Inauguration for MICAS Africa

On Tuesday, 12^th December 2017, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier launched the MICAS Africa project during his state visit to Ghana. Steinmeier was accompanied by Andreas Mehler, director of the Arnold-Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg and co-initiator of the project, and met with representatives and students of the University of Ghana.

In October 2017, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) decided to fund a proposal to build a Maria Sibylla Merian International Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Ghana in Accra, with the University of Freiburg being the lead partner of the successful German consortium.

"In many areas, Ghana is a strategically important partner for Germany", said Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. "The new Institute for Advanced Studies will be an additional milestone in this cooperation, a lighthouse project for cutting-edge research in the humanities and social sciences. To explore and discuss governance issues is of great importance for politics and society." The project will start in March 2018, academic activities will start in late 2018.

Bild: Andreas Mehler, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, Francis Dodoo (from left to right) during the inauguration ceremony ©bundespresseamt/jesco denzel