SA, Germany partner to improve earth system knowledge

Image courtesy of Xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This emerged during Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom's meeting with the President of the Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Professor Reinhard Huttl, in Berlin, on Monday, 15 April 2013.

The minister paid a courtesy visit to the centre, ahead of participating in the closing ceremony of the German-South Africa Year of Science 2012/13 in Berlin on Tuesday.

A joint initiative between the Department of Science and Technology and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Year of Science celebrated 16 years of a successful cooperation on science and technology between the two countries.

The visit to the centre was also aimed at strengthening existing research relations in the field of geosciences, particularly earth sciences.

South Africa and Germany have been collaborating in Inkaba-ye Africa (IyA) since 2003, in an effort to deal with the pressing challenges of global change.

This commitment will see the project supported for a further five years, commencing in 2013/14.

Hanekom emphasised the importance of strengthening the gains made on the project over the last 10 years. Jointly with Huttl, the minister committed to ensuring an increase in the number of participating institutions to enhance staff and student exchanges in the research cooperation programme.

More than 20 German and South African universities and research institutions have participated in IyA, and in as many sub-projects studying complex systems of the solid earth, the biosphere, atmosphere and oceans.

More than 210 postgraduate students from both countries have since completed degrees, which resulted with a marked rise in graduation rates over the last few years.

The programme has also contributed more than 70 research papers published in leading international journals in the field of earth systems research, with a number of smaller spin-off projects arising from the cooperation.

The Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences has been the home of research institutions in astrophysics and earth sciences in Germany for more than 125 years, being the only institution in the world that addresses the whole spectrum of the earth sciences.

The Africa Earth Observatory Network (AEON) is the leading network of the cooperation programme on South Africa's side with Germany led by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).