Award ceremony for “Raising the Profile of Education and Science Diplomacy” (BWD)

Our project “YES! Bridge” was awarded the prize for “Raising the Profile of Education and Science Diplomacy” (BWD) (https://education-science-diplomacy.de/) by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Now the prize was officially handed over and we were able to find out what convinced the jury about our project.

Alongside the two other award winners, “FriedenKolumbien” from the Instituto CAPAZ and the Justus Liebig University Giessen and “BRIDGE” from the German Research Centre for Geosciences, whom we of course also congratulate very warmly, YES! Bridge was the third project to receive the award.

The virtual handover of the certificate from Minister Karliczek to Willi Scholz went smoothly.

The laudatory speech was given by Dr Katja Lasch, Head of the German Centre for Research and Innovation in New Delhi, and Dr Ralf Hermann, Head of the Federal Government’s Central Office for International Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training (GOVET) at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). They emphasised the important approach of YES! Bridge, that the young generation deals with relevant social issues, and the way in which research and society are networked in the YES!.

Anja Karliczek, Federal Minister of Education and Research, virtually handed over the certificate to Dr Willi Scholz, General Manager of the YES! and Prof. Dr. Klaus Tochtermann, Director of the ZBW, emphasised how well our project has developed over the past years together with our partner, the Joachim Herz Foundation.

In large group with Prof. Tochtermann (top left), Dr Willi Scholz (bottom left), moderator Andrea Thilo, Susanne Burger, Head of Department “European and International Cooperation” at the BMBF (top right) and Dr Lemmens, Director of the Joachim Herz Foundation (bottom right).

As the icing on the cake, we were then announced as the winners in the public vote.

We are thrilled that we will be able to use this funding to expand YES! next year and give more school teams in the UK and US the opportunity to bring their own ideas to the competition.

Thank you to everyone who voted for us!

Your YES! team

P.S.: And here is another wonderful drawing by Martin Markes, an illustrator who summed up the event in a picture: