From KAREN wiki

Integrated Coastal Zone and Shelf Sea Research

Intercoast is a research collaboration among research centres located at the University of Bremen in northern Germany and The University of Waikato. Doctoral students are being recruited internationally. They will work alongside post-doctoral researchers in both Germany and New Zealand and be jointly supervised by researchers based in Bremen and in Hamilton or Tauranga.

Qualifications are to be issued both by the University of Bremen and The University of Waikato, making them the first transnational doctorates for New Zealand.

Intercoast is to become active in November 2009, conducting research from field stations in Germany and in Tauranga. Research is to focus on the coast and shelf sea areas of the Bay of Plenty and of Germany's northwestern coast. A series of research projects are to be undertaken in the areas of

• Environmental Change
• Development Impacts
• Societal Aspects

The University of Bremen is one of the world's leading marine research institutions, and The University of Waikato's Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences has a strong track record in the study of the coastal environment. While work to be undertaken includes study traditionally thought of as marine science - for example the development of mathematical models of processes affecting the coastline - the centre's work is also to include research into the social and legal aspects of change. The effects of the expansion of ports in both countries will be among the changes under study.

Videoconferencing over KAREN and international research and education networks including Germany's DFN will make this kind of remote supervision possible, as well as easing the transfer of software and data between countries.

See also:

• Bay of Plenty Times report
• The University of Bremen's press release (in German).
• Tauranga City Council urban fibre laying
• Germany - New Zealand Agreement