(Edmonton) A major partnership between the U of A and a network of German research centres is now a lot more visible with the launch of a new website, informing the public on the initiative’s progress and allowing researchers to collaborate online.
While research to develop sustainability technologies for the oilsands has been going full bore for months now, the official site of the Helmholtz Alberta Initiative went live Nov. 25, celebrating “an equal partnership between the German and U of A sides,” says Stefan Scherer, managing director of Helmholtz Alberta Initiative at the U of A.
“Both partners have contributed to the design and provided content,” he said, adding that there will soon be a bilingual component, with content available in English and in German.
Part of the site is open to the public, promoting the Helmholtz partnership with stories, photos and video and keeping people up-to-date on work currently underway in six research themes related to the oilsands. It will also provide news on the planned expansion of the Helmholtz mandate, including new research themes in infectious diseases and neuro-degenerative diseases,.
But there is also a secure portion of the Helmholtz site, adds Scherer, allowing collaborating researchers in Germany and at the U of A to network and share documents.
A series of 12 videos featuring team co-leaders in the six currently active research themes—bitumen and lignite upgrading, carbon capture, carbon storage, geothermal energy, sustainable oilsands water management and mine site reclamation and landscape development—will appear roughly once every month on the site, at www.helmholtzalberta.ca.
First up – a profile of land-reclamation professor Anne Naeth of the University of Alberta.