Apr 26, 2021
TU Dresden and RWTH Aachen develop "Global Water and Climate Adaptation Center"
The Hubert-Engels-Labor of the Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Technical Hydromechanics of the TU Dresden enables the implementation of physical model tests for research and teaching on a wide variety of technical scales as well as the support of teaching through demonstrations.
DAAD funds global research center with partners in India and Thailand with 2.8 million Euros
The international community is still facing urgent global climate and environmental problems and their importance for sustainable development has been made even more clear by the ongoing pandemic. In this context, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) with funds from the Federal Foreign Office is supporting the establishment of global centers for the interdisciplinary networking of science, policy, economy and civil society for an effective transfer of research results into practice.
The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering of TU Dresden and the RWTH Aachen were successful with a joint application. Together with partners from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (Chennai, India), the Asian Institute of Technology (Bangkok, Thailand) and the Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources at the United Nations University (UNU-FLORES) in Dresden, a “Global Water and Climate Adaptation Center” will be set up over the next five years. This ABCD Center (after the first letters of the 4 participating locations in 3 countries on 2 continents) will deal with climate adaptation measures in the Global South, especially in the water sector. A total of 2.8 million Euros is available for the Global Center from May 2021 to December 2025 (an extension for a further five years until 2030 with a budget of a further 3 million Euros is planned). Scientists will work closely together in three thematic clusters across disciplines:
- Water security, water resource management, safe water supply and water treatment
- Ecosystem Resilience and Nature-Based Adaptation Measures
- Transfer Strategies: Traditional knowledge, local economies and social acceptance
Partner network of the ABCD Center with three integrated subject areas and the connection to the sustainability goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030.
The new Global Center not only promotes the mobility of young researchers and provides scholarships for master’s and doctoral students, but also develops a new joint international MSc.-course on the subject of “Water Security and Global Change”. In order to effectively counter the effects of the pandemic and to further optimize future exchange in research and teaching, great emphasis will be placed on the implementation and further development of digital formats. Furthermore, a network is to be established with three other Global Centers for Climate and Environment, and with the four Global Centers for Health and Pandemic Prevention, which have been established at the same time. The topic of water obviously plays a central role and it builds on the internationally renowned expertise and the resources available in the field of construction and the environment at the TU Dresden and the partners involved. For example, the existing international MSc-courses "Hydroscience and Engineering" and "Tropical Forestry" at TU Dresden and the MSc.-course "Engineering Geohazards" at RWTH Aachen University are being integrated into the Centre's training portfolio. The exchange of students, doctoral candidates and lecturers is intended to create an effective network to stimulate further research projects, but also to pave the way for a successful transfer of knowledge and technology with the involvement of business, politics and civil society.
The establishment of the ABCD-Center will make a significant contribution to the further development of the TU Dresden as a global university for the 21st century and contribute to tackle global challenges with excellent research and innovative teaching.
The project is funded by the DAAD with funds from the Federal Foreign Office.
Informationen about the funding programme: https://www.daad.de/de/infos-services-fuer-hochschulen/weiterfuehrende-infos-zu-daad-foerderprogrammen/globale-zentren
Informationen for journalists:
Prof. Jürgen Stamm
Chair of Hydraulic Engineering
Dean of the Faculty for Civil Engineering
Chairperson of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Tel.: 0351 463-34397
Dr. André Lindner
Managing Director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Tel.: 0351-463 34899