German Russian Summer School (GRSS)
The German Russian Summer School (GRSS) was initiated in 2015 as a German-Russian initiative at the suggestion of the former German Foreign Minister Mr. Steinmeier. Since then, the GRSS has been conducted alternately in Germany (August 2015, Berlin) and Russia (August 2016, Ekaterinburg) for engineering, technology and natural science master students, young scientists and professionals of the project partners on current topics of the energy industry. In 2019 it took place for the first time as a cooperation project between TU Dortmund University and the Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg.
The aim of the two-week program, which includes lectures, project work, workshops, company visits and excursions, is to provide interdisciplinary, practice-oriented continuing education and exchange of young professionals in an intercultural setting and to promote German-Russian university cooperation.
Program Review
Due to the pandemic, the GRSS will take place in Ekaterinburg in 2021.
From 19 to 30 August 2019, the GRSS enabled students from both universities to intensively work on topics such as smart & electricity grids, renewable energies, energy supply & services and sustainable energy distribution. During the project work, the five intercultural groups conducted literature research on topics of electrical energy technology, compared the international status with a focus on Germany and Russia, reflected on optimization possibilities regarding the operation of electrical grids and discussed the results with experts. The social program included the presentation of Dortmund and the Ruhr area as well as a meeting with the German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace and a tour around the EUREF campus in Berlin.
Award
On 15 September 2020, the GRSS was awarded in the framework of the competition “Brücken für die deutsch-russische Hochschul- und Wissenschaftszusammenarbeit” ("Bridges for German-Russian university and scientific cooperation"). The festive award ceremony took place at the closing event of the German-Russian Year of University Cooperation and Science 2018-2020 at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Berlin.