TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD) is hosting the General Assembly of the Heritage Network in the week from May 12 to 15, 2025 under the leadership of TUD's School of Engineering Sciences. The Indo-European association is an alliance of around 30 leading universities from India and Europe. The network meeting brings together representatives of the engineering sciences from the realm of education and research. In addition to the election of the new Steering Committee and new memberships, the agenda features conferences on the key topic of global education.

© Mascha Schelten

TUD joined the Heritage Network in 2019 and has since been the only German university represented in the alliance, which positions itself at the interface of internationalization and sustainability. Prof. Ercan Altinsoy, Chair of Acoustics and Haptics as well as Internationalization Officer at the School of Engineering Sciences, currently holds a key position as a member of the Steering and Executive Committee (2021-2025). For his many years of commitment to the committee, he has now been awarded an honorific position in the network as Honorary Secretary. With the appointment to the committee of Maike Heitkamp-Mai, Sustainability Management Advisor in TUD's Directorate University Culture, TUD will once again hold a leading position in the network for four years – and can thus continue to strengthen the link between sustainability, university culture, and internationalization.

© Crispin-Iven Mokry

In addition to the Heritage Meeting, TUD is hosting a PhD workshop on “Environmental Sustainability in Mechanical Engineering – Life Cycle Assessment,” organized by Dr. Robert Kuper and his team at the Institute of Lightweight Engineering and Polymer Technology. An day trip to Saxon Switzerland will provide the participants with an informal opportunity for sharing ideas.

As host of the 2025 Heritage Meeting, TUD builds on existing partnerships with excellent bilateral cooperation and deepens its ties with India. TU Dresden has maintained close relationships with partner institutions in India for numerous years. TUD has been cooperating with the Indian IIT Madras in Chennai at the university level since 2009. Both institutions recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to establish a joint transCampus. Under the leadership of TUD, the Free State of Saxony has also been operating a Science Liaison Office in Chennai, India, since fall 2024 – another milestone in Indian-German cooperation.

A central component of the campus in Chennai is the IITM Research Park, with which TUD also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2024. With the innovative “Startup Exchange Initiative” of the TUD|Excellence Center for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship (TUD|excite) and the IITM Research Park, both partners are intensifying technology transfer through exchanges between German and Indian start-up companies.

As part of the cooperation with IIT Madras, the Global Water and Climate Adaptation Centre (ABCD Centre) was established along with additional partners from RWTH Aachen University, the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, and the Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources at the United Nations University (UNU-FLORES). At TU Dresden, it is housed at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. In 2024, the first German-Indian joint Master's program “Water Security and Global Change” was established under this cooperation.

Contact:

School of Engineering Sciences:
Maike Heitkamp-Mai
Email:

International Office:
Dr. Avinash Chekuru
Impact Partnerships Advisor, International Office
Email: