YEREVAN, MAY 3, ARMENPRESS. German Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology (Fraunhofer IPK) aims at expanding the cooperation in Armenia.

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian visited the Institute in November 2018 during his official visit in Germany during which the talks focused on the interest to implement new projects in Armenia. But today its practical results are already visible. The representatives of the Institute arrived in Armenia following the President’s call.

Director for European Policy and Business Development at Fraunhofer IPK, Jens Günter, told reporters in Yerevan that they visited Armenia with a busy agenda, with a number meetings.

“The list of our visits includes several institutes, including TUMO. Interesting meetings are taking place, but I think it’s still too early to talk about concrete decisions. But I am sure that we will find concrete cooperation directions. It’s very impressing to see how Armenia takes care of its youth, creates opportunities for being closer to the IT field”, he said. Jens Günter noted that Fraunhofer is a research organization, is non-political, therefore, they are looking for research projects. He said he believes that Armenia’s research field has a great potential.

The Fraunhofer IPK representatives state that it’s still early to talk about concrete projects, but outline the possible cooperation directions, such as high technologies, robotics, automation and digitization. The Institute is already implementing a program in Armenia relating to digitization. Since 2016 the Institute is cooperating with the Matenadaran, the Institute of Ancient Manuscripts of Armenia, within the frames of digitization of ancient and medieval manuscripts and virtual recovery project.

Another representative of the Institute, Director of Automation Technology Department, Jörg Krüger, said they are successfully conducting the digitization and restoration works of Narek prayer book. “We have a serious progress in this field and plan to continue the recovery works, develop new proposals putting digitization and recovery on the base. As you know, we have a great experience in this field, and Armenia has a great cultural heritage. Therefore, we are interested in continuing the cooperation”, he said.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan