Being faced with a rapid population growth, pollution and an ineffective irregation system, the scientific field of „water“ has become one of essential importance for Egypt over the last decades. Following the Egyptian-German Year of Science and Technology 2007, the bilateral Egyprian-German research cooperation in the fields of protection, upgrading, quality management and efficient usage of water resources have intensified, leading to the establishment of a wide network of DAAD-Alumni and projects. As a next step, the German Science Centre in Cairo now seeks to interlink and visualise these diverse activities by establishing an Egyptian-German competence cluster of water. The kick-off workshop for this project will take place on November 25th in Cairo.
Besides a mutual getting to know each other for the water-focused projects in the Egyptian-German context, the aim of the kick-off event is to lay the academic groundwork in order to develop strategies and formats for a concentrated cooperation and joint ventures that will radiate into both countries and the MENA region. The cluster acts as a platform which bundles resources, expertise and research, as well as scientists, business representatives and researcher. The aim of a research cluster is to build an infrastructure that allows an interdisciplinary exchange, offers cooperation and increases the visibility of the projects and people partaking.
Besides renowned experts from the Egyptian water sector and research institutions, many other German experts from TU Berlin, TU München, RWTH Aachen, TH Köln, TU Braunschweig, Universität Duisburg-Essen and Universität Halle, have announced their participation in the kick-off workshop.
After the words of greeting by Dr. Roman Luckscheiter, Director of the German Science Centre Cairo, the workshop will provide a further introduction into the concept of clustering, followed by three working sessions on the topics of Communication Structure, Capacity Building and Outreach and a final discussion. In addition, participants have the possibility to subsequently participate in the Cairo Climate Talk panel discussion (CCT) „Egypt's Lifeline: Managing Water Consumption and Nile Conservation (link is external)“, as well as in the CCT workshop the preceding day.
