04.11.16 | Professor Hildegard Westphal, Director of the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), and Professor Horácio Schneider, Rector of the University of Pará (UFPA) in Brazil have agreed terms for a long-term cooperation between the two institutions by signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The five-year agreement forms the basis for both parties to intensify and expand the collaboration in research and education and also includes the exchange of scientists, students and technicians in the field of marine tropical ecology, coastal and fisheries ecology.
Furthermore, joint scientific activities to investigate coastal ecosystems in the Pará region in Northern Brazil including scientific conferences.
The cooperation also comprises joint development of coursework, and supervision. Both institutions are also currently working on upgrade the ZMT field station on the UFPA campus.
The new MoU is based on the long-term close and intensive collaboration between ZMT and UFPA, which started with the MADAM project (Mangrove Dynamics and Management) in 1995.
Over the past months Professor Martin Zimmer, head of the work group Mangrove Ecology at ZMT, has again reinforced the presence and research activities of ZMT in the region, which has since led to the signing of the new MoU. “We are very happy to intensify the research collaboration with UFPA and put it on a solid legal basis. The new contract will also allow us better access to resources, administrative permits and ministerial agreement which are required to undertake research in the mangrove ecosystems of these coastal areas,” explains Martin Zimmer.
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