Science Diplomacy in Times of Crisis

The Volkswagen Foundation is funding a Berlin University Alliance project that focuses on crisis management in scientific relations. Diplomatic crises between different states have been putting scientific relations under immense strain in recent years. The Berlin University Alliance (BUA), made up of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, wants to improve its ability to respond to the diplomatic challenges of internationalization. The Volkswagen Foundation is set to fund the project "Facing Challenges of Internationalization Together: A Network for Diplomatic Resilience at the Berlin University Alliance" with 410,000 euros over the next three years. "Global cooperation in research remains of central importance, and all the more so in the context of climate change and the pandemic, which is only now drawing to a close," says Dr. Herbert Grieshop, director of the Division of International Affairs at Freie Universität Berlin, who applied for project funding on behalf of BUA. However, Grieshop adds, universities increasingly operate in an international context that is fraught with tension. "For several years now the issue of cooperation with partners in authoritarian regimes and academic freedom has been pushed to the forefront.