YEREVAN, MAY 18, ARMENPRESS. Be creative and develop new technologies which will make easier the people’s life and will improve the life quality: this is the activity principle of the German leading company Fraunhofer. The research company with 70 years of history has improved its acting style and expanded the activity geography over years. In recent years Fraunhofer is implementing cooperation programs also with Armenia.

About Fraunhofer

The German Fraunhofer Society is Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization. The company has 72 institutes and research bodies in Germany. Majority of over 26.000 employees of the company are qualified scientists and engineers. The organization conducts research at various directions and areas, in particular information, digital and laser technologies, security, energy, communication systems, healthcare, microelectronics, food safety and reprocessing, environment and etc.

The company’s turnover comprises 2.6 billion Euros annually. The 2.2 billion Euros of this comes from the research contracts signed with university, international and corporative organizations. Both manufacturing companies and representatives of the service field, as well as state bodies are cooperating with Fraunhofer.

The organization carries out cooperation programs with the world’s leading research and innovative companies.

The company executives state that the works of their researchers and programmers greatly affect the improvement of the life quality of the people, improve the methods and technologies, open new prospects by building a brighter future.

Armenia is cooperating with the German company

The cooperation of Armenia with the German company started in 2016 within the frames of the digitization and virtual recovery program of the ancient and medieval manuscripts of Matenadaran. Fraunhofer assisted in digitization and restoration of the manuscript of the Narek prayer book of the 13-14th centuries. This manuscript was in poor condition, some pages even didn’t exist. But thanks to the unique technology of the company the digitization and virtual restoration of the pages of the manuscript have been carried out.

The first successful cooperation was important for several reasons. First of all, the digital restoration was the first step towards the physical restoration of the manuscript. In addition, the use of such technologies is vital for restoring such manuscripts, as well as in terms of transferring the values of cultural heritage to the next generations.

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian’s visit to Fraunhofer IPK

Highlighting Armenia’s technological development President Armen Sarkissian during various visits and events emphasized his approach that digital and information technologies are going to be the main driving force of the 21st century, and that Armenia has a huge potential in this regard. It’s not a coincidence that he has accepted the proposal of German Chancellor Angela Merkel made in Yerevan to visit Fraunhofer IPK and met with the company representatives. Shortly after receiving the proposal the Armenian President visited Fraunhofer IPK during his official visit in Germany in November 2018.

At the meeting with the leadership, the President was introduced on the Institute’s activity directions and discussed the future cooperation opportunities with Armenia.

At the end of the meeting President Sarkissian stated: “There are preliminary agreements which will lead us to a new cooperation, and this cooperation is not only that with the Matenadaran. The talk is about a great, industrial cooperation”.

From agreements to practical steps

At the invitation of President Sarkissian, Fraunhofer IPK’s delegation visited Armenia in May 2019. The purpose of the visit was to explore the Armenian field and turn the agreements reached into tangible results.

The delegation led by Director for European Policy and Business Development at Fraunhofer IPK, Jens Günter, met with President Armen Sarkissian, minister of transport, communication and IT Hakob Arshakyan, the representatives of leading Armenian IT companies, research and educational centers during the visit in Armenia.

“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”, Jens Günter told reporters in Yerevan.

The delegation members left Armenia with great impressions, new ideas and projects. They promised to sum up the results of the visit already with the proposals for concrete projects and new ideas of cooperation. They expressed confidence that Armenia and Fraunhofer IPK have a lot to do in the future especially in automation, artificial intelligence fields and finding new technological solutions.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan