In Südamerika sind Millionen von Menschen von Wasserressourcen abhängig, die in der hoch gelegenen Paramo Graslandschaft sowie den tropischen Bergwäldern der Anden und an der Atlantikküste gebildet werden. Diese Wasserressourcen stehen unter zunehmenden Druck, hervorgerufen durch Landnutzungsänderungen und Klimawandel. Investitionen in wasserbezogene Dienstleistungen in Wassereinzugsgebieten (Investments in Watershed Services, IWS) sind starke, wenn auch bislang nicht ausgeschöpfte Maßnahmen, die eine einmalige Gelegenheit bieten, die Auswirkungen von Landnutzungsänderungen und Klimawandel auf Wasserressourcen in diesen sensiblen Bergregionen zu bewerten. ClimateWIse will den Erfolg der jetzigen Investitionen in wasserbezogene Dienstleistungen überprüfen und ihre Wirksamkeit unter Klimaänderung bewerten. Auf diese Weise werden Forschungsergebnisse erlangt, die die weitgefassten Fragen hinsichtlich der hydrologischen Auswirkungen durch Landnutzungs- und Klimaänderungen in den tropischen Bergwäldern Südamerikas adressieren. Zunächst werden wir untersuchen, ob Investitionen in wasserbezogene Dienstleistungen gegenwärtig die Situation der Wasserressourcen in den Einzugsgebieten verbessern. Dazu werden wir 1.1) die von den IWS Interessengruppen erwarteten Ergebnisse evaluieren; 1.2) neue Daten zur IWS-Überwachung erheben und 1.3) vorhandene Simulationsmodelle zu Ausarbeitung und Bewertung von IWS-Maßnahmen verbessern. Um aber die Anpassungsfähigkeit von IWS-Maßnahmen an zukünftige Klimaveränderungen zu ermitteln, werden wir 2.1) die Berücksichtigung von Klimaaspekten in IWS Planungen überprüfen; 2.2) die Prognosen der Auswirkungen von Klimawandel und weiteren Veränderungen verbessern, sowie 2.3) die Möglichkeiten prüfen, Angaben zu Klimaänderungen in IWS zu integrieren, was zu einer Verbesserung der Widerstandsfähigkeit von IWS-Maßnahmen führt und darüber hinaus auch zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel beiträgt. ClimateWIse baut auf die Forschungsarbeiten beteiligter Projektpartner auf: diese reichen von Forschungsaktivitäten im Bereich hydrologische Konnektivität in den tropischen Bergregionen Südamerikas im Allgemeinen, bis hin zur Beurteilung von IWS-Maßnahmen im Speziellen. Diese Expertise wird erstmalig in diesem Projektantrag zusammengebracht. In diesem Zusammenhang werden wir auch die existierenden Beziehungen zum Latin American Water Funds Partnership und Brazilian Water Producer Program nutzen. ClimateWIse will die Bewirtschaftung der Wasserressourcen verbessern, die wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse über die Auswirkungen von Landnutzungs- und Klimaänderungen auf den hydrologischen Kreislauf in tropischen Bergregionen erweitern, die wissenschaftlichen Grundlagen im Bereich ökosystemorientierter Bewirtschaftung ausbauen sowie Ergebnisse für die Wassernutzer in der gesamten Region fördern. Die mit ClimateWIse erzielten Erkenntnisse werden für die Wasserwirtschaft innerhalb Südamerikas aber auch über den Kontinent hinaus von direktem Nutzen sein.
