Between July 6th and 14th, 2023 the summer conference on Professional Development in Special Needs Education in Iraqi and Kurdistan Universities (PROD-I) was held at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. Two academic staff of the University of Zakho namely; Asst. Prof. Mr. Ivan H. Murad, Faculty Member of English Department, Director of Language Center, and Dr. Jehan Hussein Omar, Faculty Member of Psychology Department. The conference started with a warm welcome by Prof. Dr. Clemens Hillenbrand, the Head of the Department of Special Needs Education and Rehabilitation in which he presented a short history of the project and the aims and objectives of its continuation.

The conference lasted for eight days during which a number of workshops, activities, and school visits were conducted. Below is a list of the workshops that were covered during this conference:

1. Inclusive Education in Germany.

2. Dealing with errors as a social-emotional learning object.

3. Implementing the trauma sensitive work in schools.

4. Introduction to special needs education for pedagogical work.

5. Children with complex disabilities in schools.

6. Assessing and supporting students with special needs through methods of formative evaluation.

7. A visit to a center for hearing research.

8. A visit to the library of the university of Oldenburg.

9. A visit to Dikita kindergarten for special andinclusive learning 

Towards the end of the conference each participating University delivered a presentation on a topic related to the theme of the conference. It is worth mentioning that Asst. Prof. Mr. Ivan Murad and Ms. Jehan Omardelivered a presentation on Zakho City and University to introduce the university of Zakho to Germans and the participating individuals. Finally, the conference was closed by a conclusion and the dissemination of the certificates on the attendees from the participating universities from Iraq and Kurdistan Region.