SPbU and DFG agreed to expand collaboration
SPbU has met with Dr. Wilma Rethage, head of the DFG Office in Russia.
— St Petersburg University works closely with the German Research Foundation, — said SPbU Vice-Rector for Research Sergei Aplonov in his opening speech. — I am glad to say that our 9 joint projects, which were supported by both SPbU and DFG last year, are well underway.
Early in December in 2016 St Petersburg University and DFG carried out a research competition that was their first mutual project in a global scale. The experts selected nine projects in various sphere from biochemistry to elementary particle physics. The competition was designed for research groups, which comprised researches from SPbU and research institutions from Germany. Importantly, most projects which were supported by the German Research Foundation at the second round are those which are exemplary of long-standing collaboration between SPbU and Germany.
Partnership relations are vital both for SPbu and DFG. The Vice-Rector for Research Sergei Aplonov and Ms Wilma Rethage discussed a seminar preliminary scheduled to be held during the visit of the DFG’s Secretary General Dorothee Dzwonnek to St Petersburg. The seminar will primarily discuss research competitions with a particular focus on site “fair research practices”, which mostly concerns publication ethics.
t Petersburg University is an only university in the East which the DFG works directly with. Germany tops the list of SPbU’s international partners and international projects, said Deputy Rector for International Affairs Sergei Andrushin. For the last five years, only DFG has supported 300 mutual projects with the researchers from St Petersburg, mostly from SPbU.
Moreover, SPbU and DFG discussed the possibility to open a joint PhD programme with the German partner universities. SPbU implements joint master programmes: among the first ones was a Russian-German master programme “Polar and Marine Research” (POMOR), which is carried out by five universities (SPbU, University of Hamburg, University of Bremen, University of Kiel and University of Potsdam). In 2014 SPbU and Free University of Berlin opened a joint master programme “Global Communication and International Journalism” in English with a particular focus on practice.