Connected Scotland welcomes German delegation to explore opportunities for closer collaboration

23rd January 2023, hosted by the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Scottish and German counterparts met in Edinburgh in January 2023 to continue to strengthen links between higher education in both nations. Working collaboratively under the Connected Scotland partnership, the event focused on respective research strengths and mobility opportunities. This builds on Minister Hepburn’s visit to Germany last year. During the Minister’s meetings with the DAAD and DFG, several ideas for cooperation were raised, including: joint research training groups for bilateral PhD exchanges; facilitation of research and mobility cooperation between German and Scottish Universities of Applied Sciences; a potential mobility cooperation agreement between the DAAD and a Scottish counterpart organisation; potential fee waiver agreements with individual universities.  

German Academic Exchange Service DAAD (the world’s largest funding organisation for the international exchange of students and researchers) and the German Research Foundation DFG (the central research funding organisation in Germany) are both keen to deepen links with Scotland and Germany is an important part for Scottish HE. Germany is Scotland’s largest partner in Europe for academic research collaboration and second largest partner globally, behind only the USA. The one-day workshop explored possible opportunities for bilateral PhD exchange and other opportunities for student and staff mobility.