The DWIH-SP celebrates its tenth anniversary

In February 2012, in the presence of the former German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, the fifth German Centre of Research and Innovation (DWIH) was inaugurated in the city of São Paulo - the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere in addition to those in New York, Moscow, New Delhi and Tokyo. The decision to establish a DWIH-SP in Brazil stems from the solid ties that have linked the German education and research landscape with Brazil for around 50 years, as well as from the country's strategic importance for Germany. To celebrate the significant achievements of its first decade of operation, a commemorative event was held on 22 February 2022 at the DWIH-SP itself, attended by several institutional representatives, scholars and friends of the DWIH (to learn more, click here).

From the very beginning, the WWU was significantly involved in the conception and establishment of the DWIH-SP, helping to shape and contributing to German institutional engagement in Brazil. Already in 2010 – the founding year of the Brazil Centre – the WWU decided to join the DWIH-SP with its Brazil Centre and established its representative office there, which was inaugurated in November 2012. Since then, the WWU has been operating locally, always in line with the Brazil Centre's main office in Münster. The physical presence in the DWIH-SP office has been proven to be beneficial in many aspects  over the past ten years: The proximity and easy access to Brazilian institutions, the synergy with the other German representations also established in the DWIH and the functioning as a contact point between the academic and scientific communities in Münster and Brazil have already borne numerous fruits for the WWU, which continues to consolidate itself as the German institution with the highest number of active partnerships in Brazil.

Considering this context, and given the intertwining of her own professional career with the establishment of the DWIH-SP, the Executive Director of the Brazil Centre, Anja Grecko Lorenz, was one of the interviewees in the commemorative series celebrating the German Centre's tenth anniversary. The video, as well as the other interviews of the anniversary series, can be viewed in full length on the website of the DWIH-SP (audio in Portuguese with English subtitles).