IAMO Director Prof. Dr. Thomas Herzfeld started to introduce core activities of IAMO, including the training of young researchers and promoting scientific exchange, for instance via the IAMO Graduate School, international conferences and summer schools. The institute has been very engaged in research cooperation with higher education and research institutions in Central Asia, and more recently through several projects in Uzbekistan. He emphasized the importance of ongoing reforms in Uzbekistan in improving the research and education system, intensified international cooperation, and further integration of Uzbek researchers into the international scientific community as well as the contribution of IAMO activities to these processes.
Deputy Minister Karsten Heinz introduced recent activities of the Ministry of Innovative Development in promoting science and infrastructural changes in the innovation system of Uzbekistan such as the recently established International Innovation Center for the Aral Sea. He also pointed at the importance of cooperation between German and Uzbek institutions in the modernization of research and education infrastructure in Uzbekistan.
Afterwards IAMO researchers Dr. Nodir Djanibekov, Dr. Ihtiyor Bobojonov, Dr. Lena Kuhn, Dr. Florian Schierhorn and Dr. Golib Sanaev presented their projects in Uzbekistan. The SUSADICA doctoral programme, the Experimental economics lab, an Uzbek-German Chair in the scope of IpRES project, the Insurance Lab, KlimALEZ, and several PhD studies of the Land Systems Group were introduced as examples of cooperation with higher education and research institutions in Uzbekistan.
In the end, both sides agreed to increase cooperation in science and capacity building and looked forward to intensifying discussions and meetings.
