The recent DAAD General Assembly in Bonn has re-elected the current DAAD President Joybrato Mukherjee and Vice President, Muriel Helbig for another term from January 1 2024 to December 31 2027. Mukherjee, currently serving as President of Justus Liebig University Giessen, has been the Vice President of DAAD from 2012 to 2019, while Helbig, President of Technische Hochschule Lübeck, has been a member of the DAAD's Executive Committee since 2016 and Vice President since 2020.

Further to this, on the Germany-wide Diversity Day held on May 23, DAAD presented its Erasmus+ Inclusion Strategy. This strategy aims to enhance diversity and inclusion across all programmes and funding streams of the agency. The NA plans to increase general funding rates for student mobility, provide additional financial support to less mobile groups, and initiate the transfer of a total of EUR 57 million from the European Social Fund Plus to Erasmus+.

Lastly, DAAD's annual report for 2022 was presented on June 20 in its General Assembly, revealing that despite the challenges posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the organisation managed to support nearly 140,000 funding recipients, closely matching pre-pandemic mobility levels. Aided by a budget rise to approximately EUR 775 million, DAAD has initiated large-scale support programs for Ukraine and extended protection programmes, acknowledging the pivotal role of science diplomacy during times of war and crisis.

You can find the respective press releases here, here (in German) and here.