German Academic Exchange Service

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is an organisation of German universities and their students that fosters the internationalisation of the scientific system. The DAAD gives students, researchers, and teaching staff access to excellent funding opportunities for study and research. The DAAD fosters transnational cooperation activities and partnerships between universities and acts as a national agency for collaboration in higher education within Europe. Thus, the DAAD is committed to promote the missions of foreign culture and education policy, national scientific policy, and development cooperation. For this purpose, the DAAD maintains a network of more than 70 international offices, provides funding for approximately 440 lecturers worldwide, and offers training opportunities via the international DAAD Academy (iDA). In 2018, the DAAD awarded 145,000 euros of funding to researchers from Germany and around the world (including EU programmes). The majority of the funding is provided by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union, as well as by businesses, organisations and foreign governments.