the great diversity of German-Turkish relations in research and education: nanotechnology and biotechnology, for example, are decisive as key technologies. The importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) for German-Turkish cooperation is made clear, among other things, by the German-Turkish Advanced Research Centre for ICT in Istanbul and Berlin. With regard to the Year of Science, its director, Şahin Albayrak, professor at Technische Universität Berlin, contrasts Germany’s strengths in basic research and development with Turkish expertise in concrete applications: “I believe these are two cultures that complement one another very well.”
During the year the two scientific cultures will also work closely together in the key areas of Global Change and Humanities and Social Sciences for Societal Challenges. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research, already made it clear in the run-up to the Year of Science just how much significance is attached to the roughly three million people of Turkish origin in Germany: “I am convinced that the potential of young people with migrant backgrounds is an important boon for Germany.”
Launch event for the German-Turkish Year of Research, Education and Innovation on 23 January 2014 in Berlin
