Beijing-Humboldt-Forum (BHF) is a non-governmental and non-profit international conference on green economy, technology and culture with regularly conventions on University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing. Featured with green economy and cultural heritage, the forum is dedicated to providing business, government, academic and civil society leaders a high-end platform of exchange and cooperation on global economic, technical and cultural sustainable development. 

Established in 2013, BHF was initiated by Markus Ederer, the former EU Ambassador to China andVice Secretary of State to the German Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The first BHF in 2013 was held as a side event of the EU-China Summit co-chaired by Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council and President José Manuel Barroso of the European Commission. As an international conference, BHF has been successfully held for four times and takes place regularly every year on the third weekend of September at UIBE. 

The forum is organised jointly by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and University of International Business and Economics, with the support from China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Baotou Research Institute of Rare Earths (BRIRE), Fraunhofer Society (FhG, Halle), Martin-Luther-University (MLU, Halle-Wittenberg), Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW, Mannheim), Leibniz Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften – ISAS, Embassy of Republic Austria in China, University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria (FH OOE, Austria), and Institute of Global Low-carbon Economy (IGLCE), etc.. BMW China and Xiang Long Group are the international main sponsors of the forum. 

Mission

based on “Sustainable development”, promoting global exchange and cooperation

The forum was rooted in the scientific spirit of Alexander von Humboldt so as to boost the exchange and cooperation in technology, economy, politic between Sino-Germany and Sino- Europe. As encyclopaedic generalist, Alexander von Humboldt persisted in using opening and cross-cultural attitude to science, dedicated to finding cross-culture consensus for scientific cooperation and strove to cross the obstacles of eastern and western obstacles, ensuring to build a new world with harmony, co-existence and sustainable development. 

Focus

cross-border and interdisciplinary perspective, global public interest-oriented

Previous conference themes: 

2013: Green Economy and Urbanisation

2014: Cultural Tradition and Green Economy – Technology Innovation, Industry Growth and Green Mobility 

2015: Green Economy, Cultural Heritage, Material Innovation 

2016: Green Economy, Cultural Heritage, Industry 4.0 

2017: Green Economy, Cultural Heritage, Clean Energy and the Carbon Market

…….

Focusing on “Green Economy” and “Cultural Heritage”, Beijing Humboldt Forum pays close attention to the society hot topics such as “Urbanisation”, “Sustainable Utilisation of Raw Materials”, “The Chinese-German Year of Creativity and Innovation”, “Environmental Restructuring”, “Low-Carbon Economy”, “Green Finance”, “Green Transportation”, “Green Logistics”, “Green Building”, “Green Materials” etc.. Each year, BHF invites a number of representatives from different universities and research institutes as well as domestic and international business leaders together to join the forum to review and analyze the key points and hot issue from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective.

“Cultural Heritage” includes themes like “Belt and Road”, “Germanic Languages and Literatures”, “Korea Studies “, ” Japan Studies “, ” Latin American Studies “Sinology”, “German Philosophy”, “Intercultural Communication”, “Translation Studies”, “Cognitive Linguistics” and attracts many domestic and foreign experts and scholars.

Flourishing Variety

Sessions: Interplay and Integration

Besides the conference reports, Beijing Humboldt Forum cooperates with domestic and international high-end scientific research institutions and organizes different sessions every year. The sessions discuss not only around the hot spots of society and current issues in science, such as Eco-cities, carbon emission, green vehicle, nanomaterials, vocational education, it also focuses on classic cultural issues, such as sinology abroad, German philosophy, German language and literatures. The sessions are undertaken by all partners with the support of the forum organizing committee. For each session there is a national chairman and a international chairman. Sessions invite scholars to take part in discussions and make suggestions.

Beijing Humboldt Forum, as a standing conference of UIBE, offers an academic Platform for all the young students including the students from UIBE to learn, communicate and expand the international horizon. Many students of UIBE have successfully set up ties through the active participation of academic reports on BHF with foreign professors and then gone abroad for further study. Five of them have gained scholarship from Country China Scholarship Council (CSC) and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Germany.

International Relations Forum under BHF

Continuing the tradition of the past years, the School of International Relations of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) is planning to hold the 13th edition of International Relations Forum in UIBE Beijing Humboldt Forum on September 20, 2025, centered on​the theme:​“Seeking Sustainable Security and Development in a Turbulent and Chaotic World”. Humboldt Forum is an important academic platform for economic, technological and cultural exchanges between China and Germany, China and Europe as well as countries around the world.

International officials, experts and scholars in various fields are invited to carry out dialogue and exchange, contribute their thoughts and wisdom, and discuss the issues of security, development and governance in a changing world, with a view to promoting the development of the study of international relations and the discipline of international relations.

We welcome your participation as panellist, discussant and participants. Please inform your proposal topic or participation to uibebhf@163.com by September 5, 2025.