The worldwide networking of people and societies has become an everyday reality in the 21st century. We communicate daily with colleagues, partners and friends from all parts of the world. Particularly in science and research, global cooperation has long since become routine. Research is primarily carried out in international teams. Students gain international experience early on and then assert themselves on the global labour market.
We benefit from this global exchange of knowledge, ideas and technologies, because it is the driving force behind innovation and growth in Germany. Moreover, interchange increases mutual understanding between countries and cultures.
However, this global networking does not only offer opportunities; it also presents us with new challenges. Problems, such as the instability of financial markets, energy insecurity and climate change, affect every region on Earth and therefore cannot be solved by one country acting alone.
This makes international academic exchange an important element of our foreign policy. It is the foundation for better understanding of the common, global challenges of the present. Additionally, networked research contributes to intercultural dialogue, to stability and the preservation of peace. That is why the Federal Foreign Office has been strengthening Germany’s research and academic relations in the world for decades.
However, we cannot and do not want to sit back and rest after all that has been achieved. Competition is increasing on the global education market and new centres of knowledge are emerging in other parts of the world and becoming new economic and cultural hubs. In 2009, under the motto “Connecting Worlds of Knowledge”, we are intensifying and expanding our existing commitment through the Research and Academic Relations Initiative. Tried and tested instruments of academic cooperation are being expanded and supplemented by new measures.
This is how German foreign policy is contributing what it can towards the internationalization of our research landscape. It creates additional incentives and favourable framework conditions for the crossborder development of science and scholarship. Research and academic relations policy is an answer to the challenges and, above all, the opportunities of the global networking of our societies. It makes it possible to move people, build bridges and connect worlds of knowledge.
Dr. Thomas Götz, Commissioner for Research and Academic Relations Policy, Federal Foreign Office
