The “Eastern Partnerships” program strengthens and promotes partnerships between German universities and universities in Central Eastern, Eastern and South Eastern Europe as well as the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Potsdam University of Applied Sciences has long-standing relationships with its partner universities in Uzbekistan and will be able to deepen these in the coming years
The Potsdam University of Applied Sciences was successful in raising funds
The Potsdam University of Applied Sciences has successfully raised funds to deepen long-standing relationships with partner universities in Uzbekistan in the approved project "Interdisciplinary on Monuments - Transfer, innovative methods and research-based learning in practical projects for the preservation of Uzbekistan's cultural heritage" from 2021 to 2023. Photo: Registan Square Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Wikimedia Commons/ Benjamin Goetzinger
The “Eastern Partnerships” program has been in existence since 1974 and was created as part of the “new Ostpolitik”, which over 40 years ago aimed to improve and further expand the Federal Republic of Germany’s relations with the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries. Since then, the program has gone through various phases in which the foreign policy framework of the Federal Republic of Germany in relation to its Eastern partners has changed, in some cases fundamentally.
Currently, around 80 German universities cooperate with around 290 universities in the region in the Eastern Partnership Program. On average, 4,500 people are supported in the program each year. The aim is to consolidate existing partnerships and establish new partnerships between German universities and universities in the target region. In addition, the aim is to achieve broad-based cooperation in teaching and research, which contributes to the internationalization of German and foreign universities.
Three projects with Uzbekistan are currently receiving financial support from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Bonn. The Potsdam University of Applied Sciences was able to successfully acquire funding to deepen long-standing relationships with partner universities in Uzbekistan in the approved project “Interdisciplinary on Monuments – Transfer, innovative methods and research-based learning in practical projects for the preservation of Uzbekistan’s cultural heritage” from 2021 to 2023.
With this project, the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences would like to contribute to supporting the maintenance and preservation of the architectural world cultural heritage as well as intensive cooperation between all partners involved in research and teaching, studies and further education. Uzbek and German students, doctoral candidates and scientists can receive a total of 30,000 euros in funding for study, teaching and research stays at the UAS Potsdam and in Uzbekistan.
Another aim of the project is to lay the foundations for further cooperation in the further development of existing and the development of new, coordinated research and study formats in the fields of architecture and urban planning, monument preservation, civil engineering, building conservation and building in existing structures as well as conservation and restoration.
Scholarships for mobility and residencies, a summer school in Uzbekistan in 2022 and a network conference at the end of the project are currently planned.