Umweltfreundlich und ohne eigenes Auto mobil zu sein: das ist in ländlichen Räumen oftmals besonders schwierig. Die Gründe dafür liegen im demographischen Wandel, in knappen öffentlichen Kassen und in einer unzureichenden Zusammenarbeit relevanter Institutionen. Das Interreg-Projekt Peripheral Access - 'Transnational cooperation and partnership for better public transport in peripheral and cross-border regions' - will daher die Mobilität in ländlichen Räumen, im Hinterland von Ballungsräumen und in Grenzregionen verbessern. Es sollen mehr Menschen davon überzeugt werden, ihr Auto stehen zu lassen und den öffentlichen Nahverkehr zu nutzen. Um das zu erreichen, setzt das Projekt auf neue Mobilitätsstrategien. So zum Beispiel auf Busse, die auch Fahrräder befördern, oder auf Rufbusse, die die Passagiere per Smartphone bestellen können.
OPTIBIOCAT is a 48 months project aimed at developing biocatalysts based on feruloyl esterases (FAEs) and glucuronoyl esterases (GEs) for production of phenolic fatty- and sugar- esters with antioxidant activity for cosmetic industry, expanding the number/type of industrial biotransformations. Selected FAEs and GEs available within the consortium will be improved for their thermo- and solvent- resistance and substrate specificity by site-directed mutagenesis and directed evolution. Novel enzymes will be discovered by mining for new genes from available genomes. An inventory of novel FAEs and GEs will be developed including 50 fungal and 500 bacterial esterases, 25 site-directed and 20 directed evolved mutants. Enzymatic performances will be optimized to enhance the yield (up to the theoretical yield of 100%) and productivity (up to 0.5-1 g/l/h) of reactions giving the main targeted antioxidants: butyl ferulate, p-coumarate, caffeate, sinapate and 5-O-(trans-feruloyl)-arabinofuranose (using FAEs), glucuronate and benzyl glucuronate (using GEs). FAEs and GEs will be also tested for production of other compounds with improved biological activity and properties of hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity for cosmetic applications. Cost-effective methods will be developed for production of the new biocatalysts, in the g/L scale, and for their technical application to produce antioxidants for cosmetic industry, up to 20L. Enzyme immobilization will increase their recyclability up to ten cycles. The ability of the developed catalysts to work in conditions miming the industrial ones with reduced use of solvents and lower temperature than the chemical routes will be demonstrated. The techno-economic viability and environmental friendliness will be assessed considering a full industrial scale scenario. OPTIBIOCAT involves a highly skilled and multidisciplinary partnership of 16 partners from 8 EU countries, and it is a strongly industry driven project through the participation of 8 SMEs and 1 large company.
Rural areas undergo tremendous ecological, demographic and economic transformations. Some of these transformations are harmful; others offer opportunities for improving livelihoods of farmers. In the Amhara region, Ethiopia, there is high potential for wide spread social, economic and technical transformation that gradually improves lives and livelihoods of farmers. These include technical improvements in agricultural and natural resource management, the realisation of new income opportunities, and thus the transformation from rural worlds with farmers living in poverty and social injustice to a rural society experiencing equality and prosperity. Unfortunately, higher education and research in the Amhara region are not sufficiently responsive to emerging transformation opportunities, one common constraint is widespread among the research institutions in the region: they are short of the essential human and institutional capacities to conceptually and methodologically address rural transformation through knowledge generation, training and communication of research findings that reach deep into rural communities. At the same time, only few experiences, insights and priorities of farmers and rural communities diffuse into the higher education and research system. TRANSACT helps university lecturers and researchers to respond more effectively to transformation opportunities among farmers in complex and risk-prone rural areas. A particular emphasis of this project is placed on learning and human behaviour as well as communication and collective action, especially in connection with society interactions that mediate change. This goes way beyond training conflict management skills and puts capabilities to coach farmers during transformation processes into the foreground. In the Amhara Region, agriculture takes place mostly on small-scale farms with less than one ha. These farms are extremely diverse, and one farm usually incorporates a variety of agricultural practices. Farmers combine crop and livestock production, farm forestry as well as homestead horticulture and provide ecosystem services such as soil and water conservation measures. Given the high variability of agro-ecological zones, risks, and resource constraints that rural households face, there is a need for research and development interventions that take into account household assets and the great diversity of conditions they are facing. This calls for multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder partnerships that help understanding diversified farmers priority constraints in the areas of livestock, crop, natural resource, socio-economic, so as to contribute and impact to the broader goals of sustainable resource use, food security and competitiveness of farming enterprises.
