Freie Universität Berlin is one of eleven German universities of excellence. As an international network university, it has established offices abroad in New York, Beijing, New Delhi, Moscow, Brussels and Cairo. In October 2010, another office was inaugurated in São Paulo in order to increase academic and scientific cooperation between Freie Universität and universities and research centers in Brazil and South America.

The primary concern of the São Paulo Office is to attract promising talents from the region for a study or research stay in Berlin, to facilitate scholarly cooperation, and to identify suitable instruments for cooperation in student exchange.