Contribution to the Closing Event of the German-Russian Year of Science

With a festive closing event in Berlin, also attended by the German Federal Minister of Education and Research, Prof Dr Annette Schavan, and her Russian Federation counterpart, Prof Dr Andrej Fursenko, the “German-Russian Year of Science and Innovation 2011/12” end on 22 Mai. Under the motto “Partnership of Ideas”, an extensive supporting programme allows insight into the already established binational research projects and addresses both advantages and challenges of international cooperation. By setting up and signing German-Russian agreements, the cooperation of German and Russian scientists and researchers shall be intensified in the future.

Two Trier scientists are engaged in shaping the supporting programme. “Connected! – Networking from a German-Russian Perspective” is a panel in which Dr Natalia Filatkina (Sofja Kovalevskaja Young Research Group “HiFoS”) and Dr Vera Hildenbrandt (Trier Center for Digital Humanities) will be presenting two projects in the spirit of the main idea of the year of science – networking across cultural and disciplinary borders. In a binational tandem, Filatkina explains, together with her Russian colleague from Greifswald University, Alexey Gorin, the communicational issues and approximations established between Russia and Germany in centuries-long trade relations. The dense networks of German and Russian intellectuals in the early 20th century, contributing to a spry cultural exchange, will be examined by Hildenbrandt in her talk “Literaten vernetzt”. This will also happen as a tandem, as an interdisciplinary cooperation with Dr Jörg Ritter, computer scientists at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

The concept of this event, both scientifically examining the transnational networks and finding expression in the tandem structure of the talks and the accompanying artistic performances, was developed by the German-Russian forum of young researchers in cooperation with the “Junge Akademie an der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina” (Young Academy of the Berlin-Brandeburg Academy if Sciences and Humanities and the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina).