Director, German Research Foundation (DFG), India Office - New Delhi, Founder, Coordinator, German House for Research and Innovation (DWIH New Delhi),

Since April 2009 Dr. Torsten Fischer (DCE) is the Director of the India Office of the German Research Foundation (DFG). He is also the Founder-Coordinator of the “German House for Research and Innovation – DWIH”, which was formally inaugurated on 27th October 2012 in New Delhi. The DWIH is an initiative of the German Government, with the support of the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt, AA) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) to intensify bilateral cooperation. The Indian Chapter of the DWIH has representatives of 14 German funding organisations, research institutions and university representations, to provide a “one-stop shop” for interested Indian students, researchers and potential partner institutions.

He joined DFG Bonn in January 2004 as a Programme Officer for the Social Sciences and Humanities Unit (Educational Sciences, Literature, Social Anthropology) and in February 2005 joined the International Affairs Department of the DFG and was looking after the Coordination of Strategy and actions with the European Science Foundation, Central European Countries and France. During June 2007 to March 2009 he was the National Expert for the organization of the Social Sciences  peer-review panel at the European Research Council (ERC).

Born in 1973, Dr. Fischer completed his Master’s studies in French / History from the Universities Kiel (Germany) and Brest (Bretagne Occidentale) Laval / Qubébec. In May 2002 he completed his D.E.A. in Modern and Contemporary History from University Lyon (France), and in January 2004 obtained his PhD (Doctor Communitatis Europe) summa cum laude, from Kiel, Lyon and King’s College Aberdeen with a thesis on History of Poverty in Early Modern Europe. While engaged in his doctoral studies, Dr. Fischer had the opportunity of working at the European Science Foundation (ESF), and European Parliament in Strasburg.