Iraqi Diplomats visit TU Bergakademie Freiberg

"In Germany, five cooperation projects with Iraq are currently financed by the German Academic Exchange Service, alone two of them in Freiberg" reports Prof. Christoph Breitkreuz, vice rector for external relations. At present, the Bergakademie Freiberg is busy establishing two master’s courses in the fields of mechanical engineering and geo resources in association with universities in both Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. For that, Freiberg obtains € 1.35 million from the German Academic Exchange Service for a period of three years. The funds were raised by Prof. Broder Merkel from the Department for Geology and Prof. Jürgen Bast from the Department for Mechanical Engineering. The guests from Iraq see potential for cooperating further with the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. After Prof. Breitkreuz presented the profile of the university to them future cooperation in the areas of deposit/mining as well as environmental protection/sustainability is desired.

First steps for the specific cooperation were taken on 20th and 21st October in Erbil, located in northern Iraq. In the context of a conference held by the German Academic Exchange Service scientists from the TU Bergakademie met representatives from Iraqi universities to agree on mutual training programmes. The first workshop will take place at the beginning of December in Freiberg.