OTTAWA, Canada – Science and technology collaboration between Canada and international partners is critical to maintaining the country’s competitiveness and to creating and sustaining good middle-class jobs as it builds back better from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mary Ng, minister of small business, export promotion and international trade, joined Anja Karliczek, Germany’s Federal minister of education and research, to celebrate 50 successful years of the Canada-Germany Science and Technology Agreement.
“This year, we celebrate 50 successful years of cooperation between Canada and Germany in the fields of science, technology and innovation—helping solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges to build a better future. We have collaborated in over a thousand joint projects, and as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, our collaboration will continue to benefit our communities and our economic recovery on both sides of the Atlantic,” said minister Ng.
Minister Ng praised the strong and dynamic relationship between the two countries, which has led to more than a thousand joint research projects in priority areas, such as industrial cooperation, life sciences, sustainable energy, the oceans and the Arctic since the agreement came into force in 1971.
The ministers noted that this rich and successful cooperation, which spans all fields of science, is further strengthened by the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and by the recent energy partnership that positions Canada as a clean-energy partner of choice for Germany, notably for hydrogen, critical minerals and liquefied natural gas.
Germany’s minister of education and research Karliczek, said: “50 years ago Germany and Canada agreed to cooperate closely in science and technology in order to shape the future together. Canada is one of our most important partners in scientific cooperation worldwide with a variety of activities and on many different levels: between our governments, universities, numerous companies and many organizations. We also support the exchange of students and young researchers from both countries, which lays a decisive foundation for our future cooperation. Over 50 German-Canadian events to celebrate the anniversary in the coming months will make it clear: We still have a lot to do together.”
