On 11 July 2016 the founding meeting of The German-Ukrainian Academic Society (Die Deutsch-Ukrainische Akademische Gesellschaft) has been held in Berlin. 16 scientists and academic professionals came together in order to found an organisation, which once registered as a legal entity (e.V.) will support the goals of the UKRAINE Network in the context of the German-Ukrainian academic cooperation (press-release). The founding members came to this meeting from all over Germany: they carry out research and teaching at the universities of Augsburg, Bielefeld, Greifswald, Tübingen, Duisburg-Essen, Gießen, Heilbronn University, the German National Centres of the Helmholtz Association (HZB, HZDR, HZI and MDC) and the Leibniz Institute of Molecular Pharmacology. The founding members see as one of the central tasks of the new society the establishment of a dialogue and cooperation platform, which should fascilitate networking, best practice exchanges, and provide support to researchers in Germany and Ukraine, who are interested in bi-lateral and multi-lateral cooperation in higher education, research and science.
At the meeting the board members were unanimously elected:
- President – Professor Olga Garaschuk (University of Tübingen),
- Vice-President – Professor Matthias Epple (University of Duisburg-Essen),
- Managing Director – Dr Oksana Seumenicht (MDC, Berlin Buch),
- Treasurer – Dr Nelia Wanderka (Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin).