Both the institutions agreed to consider each other as key partners and establish a virtual foci centre for enhancing mutual partnership
IIT Roorkee (IITR) delegation, led by Director Prof KK Pant, visited the University of Potsdam (UP) in Germany to discuss and accelerate their partnership in higher education, research and collaborations. The visit was made possible through the invitation of Professor Oliver Günther, President of UP and facilitated by IITR’s International Relations office and an international Indo-German Cooperation project.
The IITR delegation consisted of Director Prof KK Pant; Dean – International Relations; Prof Vimal Chandra Srivastava; Prof P Arumugam (Professor Physics); Prof Ankit Agarwal (Hydrology, Lead Project Investigation of Indo-German Project) and International Relation Office representatives, Dr Ravikant Ranjan and Ravi Kumar.
Besides, Prof Oliver Guenther; Dr Regina Neum-Flux, Director, International Office; Marita Böhning, Strategic Advisor to the Vice President for International Affairs; Prof Axel Bronstert, Chair of Hydrology and Climatology, Institute of Environmental Science and Geography and Dr Jürgen Mey, Scientific Coordinator Co-PREPARE, Coordinator Research Focus ‘Earth and Environmental Systems’ joined the meeting.
Prof Pant proposed to host faculty members from UP under various programmes at different levels, open to both young and experienced faculty members. Both institutions agreed to exchange young professors and scientists to share knowledge and research experience, even participating in teaching at the partner institute.
The President of UP conveyed that the visit provides an opportunity to look back at the relationship and cooperation and strengthen it further. They also discussed their cooperation in hydrology, climatology and disaster management among others and how to diversify and expand collaboration further.
Based on their cooperation, joint projects, joint publication records and regular student and faculty mobility, UP and IITR agreed to consider each other as key partners and establish a virtual foci centre. This will help in securing better administrative support to structure collaboration programmes and joint funding opportunities in other research areas such as clean water, green energy, and carbon capture and utilisation.
During the meeting at the New Palais Campus, both institutions discussed strengthening their existing Joint Masters Exchange Programme and proposed enhancing the PhD Exchange Programme while working towards an Undergraduate Exchange Programme.
