17.10.2016|Sochi: Since last Sunday, twenty PhDs and engineering and natural science students meet for a summer school entitled “Innovative methods in environmental- and sustainability research and their application” in Sochi, Russia. The Summer School, jointly organized by GFZ International Office and the Russian Vernadsky Foundation, lays the foundations for future research cooperations between the Helmholtz Association and the Vernadsky Foundation in the field of research on sustainable development.

Until October 23, ten Russian and ten German students and PhDs will establish an interdisciplinary dialog on recent and future research on sustainable development and global change. In focus are the topics: Earth-atmosphere interaction, new methods in ecotoxicology, the role of atmospheric variability within climate change and its impact on arctic environments.

The summer school is the first activity for the implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding, signed in 2015 between the Russian Vernadsky Foundation and the Helmholtz Association. The Foundation is named after the Russian scientist Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky and was founded in 1995. The aim of the Foundation is the promotion and popularization of the concept of sustainability as well as the promotion of young scientists. The GFZ, as one of 18 Helmholtz Centres, was the major driver of the Memorandum that is supposed to form the basis for future German-Russian research cooperations on research on sustainable development.

The participants attend expert lessons and take part in field trips and workshops where they will develop ideas on future bilateral research projects. They furthermore learn how to write research proposals and how to organize international cooperation. The summer school will end with a final presentation of own research ideas, written by the participants, on an official closure event with representatives of science, politics, and administration. (ak)