BAYLAT acts as service facility of the Bavarian Ministry of Science and has the objective of promoting networks between Bavarian and Latin American higher education institutions. With the foundation of the network, scientists want to focus on the long-standing research practice on Latin America and deepen research cooperation between Bavarian and Latin American universities and research institutions. “LATinBAY wants to give scientists from all fields of research who intend realize projects with Latin American partners access to the excellent Latin America expertise of our universities. The network also allows us to generate new impetus for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborative research”, explains Prof. Dr. Andrea Pagni, chairperson of the BAYLAT board of directors.
The Bavarian initiative also attracted numerous representatives from institutions all over Germany, such as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the DLR Project Management Agency, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Research Foundation (DLR), Max-Planck and Fraunhofer as well as diplomatic delegates from different Latin American countries who all came to Nuremberg. The event program included presentations of funding instruments in Germany and Bavaria and gave the opportunity for networking and exchange in different specialist groups from the fields of humanities and social sciences, life sciences, natural sciences as well as from the areas of economics and law. The results of the discussions held in the specialist groups serve as a basis for future events organized by the research network.
The KU’s Latin American research has a strong network both in Bavaria and the whole of Germany: At the most recent conference of the working group Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Lateinamerikaforschung (ADLAF), Prof. Dr. Thomas Fischer (Professorship for Latin American History) was confirmed in office as the specialist association’s chairperson and elected for a further two years. Among the association’s members are 30 research institutes and more than 200 scientists. Since 2009, Fischer was also co-director of ZILAS together with Prof. Dr. Roland Schmidt-Riese (Chair of Romance Languages and Linguistics). His position was recently taken over by Prof. Dr. Miriam Lay Brandner (Chair of Romance Literary Studies II), who now forms the ZILAS board of directors together with Schmidt-Riese.
