Research News
Title diagram from the DAAD brochure "Country Profile China"
Helmholtz International: News from the Helmholtz Offices in Brussels, Moscow and Beijing
News from the Beijing office:
Chinese PhD Students: Germany on 2nd Rank
Each year, China sends up to 6,000 young people abroad for their PhD degree via the China Scholarship Council Programme (CSC). Approximately 2,000 of these go to the USA, yet with around 550 students Germany is the second most favourite destination for young scientists, followed by France, the UK and Japan with around 300 to 400 PhD students.
Currently, over 300 Chinese students and scientists work at Helmholtz Centres. For instance, approximately 40 of them work at the Max-Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin. Each year, some 50 Chinese students newly arrive at Helmholtz centres to conclude their PhD degree.
Helmholtz scientists intending to accept good Chinese students with a CSC or DAAD scholarship into their team for conferral of a doctorate please contact the Helmholtz office in Beijing as soon as possible. This is urgent because many universities demand the submission of a definite invitation from abroad as early as January. According to the Chinese selection process, a formal invitation from abroad is the prerequisite for application.
The Helmholtz office in Beijing also forwards to Germany queries from interested young scientists and promotes the Helmholtz Association at Chinese partner institutions.
Contact:
Dr Hong He
Helmholtz Association
Dongsanhuanbeilu 8
Chaoyang District
100004 Beijing
PR China
Telephone: +86 10-659078-65
Fax: +86 10-659078-67
DAAD Country Profile China Reissued
In January 2011, the DAAD will publish an updated Country Profile China, which can be ordered via the internet. The country profiles can be found under "Studien und Dokumentationen" after choosing the appropriate customer category.
Order link:
www.daad.de/publikationsbestellung
Further Intensification of Scientific-Technological Co-operation China-Germany
Federal Minister for Research Annette Schavan and the Chinese Science Minister Wan Gang intend to further develop the German-Chinese co-operation in fields of global significance. These include energy research, the economic use of resources, climate change as well as environmental protection and life sciences. The co-operation is also to be increased in the fields of innovation system research, technology transfer and intellectual property.
Source: Protocol of the 21st session of the Joint Commission for Scientific and Technical Co-operation between the People's Republic of China and the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin, 11-12 November
News from the Brussels office:
EERA Joint Programmes Launched
During the SET-Plan Conference on 15 November 2010 in Brussels, three "Joint Programmes" of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) were launched: "Carbon Capture and Storage", "Materials for nuclear" and "Bio Energy". These include participation from scientists from the Helmholtz centres in Jülich, the KIT, GFZ, HZB and the Helmholtz Centre Geesthacht. Further EERA Joint Programmes in the fields of "Concentrated Solar Power", "Smart Cities" and "Marine Energies" are expected to be launched in the course of the coming year. More than 1,000 scientists from 74 research organisations are involved in the hitherto launched seven EERA Joint Programmes.
www.eera-set.eu/Research_Fields
www.helmholtz.de/set-plan-conference
EU Project EuroBioImaging
The Euro Project EuroBioImaging was launched on 1 December 2010. It is one of four life science projects accepted into the updated ESFRI Roadmap 2008. The aim of the funded project is the development of a concept for building a European research infrastructure in the field of biomedical imaging (from biological basic research to clinical imaging). This involves the Research Centre Jülich, the Max-Delbrück Centre Berlin, the DKFZ as well as the Brussels office of the Helmholtz Association.
News from the Moscow office:
New "Helmholtz-Russia Joint Research Groups" Selected
In November 2010, six new German-Russian young academics groups were selected in Moscow. They now are funded by the bilateral funding programme "Helmholtz-Russia Joint Research Groups". The Helmholtz Association maintains this programme together with the "Russian Foundation for Basic Research" in order to strengthen the co-operation between Russian scientists and Helmholtz centres.
The selection commission is chaired by the president of the Helmholtz Association, Professor Dr Jürgen Mlynek, and the chairman of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Professor Dr Vladislav Panchenko. All in all, 23 applications were submitted, all of which describe high-degree projects. International assessments helped in selecting the six best projects. Funding amounts to up to 150,000 Euro per year and group over a maximum of three years. In particular, the programme allows for close co-operation between young academics in Russia with partners at Helmholtz centres.
Already in 2006, the Helmholtz Association signed an agreement with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research to support groups of German-Russian young academics. Since that time, 14 joint research projects from the first two tenders are being funded. A fourth programme tender for 2011 is being prepared.
Russian Funding Tender Continued
Andrey Fursenko, Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, intends to continue the funding tender for recruiting international experts. As Fursenko explains, only 40 projects instead of the scheduled 80 were selected in the first award round of these so-called mega-grants. Now, 40 more projects are to be added in spring 2011.
The tender's awardees receive 3.75 million Euro to build up a research laboratory at a Russian university within three years. In doing so, the project manager is to spend at least four months per year at the Russian university. Projects with a potential practical purpose in the long-term are favoured.
Amongst the awardees of the first tender round in summer 2010 are also Helmholtz researchers, for example, Prof. Dr Jürgen Oberst from the DLR Institute for Planetary Research. He now will establish a laboratory for "Geodesy, Cartography and Future Exploration of Planets and Satellites" at the Moscow State University for Geodesy and Cartography.
For the second round of the tender, new information in English language are to be published in the internet in January 2011. www.helmholtz.de/russland-foerderausschreibung-en
For further questions please contact the Helmholtz Office in Moscow:
