idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) have been jointly developing research-based expertise for dealing with China in scientific cooperations through their project Knowledge for Academic Cooperation: Research-based and action-guiding China competence for German academic organizations (WiWiKo-China) since the end of 2023. The initiative is supported by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) as part of the Regio-China funding line and will run until 2026.
New ChinaAHa Publication Series: Digital Knowledge Transfer with a Broad Impact
The publication series ChinaAHa – China Analyses and Action Competence was launched in April 2025 and is a central element of the WiWiKo-China project. The first paper, “Chinesisch nebenbei lernen?,” was written by Prof. Dr. Andreas Guder and Andrea Frenzel in cooperation with the regional project ChiKoN - China Competence in the North and funded by the BMFTR. It analyzes the Chinese language courses offered at language and China centers at German universities, focusing on aspects such as staffing, teaching scope, language didactics, intercultural content, and learning objectives. The conclusion: many courses are not yet sufficiently tailored to the specific linguistic and cultural requirements of China competence development.
As a response to the findings, Prof. Dr. Andreas Guder released a follow-up publication with specific recommendations for a modular introductory concept “Elementary Chinese language skills” in May 2025. The study and an accompanying WiWiKo-China Kit with recommended reading and links to online sources are now available to download from the WiWiKo-China website.
WiWiKo-China: A Cross-sectional Project with Analytical Depth
WiWiKo-China is an overarching, analytical cross-sectional project that networks the 11 regional initiatives of the BMFTR funding line that seek to strengthen China expertise at universities and research institutions nationwide. The respective WiWiKo-China services focus on topics such as the Chinese science system, current developments in Chinese science policy, and their impact on international cooperation.
The project is hosted by the MPIWG’s Lise Meitner Research Group (LMRG) “China in the Global System of Science,” which analyzes the social structures of science in the People's Republic of China and interactions between social norms, political framework conditions, and China's efforts to assume a constitutive and dominant role in global science. The international research group combines methods from the social sciences, regional studies, and related disciplines in order to explore themes such as science policy developments in China and characteristics of international research cooperation with Chinese partners.
The project partner DAAD complements the WiWiKo-China approach with its comprehensive network and institutional knowledge. This includes the international offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the experience gained from scholarship and project work, the Competence Centre for International Academic Cooperation (KIWi), and the expertise of its member universities.
Networking, Workshops, and Strategic Impulses
An additional goal of WiWiKo-China is to create spaces for dialog. In a dynamic series of workshops, representatives of regional initiatives, academics, and practitioners come together to discuss the opportunities and challenges of research cooperation with China. Impulses and needs from the Regio-China projects flow directly into the workshop design, and thus also into the ongoing analyses and future publications of WiWiKo-China. A curated literature database on all topics covered by the project has also been published on the WiWiKo-China website.
Anna Strob, office-ahlers@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
https://static.daad.de/media/daad_de/infos-services-fuer-hochschulen/wi-wi-ko-ch...
https://www.daad.de/en/information-services-for-higher-education-institutions/wi...
Logo of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Copyright: © MPIWG
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
Environment / ecology, Medicine, Politics, Social studies, Teaching / education
transregional, national
Cooperation agreements, Research projects
English
Logo of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
Copyright: © MPIWG
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
