NTU President Pan-Chyr Yang and Vice President for International Affairs Luisa Shu-Ying Chang traveled to the University of Hamburg, Germany with a delegation of 14 professors to take part in a three-day bilateral conference at the NTU partner university from October 13-15.  The trip reciprocated the earlier visit of the University of Hamburg’s President Dieter Lenzen to Taiwan with eleven Hamburg professors to NTU in October 2014.

Called the “Matchmaking Workshop NTU-Hamburg,” the event marked the first time that NTU co-organized a collaboration conference with one of its European strategic partner universities.  The workshop included meetings focused on achieving sustainable academic cooperation in the eleven areas of Art-History, Humanities-Chinese Studies, Digital Humanity, Climate Research, Accounting, Proteomic Analytics, Chemistry-Soft Materials, Law, Latin American Studies, Social and Political Sciences, and Physics-Laserphysics.  During the meetings, 34 professors from the two institutions worked together to develop cooperation projects in the form of faculty and student exchanges, collaborative research, joint seminars, dual-degree programs, and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 project.

President Yang also held a meeting with Hamburg’s Vice President Jetta Frost and Vice President Susanne Rupp to exchange ideas.  As the German university is renowned for its climate research, President Yang presented to the vice presidents a book compiled from a climate research symposium held at NTU.  Meanwhile, Vice President Chang called on Department Head Courtney Peltzer-Hönicke of Hamburg’s Department of International Affairs to discuss future collaboration programs, including special summer programs, the 2017 Hamburg Transnational University Leaders Council, and cooperation on dual-degree programs.

During the matchmaking workshop, Gebhard Reul of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) presented details concerning 19 of its funding programs that support cooperative research.  Each year, the DAAD grants funding totaling EUR 400 million for projects, such as observation visits, visiting lecturships, and research.  Representing Taiwan, Dr. Dong-Yih Lin of Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology Representative Office in Bonn introduced the ministry’s funding programs, which include international joint research collaboration, summer research programs for graduate students, internships, and exchanges.

Having established its partnership with the University of Hamburg in 1998, NTU has designated the German university as a major strategic partner in Europe.