Recently, a new 'optimistic' discourse on migration has surfaced, highlighting migrants potential as agents of global development. While usefully underscoring migrants ability to create and spread knowledge and resources, this perspective risks portraying migrants as one homogenous group and ignoring individual or large-scale factors, like personal motivation or societal context, which can limit their contributions to overall development. This research project aims to allow a critical reading of the migration and development debate, by particularly achieving a more differentiated understanding of the dynamics of knowledge and skill flow in the migration process, which is a rather isolated theme in the migration discourse. We aim to explore the role of knowledge and skills for a migrants own personal advancement and its possible linkages with development efforts. The research assumes that with the emergence of knowledge based economies, knowledge has a great significance for wellbeing. However the access to knowledge and skills is diverse as are the opportunities to use it for productive outcomes. In this context migrants due to their experiences of different places and socio-economic environments can become brokers of knowledge, connecting these different communities. But migrants with their personal curricula and living and working in different socio-economic and political contexts are very heterogeneous and the way how skills and knowledge can be made use of do vary to a great extent. Drawing on various research activities that reflect the heterogeneity of migration - in South Asia, Central Asia and Switzerland - we use both qualitative and quantitative methods to look at the dynamics of the knowledge and skill production for migrants personal advancement and broader development efforts and the environment that favours or restricts this process both in the country of origin and new country of stay after migration. Core research activities are carried out by: Mr. Craig Hatcher (PhD cand.) The PhD research combines a legal geography framework with a philosophical approach to knowledge in migration research by developing an understanding of how internal migrants use their knowledge of law to negotiate the residence registration system in Kyrgyzstan in order to appropriate (urban) space. Ms. Jarkyn Samanchina (PhD cand.) The proposed PhD project looks at student migration between Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. Next to individual migration experiences of students the study pays particular attention to the legal and political framework between both countries, given the fact that Turkey and Kyrgyzstan have a mutal liberal migration policy and a long standing partnership on educational programmes. Dr. Anita Ghimire (postdoc) and Dr. Susan Thieme (senior res.) The research looks at student mobility in a comparative manner. usw.
Lead Chestnut blight caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica is an introduced disease responsible for a widespread decline of European chestnut forests. In this project, we aim to provide the scientific basis for biological control of this devastating tree disease. Background Biological control is a highly desirable means of pest and disease management in natural and managed forest ecosystems. This control method depends on the invasion of a pest population by a biocontrol agent (e.g. a hyperparasite), which ideally can spread and establish in a self-sustainable way. The Cryphonectria hypovirus1 (CHV-1) infects the chestnut blight fungus C. parasitica and has the potential to be used as a biological control agent of this pathogen. The invasion of C. parasitica populations by the hypovirus appears to be highly influenced by the population biology of the fungus. Spread of the hypovirus is favoured by low diversity of vegetative compatibility (vc) types and limited sexual reproduction. Therefore, the information and understanding of the population structure and epidemiology of C. parasitica and the hypovirus is important for the success of biological control of chestnut blight. Objectives The project has two main objectives, (1) to investigate the population structure and colonization history of the chestnut blight fungus C. parasitica in Georgia and the Balkans by using different types of genetic markers, and (2) to evaluate novel application methods and perform practical biological control experiments in collaboration with end users. Significance European chestnut is an important multipurpose tree species grown for fruit and wood production in many rural areas of Europe. Our project will contribute to a better understanding of a serious disease of chestnut trees and will help to restore and protect infested chestnut orchards and forests. This multilateral project will also allow the continuation and strengthening of partnerships among research groups from Switzerland, Macedonia, Croatia, and Georgia.
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