More than 220 researchers from 49 countries to attend network meeting in Bayreuth

A total of 228 young researchers from 49 countries will gather at the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s network meeting being held from 12 to 14 November 2025 at the University of Bayreuth (UBT). The attendees are currently in Germany as researchers sponsored by the Humboldt Foundation and are working with colleagues at research institutes throughout the country. The event has the aim of acquainting the new Humboldtians with one another and with Bayreuth, a city that is exemplary of Germany as a location for conducting research. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to talk with Foundation staff members and receive tips regarding living and conducting research in Germany.

Opening: Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 3 p.m.
Venue: University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth
Journalists are welcome to attend! We will be glad to arrange interviews.

The network meeting will be opened at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 12 November, by Stefan Leible, President of the University of Bayreuth, and Markus Zanner, Secretary General of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This will be followed by the keynote lecture “A piece of Africa: self-writing and remembering in Afro-Latino diasporas” to be given by Gilbert Shang Ndi, Professor of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies with a focus on Africa and Latin America. Gilbert Shang Ndi is a native of Cameroon where he completed a degree in Bilingual Letters and Commonwealth Literature. He came to UBT in 2010 for his doctorate and subsequently conducted research in Bogotá, Columbia, from 2017 to 2019 as a Feodor Lynen Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation. He then returned to Bayreuth where he completed a postdoctoral thesis and temporarily headed the Chair of Romance Studies/Comparative Literature at UBT. As part of a DFG-funded Heisenberg Professorship, he is now setting up research projects revolving around networks of tropical coloniality in African and Latin American literature.

On Thursday, 13 November, the attending Humboldtians will visit research institutes at UBT where researchers will present the work being done by their institutes and brief lectures will be held in specialist groups. Attendees will also have the opportunity to establish contact with one another and with German colleagues. 
During the poster session that begins at 2:45 p.m., fellows will present the focus of their research (UBT, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth). At 4 p.m., the Humboldt Foundation will present itself and its programmes to all interested parties during an informational lecture (UBT, TAO, S140, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447 Bayreuth).

The line-up for Friday, 14 November, will feature a special programme for Feodor Lynen Research Fellows from Germany: Starting at 9 a.m., alumni will report on their experiences abroad. The discussions will additionally focus on opportunities and strategies for fellows returning to Germany.

The majority of participants at this year’s network meeting come from the natural and life sciences (63%), followed by the humanities and social sciences (25%) and engineering (12%). Most of the guests from abroad come from China (24), Brazil and India (14 each), Nigeria (13), Iran (12) and the USA (10).

Every year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation enables more than 2,000 researchers from all over the world to spend time conducting research in Germany. The Foundation maintains an interdisciplinary network of well over 30,000 Humboldtians in more than 140 countries around the world – including 63 Nobel Prize winners.