Global research collaboration is key in the context of climate change and pandemics. But universities operate in a tense international environment. The accumulation of crises in science diplomacy with different countries makes it clear that the problem must be understood and addressed not as an unfortunate coincidence, but as something that requires long term consideration

The present project aims at networking within BUA in the field of science diplomacy and is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation until 2026. The aim is to create a forum that bundles the country-specific and specialist expertise available in BUA institutions and makes the Alliance more capable of acting in the face of challenges in international science cooperation.
To this end, the project establishes measures in the areas of consultation, sensitization and reflection:

1. Both university leaders and individual scientists find a platform in the project to obtain scientifically sound advice and to act responsibly in the event of acute challenges in institutional or individual cooperation.
2. In the internationalization work, different actors of the universities encounter similar challenges. In the BUA Forum on Diplomatic Resilience, they have the opportunity to exchange information on processes and programs in regular meetings across institutional or departmental boundaries, to become aware of common challenges and to learn from one another.
3. Furthermore, the project aims beyond the crisis mode creating a space for a deeper reflection on the position of universities in the new internationalization environment. Experts from academia and administration provide impulses, which are taken up in thematic roundtables and made available to the broader academic public in the form of policy briefs and a position paper.

Contact

Christiane Wolf Suzuki, Project Coordinator BUA Forum on Diplomatic Resilience
Tel.: +49 30 / 838 622 70
Email: c.wolf.suzuki@fu-berlin.de

Related links

Press release by Freie Universität Berlin about the funding approval