Collaboration with Dresden universities

On 16th June 2016, representatives from the United Nations University – from the UNU-FLORES Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources and from the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden) visited the University of Environmental and Life Sciences (UPWR) in Wrocław. A trilateral agreement between the UPWR and the Dresden schools has been signed.

The first meeting took place in Germany in February at the invitation of the UNU-FLORES and TU Dresden, and the University of Environmental and Life Sciences was represented by Professor Cezary Kabała from the Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology, Doctor Ewa Burszta-Adamiak from the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Geodesy and Krzysztof Kafarski.

Before the agreement was officially signed there was a meeting between Professor Reza Ardakanian, director of the UNU-FLORES, and his colleagues doctor Stephan Hülsmann and Doctor Kai Schwärzel, together with Professor Karl-Heinz Feger, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, representing TU Dresden. The UPWR was represented by the authorities (prof. Tadeusz Trziszka, prof. Jarosław Bosy, prof. Józef Sowiński, prof. Krzysztof Pulikowski, dr Katarzyna Szopka) and representatives of the Faculty of Life Sciences and Technology as well as the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Geodesy (prof. Cezary Kabała, prof. Adam Figiel, prof. Anna Karczewska, dr hab. Ewa Burszta-Adamiak and dr Wiesław Fiałkiewicz). The Director for International Relations, Krzysztof Kafarski, and Dominika Mańkowska, from the International Academic Programmes Office, also participated in the meeting.

In the first part of the meeting the guests from Dresden were welcomed by Professor Tadeusz Trziszka, who expressed his satisfaction with the guests’ visit as well as the activities undertaken in order to tighten the international collaboration. Then Professor Reza Ardakanian, director of the UNU-FLORES, and Professor Karl-Heinz Feger, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, described the structure and scope of the research and educational activity of the represented units and they also pointed at the areas of potential scientific and teaching collaboration. Professor Reza Ardakanian presented UN-Water, an organization in the United Nations formalized in 2003, which associates entities dealing with issues concerning water and sanitary systems. The aim of that organization is to support member countries in joint efforts undertaken within the scope of international programmes and projects (http://www.unwater.org/about/en/). The UNU-FLORES Director also invited other participants to the conference “Dresden Nexus Conference 2017”, which will take place in Dresden on 17-19 May 2017. Professor Kabała and Doctor Burszta-Adamiak were invited to co-host the conference.

Prof. Karl-Heinz Feger described the structure of the TU Dresden and the research projects carried out currently. He also presented potential forms of collaboration with UPWR. The last topic (collaboration between the units) encouraged the participants, professor Jarosław Bosy and Dominika Mańkowska, to further discussion, and they asked for possibilities of conducting doctoral studies within the agreement.

The guests from Dresden had a chance to see selected laboratories i.e. water laboratory at the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Geodesy, accredited Center of Excellence in Environmental Analysis in the Research-Teaching Center, biogas lab, thermal biomass transformation lab, water energy and ground-coupled heat exchanger lab, solar and wind energy lab in the Institute of Agricultural Engineering.

The crowning point of the visit was the signing of the trilateral agreement of collaboration. As Rector Roman Kołacz noted – we are happy signing the next agreements of international collaboration, especially that often we look for partners from remote countries of the world, while Dresden is so close and is so well communicated with Wrocław.

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The United Nations University – the UNU-FLORES Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources in Dresden was established in 2012. Its mission is to integrate research, education and politics concerning modern environmental problems with special focus on Soil – Water – Waste Nexus. UNU institutes play the role of think-tanks situated in the most important research and economic centers on all the continents. UNU-FLORES operates in close collaboration with the TU Dresden, one of 11 German Universities of Excellence.

dr hab. inż. Ewa Burszta-Adamiak