The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the United Nations University (UNU) have agreed to continue to strengthen their cooperation. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the DLR Executive Board, and Jakob Rhyner, Vice Rector of UNU in Europe and Director of UNU Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn, signed an agreement to this effect on 23 February 2015.
DLR and UNU expect that their agreement will result in even closer ties between science and practice, additional joint projects in the field of Earth observation and climate change as well as sustainable resource protection. The two organizations will also collaborate on satellite communication and navigation, with the goal of increasing knowledge and knowledge transfer. This may also include exchange programmes for experts and the joint supervision of PhD and Master students. The German Remote Sensing Data Center (Deutsche Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum; DFD) at DLR is already cooperating with some of UNU’s PhD students. Just recently, DLR and UNU submitted a joint proposal for the water and land management project CATCH-MEKONG.
"DLR contributes mainly by providing satellite Earth observation data and scientific analyses. DLR and UNU have worked together on numerous projects over the last 10 years – including the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) project. GITEWS is an early warning system off the coast of Indonesia, which was developed after the catastrophic seaquake on Christmas of 2004,” Wörner explained. “It is our goal to noticeably and tangibly enhance the social benefits that Earth observation data can offer.”
