On 28 September 2023, team members of the Build4People project met with team members of PolyUrbanWaters project at the office of BORDA e.V. in Phnom Penh.
This meeting was part of a delegation visit led by Dr. Verena Hebbecker, Deputy Head of Division 723 „Global Change, Climate Research“ at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and coordinator of the Funding Priority SURE – Sustainable Development of Urban Regions. Thereby, she got accompanied by Dr. Heike Bauer from the DLR Project Management Agency who is project management coordinator of the SURE funding priority. Both were further joined by Prof. Dr. Rainer Nönning, head of the Digital City Science Lab at the HafenCity University of Hamburg, and one of the coordinators of the SURE Facilitation and Synthesis Project.
The meeting started with brief project presentations, first by Dr. Bernd Gutterer, leader of the PolyUrbanWaters project, BORDA e.V Bremen, and then by Dr. Michael Waibel, leader of the Build4People project, Hamburg University. This was the basis of a vibrant and intense discussion about potential synergies between the two projects which are both part of the SURE funding priority of BMBF.
A first more specific idea to collaborate was to make use of the expertise in the field of water-sensitive management of the PolyUrbanWaters project in the context of the next Build4People Ecocity Transition Lab scheduled for early March 2024 which will focus on a Greenfield development in Phnom Penh.
All in all, it has been a very fruitful meeting with promising perspectives and the whole Build4People would like to express its deep gratitude to get invited to the BORDA office.