Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow emphasizes pragmatic cooperation with neighboring countries
Pragmatism in cooperation in education, research and innovation, even beyond the major European discussions, is required and practiced in the border triangle of Saxony, Poland and the Czech Republic. This was emphasized by Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow today at the German-Polish-Czech Science Platform Cross-Border Innovations for Central Europe in Dresden. And: "Cooperation not only strengthens the regions on the border, but all of Europe."
Saxony can look back on a number of successful existing partnerships and planned cross-border projects with Poland and the Czech Republic in the field of research and science. The most recent example is the opening of the Czech-German research platform "Leibniz GWZO Prague" of the Czech Academy of Sciences together with the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe in Leipzig in mid-September 2021.
As an outstanding example of cooperation with Poland, the minister named the Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS) in Görlitz, the German-Polish research center for digital interdisciplinary systems research that is currently being set up, which is attached to the Helmholtz Center Dresden-Rossendorf is affiliated. Sebastian Gemkow: "We are convinced that CASUS will provide important impetus from the border area for all research."
The minister also mentioned the Fraunhofer Society, which in future will provide international centers of excellence alongside its regional centers of excellence. This includes a center for system and transfer research together with the TU Liberec and a center for medical and health technology together with the TU Breslau.
Interreg, the European territorial cooperation as part of the structural and investment policy of the European Union, also supports cooperation in the border triangle. For future cooperation programs with the Czech Republic and Poland, it was agreed to promote stronger cooperation between the universities in the closer border area. Cooperation between small and medium-sized companies and universities and research institutes is also to be supported with the Czech Republic in order to improve their involvement in innovation processes.
The assessment of cross-border cooperation in the previous framework program of the European Union for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, shows that the network of cross-border cooperation was also woven with this instrument. Researchers from Saxony worked and are working together in 139 projects with institutions in the Czech Republic and in 161 projects with institutions in Poland.
Last but not least, Saxony's neighbors are also taken into account in the process of setting up two large research centers in the two coal regions in the Free State.
During today's science platform "Cross-border innovations for Central Europe", the EU service facility ZEUSS of the Saxon Ministry of Science invited representatives of the national contact points and other multipliers of EU research funding from the three countries to discuss further cooperation with regard to the EU exchange program Horizon Europe.
Hintergrund:
The German-Polish-Czech Science Platform Cross-Border Innovations for Central Europe is organized by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in cooperation with the Free State of Saxony. The aim of the conference is to highlight and further deepen the role of the border triangle of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic in cross-border European cooperation in research cooperation and scientific infrastructure.
The science conference continues the series of German-Polish science platforms and German-Czech technology conferences.
