Founding members of the "European Climate Research Alliance – ECRA" on occasion of the ceremonial founding event at the European Parliament on 4 October 2011. Photo: ECRA/Vivian Hertz

Helmholtz International

On this special page, we report news from the Helmholtz offices in Brussels, Moscow and Beijing several times a year. Specific focus is on cooperation and partnership ventures of the Helmholtz Association in Russia, China and the EU as well as on select international research policy news.

News from the Moscow Office

Russian Government Invests in Megascience

Russia participates in many international research projects, amongst these also in large-scale projects, such as ITER, FAIR, European XFEL and in experiments at CERN. The budget for these projects amounts to some 1.12 billion Euro. Recently, the Russian government has decided to initiate also its own national megaprojects. In cooperation with foreign partners it plans to build and operate large-scale research facilities and infrastructure on the Russian territory. To this end, the Russian government is prepared to spend up to 133 billion Rouble (approximately 3.32 billion Euro), with each individual project being allowed to cost up to 40.3 billion Rouble (about a billion Euro). Six initial projects already were announced by a selection committee from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and were presented to Prime Minister Putin by the Government Commission on High Technologies and Innovations in Dubna in July 2011: The tokamak experiment IGNITOR (Troitsk), the Nuclotron-based Ion Collider Facility NICA (Dubna), the fourth generation synchrotron radiation source at the Kurchatov Institute, the neutron reactor PIK in Gatchina, a laser centre in Nizhny Novgorod and the «Super-ctau-Factory» accelerator at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk. Financing of these project has not yet begun. First, technology roadmaps are to be prepared and international survey reports are to be collected. Regarding the IGNITOR project, which on the Russian side is coordinated by the Kurchatov Institute, Italy will take over half of the costs. "National large-scale projects will be realised in Russia but in close cooperation with the colleagues from abroad", emphasises Kurchatov director Mikhail Kovalchuk, who in honour of his many years of seminal work was awarded a Russian order of merit in the summer of this year.

DLR Planet Researcher Establishes Laboratory at Moscow University

On 20 September 2011, Professor Dr Jürgen Oberst from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and University Rector Professor Dr Vasiliy Malinnikov opened a laboratory for satellite research at the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK). In the previous year, the project won 150 million Rouble (approximately 3.75 million Euro) in the tender invited by Russian Ministry of Education and Science. It will be headed by Jürgen Oberst in Moscow for the next three years. The "MIIGAiK Extraterrestrial Laboratory" aims to collect data from current and future Russian and international space missions, such as Mars Express and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, to develop precise charts of the celestial bodies and to identify potential landing locations. One of the current projects at the "MExLab" is the charting of planned landing locations on the Mars moon Phobos for the Russian space probe "Fobos-Grunt", which is scheduled to depart aboard a rocket in November 2011. The project involves 40 researchers, in particular young scientists. The laboratory has the perspective of including also international partners in its work, first and foremost the DLR, the FU Berlin and the ESA.

News from the Brussels Office

Establishment of a European Research Alliance in the Field of Climate Research

Research needs cooperation! This is the motto under which eight European research organisations leading in the field of climate research (ENEA, KNMI, FMI, SMHI, NMI, CIEMAT, DTU and the Helmholtz Association) formed the official "European Climate Research Alliance – ECRA" on 4 October 2011. The Helmholtz Association adopts the lead management of this alliance. The aim of this strategic partnership is to strengthen the European research capacities and to accelerate work on the considerable social challenges regarding the climate. This is realised by joint Europe-wide programmes following the bottom-up concept. The research organisations and institutes are significantly involved in the formulation and implementation of strategic research agendas pertaining to scientific and technological questions. They contribute to the development of international standards, network with research partners in various countries and sectors and operate important research infrastructures for the international research community.

Foundation Members:

• Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA),
• Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI),
• Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI),
• Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI),
• Norwegian Meteorological Institute on behalf of
• Norwegian Climate Centre (NMI),
• Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology of Spain (CIEMAT),
• Technical University of Denmark (DTU),
• Helmholtz Association.

News from the Beijing Office

Helmholtz Funds German-Chinese Cooperation

In August 2011, representatives of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Helmholtz Association signed an agreement with the aim of joint advancement of outstanding scientists. As of 2012, an initial five German-Chinese research groups are to be funded over a period of three years. The Helmholtz Association's research centres profit from incorporating the selected Chinese scientists in two ways: On the one hand, they acquire excellent researchers for scientific cooperation projects, whereas on the other, for three years they receive up to 120,000 Euro per year from out of the Helmholtz Association's Initiative and Networking Fund for their joint research. The funding by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) amounts to up to 35,000 Euro per year and group. A similar programme with Russia is in effect since 2006. The agreement was signed by Professor Dr Bai Chunli, President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and by Professor Dr Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association. "Science feeds on exchange and confiding cooperation. With this proposal we offer development opportunities for outstanding Chinese researchers without permanently headhunting them away from their country", said Mlynek. Applications can be submitted by recognised scientists from both countries working on a strategically relevant subject. Both partners ascribe particular importance to the inclusion of talented young scientists of the next generation. The first invitation for tender is scheduled for March 2012. The Helmholtz Association thus contributes to curbing the migration of young scientists from China in the medium term and to strengthening the scientific cooperation with China. The Helmholtz Association's Beijing office supports interested scientists in their application and in other cooperation projects.

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