Director of DFG Office Russia/CIS Wilma Rethage Overviewed Current Developments

She and her colleague Natalya Dobrovolskaya arrived on January 23rd.

They met with Vice-Rector Linar Latypov, Chair of the Department of Solid State Physics Lenar Tagirov, and Chair of the Department of Microbiology Olga Ilinskaya.

DFG has so far supported 10 KFU projects in physics, linguistics, chemistry, mechanics, law, Islamic and Arabic studies, philology, and other fields.

DGF holds annual contests for research projects in all fields of science. The duration of funding is usually between three and nine years. Projects in Russia have to be co-financed by local agencies (Russian Science Foundation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, or Russian Foundation for Humanities).

Ms. Dobrovolskaya noted during the meeting, “As our practice shows, Russian Science Foundation only greenlights about 10 percent of applications, whereas for DFG this is 10 to 30 percent depending on the field. Last year, 6 of 59 applications in humanities were approved. This year marks the first time when applications can be made in any discipline.”

Vice-Rector Latypov asked the visitors to extend his invitation to Dr. Frank Allgöwer, DFG Vice-President.