2016/06/27     Dresden, Germany

The Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CzechGlobe), the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) and the United Nations University Institute for the Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES) signed a trilateral Cooperation Agreement to strengthen collaborative research and scientific exchange.

On 15 June 2016, CzechGlobe, the Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden) and the United Nations University (UNU) celebrated the signing of a Cooperation Agreement signifying the start of a closer trilateral partnership between the institutes in several areas. The parties aim to strengthen their collaboration with regard to research, knowledge transfer, education, and training activities.

Sharing a common research interest – assessments of the impact of global change on resources management, on ecosystems and on human societies – UNU-FLORES, TU Dresden, and CzechGlobe agree to collaborate on both new joint and existing research projects. Furthermore, the institutes have agreed to promote the exchange of scientific and technical information, as well as of staff and young scientists, making use of existing research infrastructure. The institutes have also agreed to jointly organise or participate mutually in academic meetings and conferences. In the first of such activities, CzechGlobe will be convening a session at the upcoming Dresden Nexus Conference 2017 on the SDGs & Nexus Approach: Monitoring and Implementation.

While collaboration is set to span a variety of topics such as the adaptation of environmental systems and human societies to global change, there will be a special focus on monitoring of matter fluxes and systems analysis. In addition, in the context of UNU-FLORES’s Nexus Observatory, it is anticipated that CzechGlobe will support the development of databases and scenarios on Nexus-relevant issues such as regional climate data and projections and matter cycling.

The Cooperation Agreement was signed by the Director of UNU-FLORES, the Director of CzechGlobe and the Chancellor of TU Dresden. The development of the legal agreement followed a visit from Dr. Acosta and Mr. Jiří Kolman (Scientific Secretary) CzechGlobe of the Czech Academy of Sciences to UNU-FLORES in April 2016. The Cooperation Agreement entered into force on the 15 June and is valid for a period of five years.