Approximately 90 researchers from Brazil, Germany and Australia attended the UNESP’s University Council auditorium on September 30th for the opening of the 3rd Global Alliance on Bioeconomy Symposium. The meeting, the result of a partnership established by UNESP, the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), runs until October 4th. The idea is to engage researchers from the three institutions and encourage them to establish academic and scientific partnerships.

The Consul General of India, Sugandh Rajaram, has visited the TUM Campus Straubing to discuss about potential cooperations with India in the field of bioeconomy. With the planned extension of the Global Bioeconomy Alliance to include partners from the different world regions possible Indian universities were evaluated and next measures assessed.

This year’s AIEA Annual Conference took place under the topic What’s Next? Possibilities and Probabilities in the Future of International Higher Education. In January 2019, leading international experts from higher education institutions around the world gathered in San Francisco to discuss trends, best practices and key strategic issues in this field. Representing the trinity of the Global Bioeconomy Alliance, UNESP (José Celso, Freire Junior), UQ (Jen Kane) and TUM (Layla Eberle) jointly presented at a session on Innovations in Global Partnership Building. The audience followed with great interest the speakers sharing their insights on opportunities and innovative actions to build and strengthen international partnerships, with the Global Bioeconomy Alliance being featured as one of its key achievements.

In July 2018 the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts (StMWK), represented by the Bavarian University Centre for Latin America (BAYLAT) and FAPESP have opened a call for common workshops between Bavarian researchers and researchers of the Brazilian State of São Paulo. The call for proposals was open to researchers in all fields.

The organizations have now announced that the common proposal of TUM Campus Straubing and UNESP titled „Global Bioeconomy Alliance – Cooperation Opportunities between Brazil and Germany“ has been selected for funding. The first workshop will take place in October 2019 in São Paulo, the second workshop one year later in Straubing.

The workshops will also be open for participants not being affiliated to TUM and UNESP. Further information on conditions for participation will follow soon.

Global bioeconomy is the subject of a trilateral agreement which was signed in June 2018 between the Australian University of Queensland (UQ), the Brazilian Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP) and the TUM. For years TUM has had bilateral cooperations with both universities regarding student and scientific exchange. The successful cooperation will now be taken to a new level by the »Memorandum of Understanding on the Formation of a Global Bioeconomy Alliance“. The new alliance will be the nucleus of an international university network in the field of bioeconomy.

At mid of June, representatives of TUM, UQ and UNESP will meet in Freising and Straubing (Germany) to conduct a joint symposium on „Natural Products: Analytics, Biodiversity and Biochemistry“. This is another outstanding possiblity to further strengthening the Global Bioeconomy Alliance.

2018 marks the 150th anniversary of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and it is not only celebrated in Munich and Bavaria, but on international level as well: On this occasion, numerous friends, alumni and cooperation partners of TUM attended the festive reception at the residence of the German Consul General on 23rd of March, 2018 in São Paulo. Some alumni even traveled more than six hours by car to celebrate the strengthening of their alma mater’s cooperation ties with Brazil.

The workshop “Renewable Resources” on 9th of March, 2018 in Campinas, Brazil dealt with biocatalytic, fermentative, chemo- and electro-catalytic processes for a sustainable production of chemicals as well as with possibilities of cooperation between Brazil and Germany. Speakers were from CTBE, CNPEM, Embrapii, FAPESP, UNESP, UNICAMP, Fibria, Nitro Quimica, TUM, Fraunhofer IGB, Fraunhofer IVV, DFG and DAAD.

On 5th of March, 2018 representatives of TUM and UNESP discussed at UNESP (São Paulo, Brazil) the further procedure regarding the establishment of the Global Bioeconomy Alliance.

International academics, researchers, and government representatives met from 4th to 6th of October, 2017 at UQ (Brisbane, Australia) to explore the role of biotechnology on future economies.

On 4th of July, 2017 a delegation from the Australian UQ came to TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Germany to initiate an international cooperation in teaching regarding the new course „Chemical Biotechnology“.

Researchers from UQ recently returned from Germany, where they explored the future of biotechnology with some of Europe’s leading scientists.

The aim of the symposium, held on 11th to 12th of June, 2015 at TUM (Munich, Germany) was to bring together scientists and students from UQ and TUM, who are engaged in identifying solutions to significant global challenges such as sustainable production of food, chemicals, materials and energy in the light of dwindling resources.