Germany is keen on scientific collaboration with India, said Hans-Guenther Loeffler, Deputy Consul General, German Consulate General in Bangalore, while delivering the inaugural address at the three-day Indo-German Conference on Laser Applications and Nano Science here.
The conference is being organised by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG) in collaboration with the Srinivasa Ramanujan Institute for Basic Sciences, under the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE), the Goethe Zentrum and The Humboldt Club, Thiruvananthapuram.
“International cooperation in science is necessary and is a driving force of progress and German collaboration is very much directed to India; we have very high regard for the potential of Indian scientists,” he said.
Inviting Indian scientific community to make use of the infrastructure and expertise at their institutions for collaborative research activities, Loeffler said laser technology and nano sciences has been identified by Germany as an area with enormous potential for innovation, for the future growth of industries and for the creation of new, qualified workplaces.
The German government launched an action plan in 2010 to promote nanotechnology R&D and translational research to take the technology from laboratory to the industry. “All these institutes are not just for Germans but for excellent scientists from all over the world. A number of science institutes today have directors who are not from Germany. We always want to attract the best and facilitate scientific collaboration by lowering the psychological, linguistic and administrative barriers,” Loeffler added.
Germany has several networks of science and research institutions, some of the most important ones being Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Helmholtz Gemeinschaft and the Max Planck Society. Loeffler said that such Indo-German conferences contribute to the networking between scientists of the two countries.
On the second day of the conference on Friday, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will inaugurate an interactive meeting of scientists and delegates at 5 pm. The sessions to follow will be moderated by K P Rajappan Nai and Syed Ibrahim.
More than 100 delegates, including scientists, researchers and subject experts from the two countries, are taking part in the conference, which will conclude on December 7.