From 16 to 20 October 2023, Dr. Catalin Stefan joined a German delegation for a one-week trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The trip was organised by the International Office of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under the lead of Ms. Gabriele Hermani, Head of BMBF Division 212 “Collaboration with East European states, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia”.
The delegation included representatives of the national German research landscape from both academic and non-academic sides, including the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), German Research Fundation (DFG), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), German – Kazakh University in Almaty, Kazakhstan (DKU), German Geo Research Center Potsdam (GFZ), Hochschulrektorenkonferenz (HRK), Leibnitz Association, Leibniz-Institut für Agrarentwicklung in Transformationsökonomien (IAMO), Leibniz-Institut für Gemüse- und Zierpflanzenbau (IGZ) e.V., Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung (ZALF) e. V., Potsdam-Institut für Klimafolgenforschung (PIK), Reiner Lemoine Institute GmbH, as well as representatives from TU Dresden, TU Berlin, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, and University Alliance Ruhr.
The main objectives of the trip included the promotion of networking activities between representatives of research and innovation in Germany and Uzbekistan, as well as the knowledge exchange and initiation of new research collaborations between researchers from both countries. This was facilitated by the active participation to INNOWEEK, the international exhibition and conference organised annually by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where we also presented our new research project FARM. This offered a great opportunity for the German and Uzbek coordinators of the FARM project, Dr. Catalin Stefan from TUD and Dr. Alim Asamatdinov from IICAS, to meet for and discuss the project agenda.