Thanks to a burgeoning relationship between the Institute of Earth Systems and the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence, the University of Malta successfully kicked off a cooperation agreement with the Cyprus University of Technology with the aim of conducting earth observation research.
The agreement was signed on Tuesday 27 July 2021, and over the next five years, sees the two entities cooperate on future projects of mutual interest revolving around earth observation, especially since the two countries are both situated within the Mediterranean basin.
University of Malta Rector, Prof. Alfred J. Vella, welcomed this as a great example of the University’s internationalisation efforts, which helps put our university more on the map and play a greater role in the global knowledge economy.
The relationship started when UM academic Prof. Charles Galdies was invited as a keynote speaker in a series of workshops during which he presented a number of Earth Observation activities in Malta, such as natural resources management, the conservation of urban environments, climate change impacts, weather forecasting and even public health, and further opportunities on how these can be adapted to the benefit of the Mediterranean region, including MEDRIN.
Thanks to this agreement, the University of Malta will benefit from a number of opportunities, namely faculty staff exchange opportunities, student exchange opportunities, mutual participation in research projects, mutual exchange of information, thesis co-tutorship, and the mutual exchange of measured data of common interest. These opportunities are open to all Faculties and Institutes of the University of Malta.
“Although the individual projects we will be working on are still to be decided, we have already identified the areas we would like to work on, namely environmental monitoring, management and planning. We are now eager to give our students and staff an international experience and help them develop skills relating to global competencies”, Prof. Galdies commented.
He also reiterated that the opportunities to be provided by this MoU are not just open to the Institute of Earth Systems, and that all students at UM can benefit from this ambitious collaboration.
Prof. Diofantos Hadjimitis, Managing Director of Erathosthenes Centre of Excellence, remarked that the idea is to sign the MoU and not leave it on paper, but to arrive at tangible results in the space technology and earth observation areas.
"We consider UM to be one of our strong partners, and that this collaboration, with funding through Horizon 2020 and the Excelsior initiative which I am coordinating, will soon start engaging researchers and motivating them to conduct ground-breaking research", he said.
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Finally, Prof. Louis F. Cassar, Director of the Institute of Earth Systems, said he is really looking forward to seeing students benefit from technology such as a state-of-the-art remote sensing station, a natural hazards-related infrastructure and a receiver antenna, that they would otherwise have limited access to.
There are other instances where the Institute of Earth Systems has been recognised for its international research efforts. Prof. Louis F. Cassar recently received the Winning Award in Environmental Science by the Association of American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE Awards). Prof. David Mifsud is leading the University’s participation in the FAST – Fight Alien Species Transborder Project, and in collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History and Butterfly Conservation Europe, the Institute has recently started to formulate a butterfly monitoring scheme for the Maltese Islands. It is also engaged in a number of collaborative research project that apply Earth Observation technologies, including EO4HBCS.
