CNRD exceed

CNRD is one of five Centers of Excellence under the DAAD’s exceed program. The initiative was launched in 2009 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to provide valuable contributions to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Following global debate, the focus of the second phase is to contribute to the post-2015 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The CNRD exceed project is funded until 2019.

CNRD exceed brings together scientists from different countries with different academic backgrounds in social, natural, and engineering sciences to jointly work on societal challenges. This is the core of CNRD and comprises 13 universities overall, twelve of them in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Their many activities relate to sustainable management of natural resources and are linked to different SDGs. Case studies in the partner countries play a pivotal role in the CNRD approach, as they form the basis for joint teaching and research activities as well as science-society dialogues with key actors and decision makers.

Decisions on joint activities are taken in annual network meetings supported by valuable input from the international advisory board, with members from various stakeholder groups and international organizations. Since its launch in 2009, CNRD exceed partners have successfully carried out various activities: establishing joint teaching modules with mutual exchange of lecturers, making open source and web-based teaching materials globally available, setting up M.Sc. and Ph.D. scholarships to enable young academics to pursue research linked to sustainable resources management in international projects, and implementing capacity development and training activities in different partner countries.