ZMT - Leibniz Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung

12.2.16 | Scientists from the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Science (IUI) in Israel met for a one-day workshop in Bremen to further their cooperation. IUI Director Prof. Dr. Amatzia Genin headed the eight-strong delegation from Eilat.

The ZMT has been working with IUI since the establishment of the “Red Sea Program” between Israel, Egypt and Germany in the 1990s. The early collaboration led to the signing of a second Memorandum of Understanding in 2013.

Scientists from both institutes introduced their research in different areas of marine and social sciences. The goal of the workshop was to find mutual research approaches and topics and to exchange expertise in ongoing studies. Cooperation opportunities in aquaristics and scientific diving were also on the agenda.

“I am very much looking forward to intensifying our collaborations with the IUI and to the exciting projects we will be developing on the basis of our workshop,” said Prof. Dr. Hildegard Westphal, Director of the ZMT.

Prof. Dr. Amatzia Genin added: “I think that this cooperation can flourish and have a major impact on science and society.”

On the initiative of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Matthias Kleiner, President of the Leibniz Association and Leibniz Vice President Hildegard Westphal, the Israeli scientists had also spent two days as part of a larger delegation in Berlin. The marine and agriculture scientists, archaeologists and biologists returned a visit by the Leibniz Association in June 2015. Overall research interests and cooperation agreements were discussed during these meetings.

The visit by the delegation was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with funds secured by the ZMT within the framework of the Leibniz Association’s internationalization initiative.

The IUI with headquarters in Eilat evolved from the H. Steinitz Marine Biology Laboratory (MBL) established by the Hebrew University in 1968.
In 1985 the MBL was transformed into a national facility, shared by all seven universities in the country. Consequently, the IUI was established as the only interuniversity teaching and research facility in Israel. Research activities at the IUI span the whole spectrum of marine sciences, including ecology, chemical, physical and biological oceanography, ichthyology, invertebrate and vertebrate biology, neurobiology, molecular biology and marine biogeochemistry.