The University of Bonn welcomed a group of students and lecturers from several Ghanaian higher-education institutions on the occasion of the international symposium “Ghana-Germany Quantum Connect,” which was held on March 11, 2025 during a Spring Meeting of the German Physical Society (DPG). The symposium forms part of the UN’s International Year of Quantum Science and Technology 2025, which is being spearheaded by Ghana. Originally signed in 2019, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in the Ghanaian city of Kumasi was extended during the visit, which spanned several days. The MoU provides a contractual framework for a wide range of partnerships such as joint research and teaching, which can be supported by exchange programs for researchers and technical staff.
A long tradition of collaboration with KNUST
Links between the University of Bonn and KNUST go back over 25 years, having their origins in an agreement between the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology (IMMIP) at the University of Bonn and KNUST’s Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR). A great many research and teaching partnerships have followed since then, including the German-West African Centre for Global Health and Pandemic Prevention (G-WAC), which was set up in 2021 and which is one of only eight Global Centres to be funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). It was established to run trans- and interdisciplinary research projects that tackle the existential threat to human health and wellbeing posed by global pandemics.
Intensive dialogue on quantum physics
Partnerships are also gaining in significance in quantum science, a field of research in which Ghana is highly active. For example, the University of Bonn runs joint experiment-based practical projects, where experiments can be controlled remotely. “We’re constantly evaluating new opportunities for working together,” explains Senior Professor Dieter Meschede, who helped to bring about this year’s visit from Ghana together with colleagues from the University of Bonn and TU Dortmund University. “Although education is one of the things we’ll definitely be focusing on initially, I can easily see Ghanaian students doing research in Bonn or our lecturers going to Ghana to teach in the future.”
Last May, the Republic of Ghana submitted a resolution to the UN General Assembly for official proclamation of the International Year. One month later, the assembly declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, with the resolution supported by over 70 countries, representing more than 5 billion people.
Nine Ghanaian students and five lecturers from three institutions—KNUST, the University of Education, Winneba, and the University of Energy and Natural Resources—are currently at the University of Bonn as part of the initiative. Alongside participation in the International Year and the DPG’s meeting, visits are also planned to the institutes of physics in Bonn and Dortmund and to Forschungszentrum Jülich. The exchange is being supported financially by the University of Bonn as well as the Physics and Astronomy Foundation at the University.
Memorandum of understanding extended
Besides benefiting science and research, the exchange between Bonn and Ghana also sends out a strong signal for international cooperation. “Our partnerships with Ghanaian universities have grown ever closer in recent years,” emphasizes Professor Birgit Ulrike Münch, Vice Rector for International Affairs at the University of Bonn. “This event, featuring young, highly dedicated early-career researchers with strong critical faculties alongside their professors is creating yet another space in which international research partnerships can continue to grow. Extending our memorandum of understanding with KNUST marks a major milestone in our efforts to step up our collaboration.” Professor Münch will join a delegation from Bonn on a visit to Ghana toward the end of the year in order to further strengthen cooperation with higher-education institutions on a personal level.
In Ghana, one of the focus countries for the University of Bonn’s international cooperation, it also maintains a strategic partnership with the University of Ghana in Accra. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia has had a partnership with Ghana since 2007, which is currently focusing primarily on the technical universities in the country, while the city of Bonn is twinned with Ghana’s Cape Coast.
