Research Network across the Atlantic

17 August 2012 Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

German-Canadian Cooperation in Marine and Environmental Research

The German-Canadian alliance in marine research is being extended. In the presence of the German federal chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel the Canadian Halifax Marine Research Institute (HMRI) and the Helmholtz Association with its research centres GFZ (Potsdam), GEOMAR (Kiel) and AWI (Bremerhaven) signed a memorandum of understanding for an perennial intensive cooperation in marine and environmental research. The ceremony took place on August 16 in Halifax, Canada. As a vice president of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, Professor Reinhard Hüttl, Scientific Executive Director of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, signed the document. Besides Dr. Angela Merkel, the Canadian Minister for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, and the Prime Minister of the Province of Nova Scotia, Darrell Dexter, took part in the ceremony.

New key aspects of the invigorated transatlantic alliance are two networks in particular, i.e. the „Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response (MEOPAR)“ and the „ArcticNet“. ”With these projects we enlarge the cooperation in environmental research in the areas of the Atlantic and the Arctic“, explained Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Reinhard Hüttl, vice president of the Helmholtz Association and head of the GFZ. Signing the document on occasion of the visit of the federal chancellor of Germany in Halifax, he said, was politically an extraordinary positive sign for research of System Earth. “Now this frame has to be filled with research of excellent quality.”

Among the guests and undersigners was GEOMAR director Prof. Dr. Peter Herzig. ”This opens the way for further successful German-Canadian research projects“, Prof. Herzig said. He pointed out that work has already started with a German-Canadian project of the Helmholtz Association, namely the „Helmholtz Research School for Ocean System Science and Technology“ which was granted this spring with the intention to enforce the common education in marine research.

As of 14:00 CEST, photos in a printable resolution can be found here:

http://www.geomar.de/presse