New German Science and Innovation Forum opened in Brazil

On 14 February 2012, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle opened the German Science and Innovation Forum in São Paulo, Brazil, in a ceremony attended by over 200 guests. The President of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, DAAD), Margret Wintermantel, and the President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Helmut Schwarz, accompanied Westerwelle on his visit. The Humboldt Foundation, DAAD and other science organisations and universities will be setting up representations in the newly opened Forum.

The Forum is tasked with intensifying scientific and technological exchange with partners in Brazil and generating interest in Germany as a location for science, research and innovation. Education, training and research were the most important resources in globalisation, and academic foreign policy a central pillar of German foreign policy, said Westerwelle at the opening. “The raw material that will really decide globalisation is not under our feet, but in our heads.” Westerwelle described Brazil as Germany’s most important partner country in Latin America in terms of education and research cooperations, and the vibrant global metropolis of São Paulo as the ideal location for the German Science and Innovation Forum.

In addition to DAAD and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Research Association (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) also has offices in the Forum; several universities (FU Berlin, Bochum, Duisburg-Essen, Münster), technical universities (Munich, Dortmund) and universities of applied sciences (UAS7) are on site with individual representations or as part of consortia.

The German Science and Innovation Forum in São Paulo is the sixth of its kind. Other Fora have already opened or are currently being set up in New York, Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo and Cairo.

Comment on article

If you are an Humboldtian and have logged in, you have the option of commenting on this article or other Humboldtians' comments. (Please read the comment guidelines first)

Comment guidelines

After logging in, Humboldtians have the option of participating in discussion of articles in Humboldt Kosmos and contributing comments of up to 1,000 characters for publication in German or English. If the comment is published it will appear under your name.

Every comment will be checked by the editors and published as soon as possible unless there are objections on legal or content grounds. The editors reserve the right to abridge and revise comments where necessary. Please bear in mind that published comments can be accessed by anyone on the Internet and may be located by search engines.