Julia Ilina is a Programme Officer at the German Research Foundation (DFG).Within the group of International Affairs she is responsible for the cooperation with South Eastern Europe, incl. the West Balkan Countries. She is in charge of the establishment and maintenance of partnerships with relevant stakeholders in the field of science and research. She is also involved in the DFG initiative Networking for Research – Universities of Applied Sciences and Researchers Worldwide (UDIF-HAW). Through this initiative, the DFG seeks to reach out to German universities of applied sciences that focus on application-oriented research in an international context.