Second Marine Science Workshop in Buenos Aires
Mesa de abertura do workshop: Christóbal Zimmermann (Embaixada da Alemanha), Dr. Alejandro Mentaberry (MINCYT) e Laura Redondo (DFG América Latina)
© ©MINCYT
(18.12.17) On 21 and 22 November, the second German-Argentinian workshop on marine science was held in Argentina’s capital. The initiative arose from a mutual interest among researchers in stepping up cooperation in the many different areas of the field. The event was financially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Argentinian science ministry (MINCYT).
maximum speed: 11.5 knots, maximum time at sea: 50 days
© FS Meteor
During the two-day workshop, eight researchers from Germany and 14 from Argentina came together at the Polo Científico research campus, where MINCYT is based. Last year the researchers organised themselves into working groups representing four different areas: Ocean Dynamics and Sediments, Biodiversity, Source to Sink, and Biogeochemistry. They identified interfaces between their respective areas of interest and research topics. Another aim of this year’s workshop was the planning of joint ocean expeditions. Participants discussed strategies for time and resource optimisation as part of a planned expedition with Argentinian research vessel AUSTRAL (formerly SONNE, purchased from Germany in 2015), with the possible participation of various working groups. There was also discussion of potential projects involving the German research vessel SONNE and the vessels funded by the DFG and BMBF, METEOR and MARIA S. MERIAN.
Dr. Ruben Lara, do IADO, um dos organizadores do workshop
The limited number of attendees created scope for panel discussions and allowed group-specific interests to be considered together, for example in the form of planned interdisciplinary expeditions. Thought was also given to the implementation of a coordinated project comprising multiple individual projects on various topics.
In 2018, the BMBF and DFG partner organisations MINCYT and CONICET in Argentina will publish a joint call in marine sciences – an important step towards the enhancement of bilateral cooperation in this area. For the DFG, the success of the initiative will be crucial to future calls with Argentinian partners in marine research.