Mobility between Germany and the Southern Mediterranean countries will in future be much easier for young students, teachers and researchers. Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan presented the possibility of funding under the European ERASMUS MUNDUS programme at a meeting of education and research ministers of the EU and the Mediterranean region in Kairo on Monday. Under this programme, €36 million will be available to encourage students, researchers and teachers to spend study periods in EU countries.
"We need close cooperation with our neighbours in the Mediterranean region especially in the cutting-edge fields of education and research", Schavan said. And she added that modern education, science and research were inconceivable without international relations and mutual exchange.
The Euro-Mediterranean (Euro-Med) Partnership was formed by 37 countries including the EU Member States and Mediterranean partner countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. As agreed by the Euro-Med Ministers of Foreign Affairs at the end of last year, the first Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Higher Education and Scientific Research was now held in Kairo within the framework of the German EU Council Presidency.
This Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference adopted the Cairo Declaration, which outlines concrete measures for intensifying the cooperation between the Euro-Med countries in the areas of higher education and research. A central issue beside the EU's TEMPUS and ERASMUS MUNDUS programmes is the opening of the Seventh EU Research Framework Programme for international cooperation with third countries outside the EU. "This can be achieved in many different ways and we should make the best possible use of the available options – it would be a great success if this were to lead to stronger cooperation in particular with our direct neighbours at the southern shores of the EU", Schavan said. The EU's Research Framework Programme is equipped with total funds of €54 billion.
The Euro-Med countries are also cooperating at the level of higher education institutions, which have established a Euro-Med University Forum. On the fringes of the conference, agreement was reached on a new short-term scholarship programme for doctoral students and young Egyptian post-docs. This programme, which will be implemented by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), will be funded in equal shares by Germany and Egypt to promote study periods in Germany of three to six months' duration. An annual amount of between €200,000 and €240,000 will be made available for this programme.
2007 is the German-Egyptian Year of Science and Technology. Numerous joint events in both countries are being organized to promote new collaborations between research groups and exchanges of young researchers.
