Information, exchange, networking: The competence center TRENT will strengthen collaboration between Baden-Württemberg and its Chinese partner province of Jiangsu. It is established by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the State Agency for Environmental Technology and Resource Efficiency of Baden-Württemberg (UTBW). The partners want to push the development of innovative solutions for environmental monitoring and protection, water and resources management, circular economy, and bioeconomy.
“Due to constant economic growth in the past decades, environmental pollution and excessive use of resources have also gained political relevance in China,” says the scientific project coordinator, Professor Stefan Norra from KIT’s Institute of Applied Geosciences. “Jiangsu is one of the economically strongest regions in China and, hence, very much affected by these problems.” Baden-Württemberg, the partner region of the Jiangsu province, has a number of innovative companies and institutions in the area of environmental research and technology that frequently have no access to the market in Jiangsu, Michaela Gerdes, UTBW, says. “The competence center will offer solutions in this respect.”
TRENT (stands for: Transnational Competence Center for Environmental Technology and Research Jiangsu Baden-Württemberg) will act as a central platform for information, knowledge exchange, and networking. It will bring together companies and scientists from KIT and other universities in Baden-Württemberg and Chinese partners. Together, they will identify relevant environmental problems in the areas of environmental monitoring and protection, water and resources management, circular economy, and bioeconomy and push the development of innovative environmental technologies.
Moreover, TRENT is supposed to help open up so far unused market potentials for environmental technology companies from Baden-Württemberg in Jiangsu. “With the help of the Global Advanced Manufacturing Institute, GAMI, the branch of KIT in Suzhou, and the office of Baden-Württemberg International (BW_i) in Nanjing, we will be able to use existing knowledge and networks for our competence center in Jiangsu,” says Oliver Schmidt from the International Affairs Business Unit (INTL) of KIT.
The competence center will also organize joint Chinese-German research and transfer projects. In addition, it is planned to develop and organize summer schools, workshops, and seminars for students as well as training courses on specific environmental issues for companies in Jiangsu.
Interested entrepreneurs and members of research institutions in the areas of environmental technologies and environmental sciences may directly contact KIT and UTBW for further information on TRENT.
The competence center is funded with about EUR 500,000 by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection, and the Energy Sector.
Contacts for This Press Release:
KIT: Sandra Wiebe, Press Officer, Phone: +49 721 608-41172, Email: sandra wiebe ∂does-not-exist.kit edu
UTBW: Michaela Gerdes, Head of the Internationalization Project, Phone: +49 711 252841-44, Email: michaela gerdes ∂does-not-exist.umwelttechnik-bw de
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.