News

Konrad Zuse Schools

More talented AI specialists for Germany

The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD) is using funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to extend its promotion of young AI talents in Germany. Three consortia have just been selected, each of which will accordingly establish a Konrad Zuse School for artificial intelligence. These schools are intended to form academic networks to attract excellent young AI specialists from around the world. To this end, the BMBF is providing €24 million over the coming years.

EU / Japan

EU-Japan Digital Partnership: Japan and the EU strengthen their close cooperation

The European Council and the Japanese government have issued a joint statement reaffirming their “close and comprehensive” partnership in preparation for the 2022 EU-Japan Summit.

Overview: German Embassy Tokyo

German-Japanese battery research – new projects launched

Germany and Japan have been successfully researching secondary battery systems for many years. Four new German-Japanese research projects were launched on 01.01.2022. The pre-competitive research pro-jects address the development of new materials as well as novel and advanced analytical methods to study structures and elucidate processes in battery cells in the field of post-lithium-ion technologies with a focus on solid-state batteries. The projects combine complementary expertise in Germany and Japan and contribute to a better qualitative and quantitative understanding of the addressed issues through a continuous ex-change of young researchers.

DLR and JAXA strengthen cooperation

German-Japanese cooperation in aerospace

The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are extending their already close cooperation. On 5 April 2022, both partners adopted an extended framework agreement entitled ‘Inter Agency Arrangement for Strategic Partnership’. This agreement is intended to encourage even more synergies and strengthen aerospace research in both countries for their mutual benefit. The goal is also to promote cooperation between the German and Japanese aerospace industries. The extended agreement will form the basis for a wide range of joint activities and projects. The signing took place at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, USA, which is bringing together many global space participants this week.

Call: BMWK

Call for Proposals for a German-Japanese Innovation Project – Development of Digital Technologies (5G)

[Deadline: 2022/04/05] The BMWK has published a call for funding for a German-Japanese innovation project in the context of the funding framework “Entwicklung digitaler Technologien”. The aim of the technology competition “Mobile Connectivtiy for Key Industries” is to develop and test innovative 5G communication technologies for practical use in the manufacturing industry. Funding is provided for innovation projects (with up to €3 million for the German partners) that have the potential to develop high visibility for industry and trigger imitation effects. In addition, the results of the project should contribute to the international standardization of advanced 5G technologies.

Connecting East and West – A Short Interview with …

Prof. Dr. Yuko Nishitani

Our series “Connecting East and West – A Short Interview with…“ presents people involved in German-Japanese research collaborations – and their insights on how and where to cooperate successfully! Prof. Dr. Yuko Nishitani teaches at Kyoto University Graduate School of Law and received the renowned Philipp Franz von Siebold Award in 2020, which is awarded for extraordinary contributions to the mutual understanding between Germany and Japan. In our DWIH interview, she shares insights into her research in law and encourages young researchers to enter international collaborations open-minded and well prepared.

Beyond 5G

6G – Potential for Japanese-German cooperation

The future mobile communications standard 6G is set to become an important topic for Japanese-German cooperation in the next ten years. Japan shows strong interest in collaborating on 6G research with international partners who share similar values and state secretaries of the Japanese MIC (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ) and German BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) discussed about a possible research cooperation between the two countries in October 2021.