7th Palestinian German Science Bridge Virtual Cooperation Workshop 2022

The Palestinian German Science Bridge PGSB Program, which aims to develop joint research and education programs, is coordinated and implemented by the Academy and Juelich Research Center (FZJ), and funded by the German Federal Ministry Education and Research (BMBF), hosted a virtual project meeting on 18-19 May.

The workshop objectives were focused on reporting of scientific results, strengthening of existing collaborations and evaluating the cooperation in the context of the Bridge program, discussing progress and future outlook, research cluster meetings between scientific collaborators and evaluating new applicants to the program.

The 1st day of the workshop was open to all interested participants, including the PGSB Advisory and Steering Committee, Palestinian university directors and deans of scientific research centers in Palestine and Germany, and researchers and interested students from the Palestinian universities and German research institutes.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Ghaleb Natour, Chair of the PGSB Advisory Committee and scientific director give an introduction and update to the PGSB program, also commending the quality and excellence of the Palestinian participants in the bridge. Prof. Imad Khatib, Chair of PGSB Advisory Committee, then gave a presentation detailing the Palestinian higher education system and research capacity, followed by Alumni Report in the following topics.

Research in Palestine: Ghadeer Derbas, PTUK
PGSB Returner Program: Dr. Hebah Fatafta, FZJ and Birzeit University
Research in Germany: Dr. Falastine Abusaif, KIT

The afternoon session was dedicated for research clusters to discuss their plans for 2022/2023 including joint supervision of BSc. and MSc. projects. Topical sessions were hosted by the following research clusters:

Energy Materials (Chair: Dr. Sabreen Hammouda)
Nanoscience (Chair: Dr. Asmaa Qdemat and Dr. Rana Samara)
Neuroscience (Chair: Dr. Jürgen Dammers)
Sustainable Mobility (Chair: Dr. Mohcine Chraibi)

The second day meeting was opened for advisory committee, steering committee and research cluster speakers. The session was opened by Dr. Andrea Lausi, Scientific Director of SESAME, who gave a presentation entitled “SESAME: A regional research opportunity”, followed by presentations from the research cluster speakers to share their joint plans for 2022/2023 including joint supervision of BSc. and MSc. projects with the PGSB Advisory and Steering committee, including their commitments to supervise MSc. projects. Plans for the following topics were presented: