The list of participants is impressive: the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Max Planck Society, the Leibniz Society, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Helmholtz Association, the Fraunhofer Society, the German Rectors’ Conference and the Leopoldiana German Academy of Sciences all want to be represented in the German Houses of Science and Innovation (DWIH). German universities and companies are displaying equally great interest. The DWIHs are arousing immense enthusiasm in Germany’s research landscape. Five of these “embassies of science” are currently being developed on four continents: in Tokyo (Japan), New York (USA), Moscow (Russia), New Delhi (India) and São Paulo (Brazil). The DWIHs are one of the major projects in the Federal Foreign Office’s Research and Academic Relations Initiative. They will combine the whole spectrum of research and innovation competence from Germany. Although individual universities and research organizations, such as the Helmholtz Association and the German Research Foundation already have their own offices abroad, they have never before been represented beneath a single roof.
The five Houses of Science have been planned by the Federal Foreign Office in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The Federal Foreign Office is providing the initial financing of three million euros per year. The new institutions want to set up a global network and become “showcases of German science”. The most advanced preparations for the DWIHs have been made in Russia and Brazil. In March 2009 work began on the German House of Science and Innovation project in São Paulo and shortly afterwards in Moscow. “I’m pleased that we are launching this project for the future. Science and research in particular are crucial to our sustainability,” said Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the start of the project in South America. He added that, together with research in industry, Germany’s science and research organizations are a “definite advertisement for Germany’s innovative strength”. According to the Federal Foreign Minister, the DWIHs’ objective is to bring together German science and research with the creative minds at leading international research centres.
The development of each individual house is being headed by “consortium leaders” consisting of various organizations, sometimes operating alone and sometimes in partnership. For the first three years they will ensuring that everything runs smoothly before the DWIHs start working under their own management. The names of the participating organizations vary, depending on the particular location. In New York the DAAD and the DFG are sharing responsibility; in Moscow the DAAD is in charge on its own, while in New Delhi the DFG is setting up the German House of Science. In São Paulo responsibility lies with the local branch of the German Chamber Network (AHKs). A good example of cooperation between science and business is the German House of Science and Innovation in the Japanese capital. In Tokyo the German Rectors’ Conference and the German Chamber of Commerce Japan are working together as “consortium partners”. Together they represent almost 260 German universities and over 500 companies. As a result, the House of Science in Japan is a good model for the main objective of the DWIHs: the creation of centres representing Germany’s science and research landscape.
All of the organizations represented at the Houses of Science will be organizing joint event programmes with an unparalleled high level of diversity. The DWIHs will form contact points for foreign scientists, students and members of the business community, and they will bundle information about Germany that is of importance to the interested parties. Each of the DIHWs will have a central “one stop shop” which offers initial advice and helps create contacts with Germany. At the same time the DWIHs aim to promote exchanges in the opposite direction as well. The Houses of Science are offering a completely new service for science and research concentrated in centres of competence.
