Leadership Roundtables - A roadmap for future international cooperation

Unlike the previous forums focusing on a particular theme, this year’s forum took a broader and strategic perspective on science policy and science management, reflecting on the structural frameworks that shape international cooperation in research and innovation. Over the years, academic and research ties between the two nations have flourished, largely through bilateral initiatives. The forum brought multiple stakeholders together on one platform to take a joint approach towards the future of Indo-German academic cooperation.

The forum was organised in two parts, leadership roundtables and a networking evening which also celebrated 100 years of DAAD in the presence of its cooperation partners.

Leadership Roundtables
In six leadership roundtables, 60+ institutional leaders, policymakers, and experts from both India and Germany engaged in structured, open, and outcome-driven discussions. The six topics were:

• Systems: Strengths and challenges of research systems
  Focus topics: Strengthening international research partnerships; future key areas of focus and investment; evolving funding models; metrics of measurement and future of cooperation in changing geo-political contexts.
• Move: Cross-border research careers
  Focus topics: Drivers of mobility of researchers; addressing the imbalance between the two countries, flexibility of funding and increasing diversity of institutions in programmes and systemic changes to support better reintegration of researchers in their home countries.
• Education: Sustainable structured exchange programmes
  Focus topics: Difference in strategies related to transnational education; successful models for cooperation; equitable access and mobility challenges, and sustainability of programmes.
• Collaborate: Equitable research partnerships
  Focus topics: Current discourse in both the countries; responsibility of institutions and policy makers to ensure equitable research partnerships; significance of indigenous knowledge and participatory research; and challenges of data and knowledge sharing.
• Horizon: The role of social sciences and humanities
  Focus topics: Structural, institutional and funding-related challenges in global partnerships; analysis of knowledge hierarchies and power dynamics on international research collaborations, addressing thematic freedom, funding constraints, and institutional pressures that impact scientific autonomy; and position of India and Germany in each other’s research priorities and funding programmes.
• Innovation: Pathways for technology transfer
  Focus topics: Understanding of national systems of research-based startups and academia-industry linkages; models for supporting technology maturation up to TRL 6; identifying effective and sustainable models for international joint technology development and innovation.

These key themes were identified in earlier stakeholder dialogues organised by DWIH New Delhi. The Leadership Roundtables aimed to have an open dialogue on future directions of these topics. With the participation of around 100 stakeholders, discussions took place at this scale for the first time, with equal representation from both Germany and India. The results of the discussions will be published in the coming months as a blueprint for future dialogue and recommendations for actions at the individual, institutional, and policy levels.

Dialogues and Networking Evening
The event included a high-level panel on a joint vision for Indo-German research cooperation followed by a networking reception. This event also served as an opportunity to celebrate 100 years of the DAAD and 65 years of its presence in India.

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