European Science Diplomacy: Wissenschaft, Politik, Gesellschaft – gemeinsam Zukunft gestalten (DE)

Head of Section “International Cooperation in Education and Research” at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Frithjof A. Maennel, Ministerialdirigent, studied Law at the Universities of Bonn and Munich. In 1992 he joined the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology, today’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, where he held various positions. From 1996 to 2005 he worked in the “Internal Market” and the “Information Society” Directorates-General at the European Commission in Brussels and was involved in particular in shaping the legal framework for the information society. He left Brussels to become Head of the “Patent Policy, Inventor Promotion” Division at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and was subsequently appointed Head of the “Strategy” Division at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2007, remaining in this position until March 2015. He was appointed Head of the Directorate for International Cooperation at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in April 2015.

Director for Research and Academic Relations Policy, Education and Research Policy and Cultural Relations Policy at the Federal Foreign Office

Vito Cecere is Director for Research and Academic Relations Policy, Education and Research Policy and Cultural Relations Policy at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. Before joining the Federal Foreign Office, he worked with the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, as Head of the Planning Group in the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag and in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. The political scientist and historian is a founding member of the German Association of Political Consultants (de’ge’pol) and was a scholarship holder of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.