Bavaria-Québec News

On 6 June, 2017, Prof. Manfred Broy, founding president of the Zentrum für Digitalisierung Bayern (ZD.B) presented on Industry 4.0 at the invitation of Printemps numérique. The presentation was part of Printemps numérique's #intersections VOL. 5: Industry 4.0 event, held at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal.

On March 28, 2017, representatives of the governments of Québec and Bavaria, as well as scientists from various Bavarian research institutes and representatives of the business community came together for the first time to discuss their current scientific activities in the Arctic at the invitation of the WKS (BayFOR). The topic "Arctic" has been present for several years in scientific cooperation in Bavaria-Québec, and these discussions will continue to occur at regular intervals. The next meeting will take place on May 16, 2017, in the context of the workshop "The Arctic - Law and Politics" at the University of the Bundeswehr in Neubiberg.

Comparisons of French literature and cultures in and outside Europe are currently the subject of numerous research projects in Romance studies. Compared to other literarz genres, poetry is analysed less frequently. In Québec, poetry has been an important part of cultural life since the 1960s, giving the voices of the Révolution tranquille a platform. Jana Nürnberger's project, supervised by Prof. Isabella von Treskow (University of Regensburg), is devoted to Québec's contemporary poetry. With the help of mobility funding, Ms. Nürnberger spent several months at the Université de Montréal with Prof. Andrea Oberhuber in 2016 and examined, among others, the work of the poet Claude Beausoleil.

On October 18, 2016 the Working Group Bavaria-Québec met in Munich for the fourteenth time. The working programme was set for the next two years under the joint chairmanship of Mr. Michel Lafleur, Department Head, Bilateral Relations in the Ministry for International Relations and La Francophonie of Québec and Gunnar Wiegand, Deputy Head, European Politics and International Relations at the Bavarian State Chancellery. More than 60 cooperation projects were agreed upon for the upcoming two years, including 24 projects in the fields of science and technology.

The institutional working group Bavaria-Québec meets alternately every two years in Bavaria and Québec to coordinate, discuss, and develop their cooperation in politics, economy, science, education, and culture. The field of science and technology is managed by the Scientific Coordination Office Bavaria-Québec (WKS), which is embedded in the Bavarian Research Alliance. Over the next two years, the scientific and technological cooperation will focus on especially on energy, as well as on neurosciences, life sciences, Plan Nord, arctic studies, and bilateral participations within multilateral research projects.

Quadrocopters require the use of unmanned aerial vehicles as active control systems to stabilize their trajectory. The software required with its algorithm is of particular importance. Under the scientific direction of Prof. Schilling (University of Würzburg) and Prof. Sharf (McGill University), who have been working on this topic for many years, Sebastian Schell was able to prepare his Bachelor's thesis in aerospace informatics. During his three-month stay in Québec, Mr. Schell participated in the development of the quadrocopter "NAVI", which was subjected to various test flights. The evaluation of the flight data is used to optimize software and hardware. The partnership between Bavaria and Québec promotes student mobility through various programs.

In the September issue of “Cell Host and Microbe”, researchers at the University of Montréal published a new method to identify HIV-infected cells. This is particularly demanding because such blood cells only occur in very small amounts. Under the scientific direction of Dr. Daniel Kaufmann, virologists at CRCHUM developed a novel procedure to identify one infected cell in a million cells. Such precise methods are necessary to improve methods which remove the virus from the body. PhD student Julia Nießl from Bavaria is part of the research group. The partnership Bavaria-Québec partnership supports doctoral projects by through its program for exemptions of student fees for foreign students in Québec.

From 14 to 15 July, 2016, the 8th Regionl Leaders Summit was held in Munich, Bavaria. The focal topic of this year’s Regional Leaders’ Summit was “Digitalization and Innovation”. With the 8th Regional Leaders’ Summit, the partner regions expanded their cooperation in the fields of economy and science, shaped the developments accompanying digitalization, and opened up future prospects. The strong bilateral relationship between Bavaria and Québec was further strengthened during this multilateral and multiregional conference, with several new cooperation agreements being signed. The 9th RLS Conference will take place in Québec in 2018, where the theme will be ''Energy transition: Towards a low-carbon economy''.

Read more here.

TIRCON (Treat Iron-Related Childhood-Onset Neurodegeneration) successfully held its Final Conference in Munich from October 15 to October 16.

The successful scientific cooperation between Bavaria and Québec will be further expanded. On September 6, 2014, a new cooperation agreement was signed by Dr. Michael Mihatsch, Bureau Chief of the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture, Science and the Arts (StMBW), Ms. Maryse Lassonde, Scientific Director at Fonds de recherche du Québec - Nature and Technology, and Mr. Renaldo Battista, Scientific Director at Fonds de recherche du Québec – Health.

As part of IFAT 2014, the World’s Leading Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste, and Raw Materials Management, a unique forum on Canadian water and energy resources was held May 7, 2014.