DAAD SDG Graduate Schools

DAAD Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools: Global Partnerships in Higher Education

The DAAD Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools aim to provide the infrastructure for fostering cooperative efforts among German higher education institutions and their counterparts in Latin America, Africa and Asia. They resonate with the UN Agenda 2030 call upon the world community to build global partnerships in order to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are formulated as joint objectives for the world community and cover a broad range of themes and social issues. Their ultimate goal is the generation of well-being and peaceful and inclusive societies while at the same time preserving our planet.

Achieving the SDGs will require a series of multidimensional transformations which must be based in systematic knowledge. Therefore, institutions of higher education are of foremost importance for realizing the Agenda 2030: They not only engage in fundamental research and the generation of robust basic knowledge that can contribute to higher ecological, social and economic sustainability. They also train young people who will be the future decision-makers and practitioners in different sectors (government, business, non-profit etc.) so that they can promote the sustainable well-being of their societies.

In the seven DAAD Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools, German universities are partnering with universities in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and their diversity reflects the multifaceted character of the Agenda 2030. They engage in capacity-building through developing research and teaching programs related to different SDGs in the natural and social sciences. They also promote academic internationalization and interdisciplinarity: Frequent exchanges among partners (at all stages of development) enable researchers and students to view global challenges from different regional perspectives and modes of knowledge production and identify interdependencies and cases for comparison between the different world regions. They also put into practice the Agenda 2030 mandate to overcome scientific and political boundaries and approach challenges for sustainable development from an integrated perspective. In order to disseminate their findings, all SDG Graduate schools have established ties with other epistemic communities and engage with important stakeholders from politics, the economic sector, and civil society. Funding for the DAAD SDG Graduate Schools is provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ.

Learn more about the seven DAAD Bilateral SDG Graduate Schools:

CLIFOOD – German-Ethiopian SDG-Graduate School “Climate Change Effects on Food Security”

The German-Ethiopian SDG-Graduate School entitled ’Climate Change Effects on Food Security’ (CLIFOOD) aims at empowering young academics of HEIs on the African continent focusing on SDGs 1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 13 (climate action), 15 (life on land) and 17 (partnerships for the goals).
CLIFOOD was jointly established by the Food Security Centre, University of Hohenheim in Germany and Hawassa University in Ethiopia.

trAndeS – Postgraduate Program on Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean Region

trAndeS is a structured research and training program conducted by the project partners Freie Universität Berlin and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) in Lima.
trAndeS focuses on the multidimensional social inequalities of the Andean region and their impact on the opportunities for the realization of the SDGs.

Yaoundé–Bielefeld Bilateral Graduate School Natural Products with Antiparasite and Antibacterial Activity (YaBiNaPA)

The Yaoundé–Bielefeld Bilateral Graduate School Natural Products with Antiparasite and Antibacterial Activity (YaBiNaPA) is a collaborative project between Bielefeld University (Germany) and the University of Yaoundé 1 (Cameroon).

RoHan – Rostock Hanoi DAAD SDG Graduate school – Catalysis as Key towards Sustainable Resource Management

The RoHan DAAD SDG Graduate school is a cooperation between the University of Rostock together with the Leibniz Institute for Catalysis in Rostock and the Hanoi University of Science and Technology and Vietnam National University – University of Science in Hanoi, Vietnam. It enables the development and establishment of catalysis technologies and processes through the training of qualified Vietnamese scientists able to assume leadership positions in both industry and academia.

Wits-TUB Urban Lab Programme

The Wits-TUB Urban Lab programme is built on a partnership agreement between the Habitat Unit at the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) and the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits). The overall objective of the collaboration is to contribute to the implementation of urban relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA) on the sub-Saharan African continent.

DSSP – Doctoral Studies Support Program on Environmental Peace Building and Development in Colombia

DSSP is a training and research program developed and operated by the University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), Institute for Environmental Studies (IDEA). The program focuses on territorial rights, land use, access to and the extraction of natural resources that are deeply entrenched with diverse forms of violence, reproducing structural inequalities and conflicts.

Publication: Building, Shaping, Realizing

In total, seven international Graduate Schools focusing on the SDGs are funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). This publication introduces the different research approaches and programs:

„In December 2016, the graduate school was opened to promote scientific work on the role of art in international understanding and conflict resolution. “In order to create peace between people, you must remind them that they share a common culture”, says Dr. Abba Tijani, project director at the University of Maiduguri.“The cooperation aims at sustainably strengthening not only North-South exchange but also inner-African dialogue”, explains Professor Raimund Vogels, project partner at the University of Hildesheim. “We also want knowledge to be generated within the countries them-selves. The future experts will be trained locally and, after earning their doctorates, can contribute to social change in their countries.” (Page 14)

 

Click here to read the publication!