China Info - DAAD

Agreement makes Sino-German Joint Interdisciplinary
Research Programs (SG-JIRP) possible
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(German Research Foundation, DFG) and
the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (NSFC) have extended their
range of cooperation: Sino-German
research teams now can cooperate in joint
interdisciplinary research centres in
Germany and in China. Both parties
signed a respective agreement in April
2005, when a DFG delegation led by DFGpresident
Prof. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker
visited Beijing.
The new joint programme will provide
platforms for Chinese and German
scientists to conduct joint
interdisciplinary research. Groups of
researchers at a limited number of
research institutions, based at one main
location in China and one main location
in Germany, can combine their expertise
on a common research topic, identify
common research goals and submit joint
proposals for funding to undertake
ambitious long-term research at an
internationally competitive level, promote
interdisciplinary cooperation, and
support young researchers. Two years
ago, a similar agreement has laid the
foundation for Sino-German Research
Training Groups. It already enabled three
joint projects of structured postgraduate
funding.
The so-called Transregional
Collaborative Research Centres, which
are now being introduced into China,
have already proven beneficial to
Germany’s research cooperation with
other countries: After an enthusiastic
evaluation report, the Transregional
Collaborative Research Centre “Physics
of Colloidal Dispersions in External
Fields”, which has one Dutch university
as a member, has recently been granted a
second funding period. In the Sino-
German cooperation, NSFC and DFG take
joint responsibility for the evaluation of
joint proposals by peer review, and
separate responsibility for the funding of
the participating researchers in their
respective country. For researchers in
China, the regulations and procedures of
the NSFC apply, whereas researchers in
Germany have to comply with the
regulations and procedures of the DFG
Die Hürden in der Interkulturellen
Kommunikation erkennen und überwinden
Woran liegt es, wenn Chinesen und
Deutsche sich trotz guter Sprachkenntnisse
nicht verstehen? Diese Frage
bestimmt die Diskussionen um die
interkulturelle Kommunikation. Wie
Wissenschaft sie angehen kann und wie
Sprachunterricht Verständnisprobleme
lösen kann, diskutierten Germanisten aus
ganz China jüngst in Qingdao bei einem
zweitägigen Kolloqium zur
“Interkulturellen Germanistik” im Rahmen
der Wissenschaftskooperation zwischen
den Universitäten Bayreuth und
Qingdao. Eingeladen hatte die Abteilung
für interkulturelle Deutsch-studien an
der Qingdao Universität in
Shaking hands for even closer research coopperation: Prof. Chen Yiyu, president of the
NSFC and Prof. Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, president of DFG Photo: DFG
Zusammenarbeit mit dem „Arbeitskreis
für interkulturelle Germanistik“ in China
und der Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung.
Als Kristallisationspunkte
dienten in der
breit gefächerten
Diskussion die
drei Themenkomplexe„Wissenschaft
und
Beruf“, „Kulturpolitik
und
Xenologie“ so-
wie„Mehrsprachigkeit”. programme “Collaborative Research
Centre /Transregio” (“Sonderforschungsbereiche/Transregio”).
(Dr. Suzanne Zittartz-Weber,
DFG head office, Bonn)
Contact:
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Dr. Klaus Wehrberger
Tel.: 0049 228 885-2355
E-Mail: Klaus.wehrberger@dfg.de
Web: http://www.dfg.de/en/
Ausgewählte Beiträge dazu sollen in
Kürze veröffentlicht werden.
(S. Numberger/aha)
Dem Verstehen helfen: Die Teilnehmer des zweitägigen Kolloqiums
zur “Interkulturellen Germanistik” in Qingdao. Foto: Qi Jiangang
DAAD China Info 2/2005 11