NU and the German Science Foundation Strengthen Research Collaboration
Nazarbayev University (NU) welcomed a delegation from the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) to its campus as part of the UDIF-HAW programme, which aims to build cooperation between German universities of applied sciences and international scientific organizations.
The meeting was opened by NU President Prof. Waqar Ahmad and Prof. Karin Jacobs, Vice President of DFG, who highlighted the importance of expanding international partnerships and supporting the next generation of researchers.
Discussions centered on strengthening ties between NU, DFG, and German partner universities. Currently, 17 joint proposals involving NU researchers are under consideration by DFG, reflecting strong overlap between NU’s research focus on five critical areas – socioeconomic transformation, artificial intelligence and smart systems, health and wellbeing, new materials and technologies, and energy and the environment – and DFG’s research priorities.
“NU is the leading research university in Central Asia. In addition to winning competitive research funds, we invest substantial amounts of our own resources into both maintaining world-class research infrastructure and supporting individual and collaborative projects. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with DFG, recognizing that this is a medium to long-term endeavor, with German universities,” said Prof. Waqar Ahmad.
As the largest research funding organisation and the central self-governing body for the sciences and humanities in Germany, the DFG serves all academic disciplines and supports research of the highest quality.
The visit also included a tour of NU’s laboratories, where the delegation was introduced to ongoing projects and state-of-the-art facilities. Both sides expressed their commitment to developing a long-term partnership, recognizing the importance of sustained collaboration between NU and German universities.
