German officials unveiled in Manhattan last week a “one-stop shop” for American academics and institutions looking to establish scientific and technological research collaborations in Germany.
The new German Center for Research and Innovation underscores the country’s growing attractiveness as a research-and-study destination, said Annette Schavan, Germany’s minister of education and research.
The opening ceremony featured leading figures in German scientific research, as well as Madeleine Jacobs, executive director of the American Chemical Society.
The center could become the nucleus for a new era of scientific partnership between the two countries, Ms. Schavan said. She had earlier been in Washington to sign a bilateral science-and-technology agreement intended to foster such collaborations. It was the first such accord between the two countries, but German interest in deepening research and academic ties with the United States has long been in evidence.
The new center is in New York’s German House, on United Nations Plaza, which also houses Germany’s U.N. mission, the German Academic Exchange Service, offices representing several German universities, and the German Research Foundation.
The building is already the main locus of German academic outreach in the United States. With the opening of the center, it will also serve as a venue for events aimed at broadening German-American scientific and technological ties, including conferences and symposia; workshops for graduate students and young researchers seeking opportunities at German universities; scientific competitions; and public lecture series. For American colleges exploring how to develop or expand ties in Germany, the new office is intended to serve as a comprehensive resource.
The New York center is Germany’s fifth such international outpost, and joins offices in Moscow, New Delhi, Tokyo, and São Paulo, Brazil.
The centers are financed with approximately $4-million from Germany’s education ministry and the academic-outreach office of the foreign ministry. On a much greater scale, Germany has also spent $2.6-billion on higher education and research since 2005 through the Excellence Initiative, which awards annual financing as well as informal designation as elite institutions to designated universities.