The Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management (FTZ-NK)” at HAW Hamburg is one of the partners in the NetCDA project. The main objective of the FTZ-NK is to support fundamental and applied research on sustainable development and climate issues, especially by conducting practice-oriented research projects. The centre also promotes HAW Hamburg’s contribution to knowledge and technology transfer at the national and international levels.
The FTZ-NK partnership with African Universities in general, and in particular the Graduate Schools Programme university in The Gambia – the University of the Gambia (UTG) – as well as the WASCAL program goes beyond the NetCDA project. For instance, the FTZ-NK regularly organises African wide expert conferences and trainings, e.g. on scientific publishing for young researchers, the Centre also coordinated a set of applied research projects on climate-change related topics such as the BMBF-funded projects “Feasibility Study on Climate Change, Land Use Management, and Renewable Energy in The Gambia (RECC-LUM)”, Climate Change and Land Use Management in the Gambia (CCLUM) and Epidemiological Surveillance for Infectious Diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (ESIDA).
Based on pleasant previous experience of hosting PhD students supported by the WASCAL program, the FTZ-NK is now closely collaborating in the frame of NetCDA, the FTZ-NK with the School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at the University of The Gambia, in the field of climate change adaptation and health. From the beginning of 2024, the FTZ-NK has been hosting six students affiliated with the University of The Gambia, Universite de Lome, Togo, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kunst), Ghana and Researcher National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) The Gambia. The students research works range from climate change adaptation and conservation in innovative communication and education to impact of climate extreme events on academic performance, knowledge of climate change impacts on the prevalence of malaria, climate change education in the primary and lower secondary schools, and impact of agricultural extensification on land use land cover change, carbon stocks, and climate variability.
The team at HAW Hamburg consists of Prof Dr. (mult.) Dr. h.c. (mult.) Walter Leal, Ms. Franziska Wolf and Dr. Marina Kovaleva
Professor Dr. (mult.) Dr. h.c. (mult.) Walter Leal holds the Chairs of Climate Change Management at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and Environment and Technology at Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). He directs the Research and Transfer Centre “Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management”. His main research interests are in the fields of climate change and sustainable development, also including aspects of climate change and health. Professor Leal is a Review Editor (AR5) and Lead Author and Contributing Author (AR6) at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is the founder and Chairman of the International Climate Change Research and Information Programme (ICCIRP), created in 2008. He has extensive experience on climate change adaptation, especially in developing countries, and created in 2008 the “Climate Management Series” with Springer, which is the leading peer-reviewed book series on climate change. The Series, to which he acts as the Editor, has produced to date a comprehensive body of publications on climate change, among which mention may be made to the African Handbook of Climate Change Adaptation, the most comprehensive publication on climate change adaptation in Africa ever produced encompassing over 100 contributions from across the region. Professor Leal has supervised to date well in excess of 100 BSc students, as well as 54 MSc and 48 PhD and post-doctoral (“Habilitation”) students. At present, he acts as a supervisor or co-supervisor for 10 PhD students, undertaking their PhD research on issues related to sustainable development and climate change.
Franziska Wolf (MIBA) from the Research and Transfer Centre Sustainable Development and Climate Change Management (FTZ-NK) coordinates the NetCDA project activities at HAW Hamburg. Besides heading the Climate and Health Division at the Centre where she also coordinates the Horizon Europe research project Europe-LAND, her own research focuses on sustainability aspects of climate change adaptation.
Dr. Marina Kovaleva is a research associate at FTZ-NK. Apart from being engaged in the NetCDA project, Dr Kovaleva also participates in the BMBF-funded RECC-LUM project and coordinates the DFG-funded GreenGardens project. She also coordinates the World PhD Students Climate Change Network organized by the International Climate Change Information and Research PROGRAMME (ICCIRP). Dr Kovaleva research work focuses on climate change and gender.