2nd Chile-Germany Academic Forum

BERLIN, FROM June 16th to 18th, 2025

Established in 2023, this academic initiative aims to strengthen existing ties and forge new collaborations between Chilean and German universities. The primary goal of the Forum is to collaboratively address global challenges, in particular, threats to the environment in an unpredictable and multipolar world. Participants will approach these challenges by fostering collaboration between Chilean and German institutions, and leveraging interdisciplinary knowledge to develop sustainable science-based solutions.

Registration date extended: apply now until May 11th!

The next forum will be held in Berlin, from June 16 to 18, 2025, hosted by Technische Universität Berlin. In this version, participants will engage in either of the following working groups:

1. Energy, Raw Materials and Resources for the Green Transition:

Scientific coordination: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Roland Dittmeyer

Organizational coordination: Karlsruher Institute of Technology

Considering the urgent need to address climate change, this working group will focus on issues related to the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. Both countries are committed to this transition, with Chile having a significant renewable energy potential, and Germany offering technological expertise, with the development of green hydrogen as a shared interest. However, there are several challenges on grid infrastructure, cost management, and the integration of new technologies. Social and territorial consequences, public acceptance, job impacts, and land use planning are also a significant concern. Market and political challenges also must be assessed as well to implement effective regulatory frameworks. All this offers opportunities for deepening research through Chile-Germany academic cooperation.

2. A World in Movement: Climate Change, Territoriality and Migration:

Scientific coordination: Dr. Dorothy Makaza-Goede

Organizational coordination: Universität Hamburg

This working group seeks to critically explore the dynamic interplay between climate change, territoriality, and human migration. Climate-induced displacement—whether internal or transnational—presents complex and uncertain outcomes for affected communities, demanding a multi-disciplinary approach. The working group will therefore address climate-induced migration and the underlying government policies, governance structures and international legal frameworks but also cultural implications and sensitivities as well as dimensions of justice in its international and local dimensions. Participants are invited to contribute insights from a range of disciplines, including environmental science, law, policy, sociology, human geography, history, area studies, and more to deepen the collective understanding of this critical global issue.

3. Livable Cities: Resilient Architecture and Urban Development:

Scientific coordination: Dr. Ralf Pasel

Organizational coordination: Technische Universität Berlin

This working group will discuss approaches to help cities become livable and resilient in the face of environmental, social, and economic challenges. Discussions will focus on sustainable urban planning, resilient architectural design, and the integration of green technologies to enhance urban living, ensuring that our cities can thrive now and in the future.

4. Global Health and New Developments in Biotechnologies:

Scientific coordination: Prof. Dr. Justo Lorenzo Bermejo

Organizational coordination: Universität Heidelberg

The aim of this working group is to explore research opportunities at the interface between global health and new biotechnological developments. In a rapidly changing landscape, the integration of recent advances in molecular epidemiology and data science offers great potential to improve health and reduce health inequalities worldwide. Emerging (bio)technologies and evidence-based health research can provide new answers to the question of better health for all, but they also pose risks if applied without proper safeguards. This working group will promote binational collaboration in the fields of genetic epidemiology and big data analytics, health innovation, and social determinants of health, while addressing research opportunities as well as ethical and data safety concerns.

NEW Working Groups:

5. Thinking “Umwelten” (Environments) in the age of AI: planetary design between Chile and Germany:

Scientific coordination: Wolfgang Bongers, Universidad Católica de Chile, Núcleo Milenio FAIR

Organizational coordination: TU Berlin

Focusing on technical and cultural exchanges between Chile and Germany in recent decades, this working group seeks to reconstruct some of the constellations that surround the notion of Umwelt, in order to contribute to the planetary design of an ecological thinking in the age of AI. From multidisciplinary approaches in the humanities and social sciences, we will explore questions such as: What kinds of materialities and materialisms should be included in contemporary studies of artificial intelligence and its socio-technical effects? How might the synthesis of biological and mechanical organicism that cybernetics attempted in the mid-twentieth century help us to further assess the technological planetary platforms in which we seem to be immersed? How might we imagine and design, even if speculatively, AI futures in which humans, machines, and diverse environments can coexist and cooperate organically?

6. Defending Democracy in Times of Crisis:

Scientific coordination: Prof. Dr. Claudia Zúñiga, University of Chile

Organizational coordination: Jun.-Prof. Dr. Endre Borbath, Universität Heidelberg

This working group aims to promote a global understanding of pressing issues endangering democracy through interdisciplinary collaboration. These issues include disinformation, populism, radicalization, cyber-attacks, and the role of civil society in safeguarding democracy—topics of particular relevance in the current contexts of Chile and Germany. Specific objectives include identifying knowledge gaps, sharing research findings, fostering academic collaborations, and developing innovative methodologies to analyze democracy in times of crisis. The working group plans to bring together scholars from a variety of fields, including political science, sociology, psychology, technology, communication, law, economics, and the humanities.

7. Anti-racist education in comparative perspective: Strengthening research through exchange and collaboration between Chile and Germany:

Scientific coordination: Prof. Dr. Aysun Doğmuş

Organizational coordination: TU Berlin

This working group connects two academics and research teams that each have, in their own context, an outstanding track record in the field of anti-racist education, demonstrated through their teaching, projects and publications. The present proposal is to query, analyze, and propose how concrete models of anti-racist education might be created and implemented in the Chilean and German educational systems - in particular in schools and in teacher training institutions. Although international research shows that expressions of racism are local and particular - and therefore anti-racism initiatives must also be local and particular it is also critical to acknowledge that racism is a global phenomenon, meaning racial ideologies and the material effects of racism are interconnected processes across most, if not all, countries. A comparative and collaborative approach to countering and abating the pervasive effects of racism through schooling represents a key initiative. An international exchange between Chile and Germany will be relevant to addressing how to bridge across and strengthen local initiatives, as well as develop broader concepts that can be applied in multiple country-contexts.