The Volkswagen Foundation’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program “Institutional Change and Social Practice. Research on the Political System, the Economy and Society in Central Asia and the Caucasus” is fully coordinated by Bielefeld University and TU Dortmund University.

According to the corresponding call, the Volkswagen Foundation aims to provide “sustainable support for scientific research and capacity development in the countries of the region, in close and symmetric cooperation between scientists at institutions in Central Asia or the Caucasus and in Germany,“ the Program will be managed in close collaboration with all participants – not only to connect the fellows with one another but also to create bonds with their postdoc-tandem-partners, their German hosts, their home institutions, and the coordinating universities.

Bielefeld University and TU Dortmund University are each in charge of managing half the fellowships and in organizing all three events. Coordination of the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program is a joint venture of these two institutions: Professor Dr. Andreas Vasilache is the Project Director from Bielefeld University and Professor Dr. Christoph Schuck is the Project Director from TU Dortmund University; Marie-Sophie Borchelt Camêlo, M.A. and Dr. Aziz Elmuradov are managing the project as coordinators in Bielefeld, and their counterpart in Dortmund is Nora Becker, M.A.