Dr. Thomas Hesse, Deputy Secretary General of the Humboldt Foundation and Dr. Daniela Kneissl, Head of Africa and Middle East Division met with Alzahra University officials to introduce different sponsorships offered to highly-qualified scientists and scholars worldwide. In addition to Alzahra University president, director of International Academic Collaborations office, and director of Technology Incubation Center, the heads or representatives of Physic/Chemistry, Engineering, and Biology faculties also participated in this meeting.

At the outset of this meeting, Dr. Marandi, director of International Academic Collaborations office, presented a brief introduction about Alzahra University as one of the few single universities in Iran and the only comprehensive single university in the Middle East. Furthermore she emphasized on the role of this university in the scientific growth of women after the Islamic Revolution and highlighted scientific capabilities and the university closely-knit community as two of the most key factors of this achievement. Dr. Khazali, University President also stressed the need for international scientific cooperation to develop cultures and counter the regional and global crises.

The meeting continued with an introduction provided by Dr. Kneissl about the history of Humboldt Foundation, in addition to the research fellowships and awards offered to scholars around the world by this foundation. According to Dr. Kneissl, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has over 26000 alumni worldwide and annually 600 research fellowships and 100 sabbaticals are grated to scholars and researchers from around the world, while the female researchers benefit from the equal opportunities as the men. Fellowships for postdoctoral researchers and fellowships for experienced researchers, the qualifications needed, and conditions of each of these fellowships were the main topics of Kneissl speech. Dr. Hesse, Deputy Secretary General of the Humboldt Foundation, also stressed the independent decisions made by the Humboldt selection committee based solely on the applicant's academic record and also emphasized on the alumni network of this foundation as its' greatest asset. This meeting concluded with a question and answer session and some handicrafts made by Alzahra University students were presented as gifts to the guests.