The Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences will expand its cooperation with the Technical University of Havana (Cuba). The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has approved funding for the university's corresponding application.

Since 2001, the Friedberg University of Applied Sciences (FH Friedberg) has been cooperating with a Cuban university, an initiative spearheaded by Dr. Wolf-Rainer Novender, Professor at the Friedberg Department of Information Technology – Electrical Engineering – Mechatronics (IEM). The IEM Department and the Centro de Investigaciones y Pruebas Electroenergeticas (CIPEL) maintain these contacts, among other things, through the exchange of researchers and students. Funding from the DAAD programme "Subject-Specific Partnerships with Universities in Developing Countries" now enables the Further development of these relationships in teaching and research.

In the summer semester of 2005, FH President Prof. Dr. Dietrich Wendler, Prof. Dr. Peter Schmitz, then Dean of the Giessen Department of Electrical and Information Engineering (EI), and Prof. Novender spent a week at the Cuban Technical University (TU) discussing areas of future cooperation with their hosts. The focus at that time was on expanding collaboration in the field of electrical engineering and initiating dialogue with scientists from other disciplines. In addition to electrical engineering, meetings with representatives from the Department of Architecture, Mechanical Engineering, and Business Administration and Engineering were also on the agenda. 

In November and December, a Cuban delegation, representing these four Department , visited both campuses of the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences at the invitation of the university's presidium . Dean Prof. Dr. Orestes Llanes took the opportunity to gain insight into the practical study conditions and ongoing projects in the university's electrical engineering laboratories. His interest focused, among other things, on mobile communications and control engineering at the Department of Electrical Engineering (EI) in Giessen , as well as the laboratories for optical communications technology and electrical machines at the Department of Electrical Engineering (IEM) in Friedberg. He was also given a detailed presentation on the international Master of Science programme in Information and Communications Engineering, which began teaching in Friedberg in the winter semester. Discussions with colleagues and deans centered on approaches for collaborative research and new avenues for cooperation in academic education.

Together, the aim is to strengthen student exchange and create internships in Cuba with the help of German companies. Furthermore, the Technical University of Havana is very interested in enabling Cuban doctoral candidates to work on dissertation projects in the laboratories of the Giessen -Friedberg University of Applied Sciences. The collaboration will also explore the conditions under which graduates of the Giessen-Friedberg University of Applied Sciences could pursue doctoral studies in Havana. Long-term goals of the cooperation include the development of an internationally recognized Master's programme in Electrical Engineering, to be offered at the Technical University of Havana.