The Virtual Institute DESERVE was officially launched by a kickoff meeting held at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on December 5 and 6, 2012. Representatives of the DESERVE partner institutions and scientific experts on the DESERVE research topics participated in the meeting. The kickoff meeting informed about the objectives and structure of DESERVE and continued to develop the DESERVE research agenda. Prof. Eberhard Umbach, President of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, opened the meeting. He highlighted the outstanding importance of the challenges environmental risks, water availability and climate change in the Dead Sea region, which constitute a high demand for an integrated approach of earth sciences, atmosphere and climate research as achieved with DESERVE.

Participants of the DESERVE kickoff meeting.