The first day

We started with a joint breakfast and traveled to the Dotmund University of Applied Sciences, which kindly provided us with their rooms for the day. In a very creative way the participants of the Summer School introduce their colleagues to eachother and at the latest then there was a tightened and welcoming environment. During the subsequent workshop, the most important factors of climate change and resilience were identified und diskussed.

Afterwards we were highly welcomed by Prof. Dr. Martin Sternberg, chairman of PK NRW, and Dr. Carolin Schuchert, executive director of PK NRW. The day ended with a pleasant excursion to the so called “Bermuda Triangle” of Bochum.

Team Israel is on its way to Frankfurt, Germany

We are all looking forward meeting our German colleges, exploring North Rhine-Westphalia’s history, cities, towns, universities, and challenges. With resilience in mind, we hope to create fruitful multinational collaborations that would benefit as much of the population as possible. In our hectic world, with unexpected challenges appearing every single day, this program is a very blessed opportunity to do good and create meaningful cooperation’s.

So… see you in a few hours to kick of our summer school. 😊

Below you can see some historical picture from an exhibition in Ben Gurion airport. It’s Interesting to see how 120 years ago leadership and communities were so connected to nature and sustainability and to think where we are now and what are the consequences of the detachment of our current leaderships and communities. 

The German participants met in Dortmund for a first dinner in the evening to get to know each other. Everyone is very excited about the coming two weeks. Initial discussions on the topic of resilience have taken place, and everyone has told what disciplines they are researching and where they come from. The anticipation for the soon arriving Israeli partners is great!

Welcome!

We are happy to announce the first Joint Research Summer School (JRSS) on the different perspectives of Resilience for research track students (MA & PhD) from both Israel and Germany. The summer school will take place from Sep 11 – Sep 23, and will be held in both locations. 

This joint Israeli-German workshop, organized by TAU and PK NRW aims to foster discussion, knowledge exchange, and a scholarly investigation of vital societal issues, such as natural hazards and resilience of cities in relation to global climate change, resilience of populations and social vulnerabilities, and environmental resilience.

The week in Germany involves visits to urban and rural areas in the North Rhine-Westphalia region and includes seminars and workshops on urban and rural settings, as well as examination of challenges and opportunities for designing smart resilient communities. The week in Israel involves a visit to Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, as well as to the Resilience Center in the city of Beer-Sheva. It includes seminars and workshops on urban and environmental dynamics, climate change, and analysis of community resilience at multiple scales of governance systems.

Our candidates from both locations come from various academic disciplines, including, Social and Health Affairs, Resources and Sustainability, Technology and Systems, Emergency and Disaster Management, Environmental Studies, and Sociology. The range of backgrounds and experiences will bring multidisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives to the program.

The summer school will climax with students’ joint presentations on their final research project. The goal of the project is to identify and tackle main societal, urban, and environmental challenges in an interdisciplinary way that are relevant for both policy implementation and future studies and publications.

We hope that this important initiative will yield further joint research collaborations in the future.