Enhancing Science Partnerships for Innovation and Sustainable Development

To pool knowledge and expertise, discuss new technologies and work out recommendations for further steps: these were the objectives of the German-South African symposium “Technological Innovations for a Low Carbon Society” that was held in South Africa on 8 and 9 October.

Perfectly in tune with the interests of the German-South African Year of Science 2012/2013 under whose umbrella the conference was held, the symposium focused on exchanging views and experiences and on international cooperation. Its objective was to provide fresh momentum for a reduction in CO2 emissions – a subject which is of particular significance not only for the future of South Africa. In Menlyn Maine, Pretoria, representatives from the worlds of science, politics and society at large spent two days presenting and debating central questions such as: What new technologies are there? How can they be used as an engine of growth? How can the solar-energy potential that resides within South Africa be exploited even better? The conference came into being as a result of bilateral cooperation between the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). Prof. Roseanne Diab, ASSAf’s General Secretary, and Prof. Sigmar Wittig, who is a Leopoldina member and works at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, organised and managed the conference and rate it as a great success.

As well as Prof. Wittig, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina delegation included the scientists Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal and Dr. Christoph Richter of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Prof. Jürgen Werner from the University of Stuttgart and Prof. Wikus van Niekerk from Stellenbosch University.

Further information, as well as the presentations made at the conference, can be found on the ASSAf website.