Information, exchange, networking: The competence center TRENT will strengthen collaboration between Baden-Württemberg and its Chinese partner province of Jiangsu. It is established by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the State Agency for Environmental Technology and Resource Efficiency of Baden-Württemberg (UTBW). The partners want to push the development of innovative solutions for environmental monitoring and protection, water and resources management, circular economy, and bioeconomy.
"Due to constant economic growth in the past decades, environmental pollution and excessive use of resources have also gained political relevance in China," says the scientific project coordinator, Professor Stefan Norra from KIT's Institute of Applied Geosciences. "Jiangsu is one of the economically strongest regions in China and, hence, very much affected by these problems." Baden-Württemberg, the partner region of the Jiangsu province, has a number of innovative companies and institutions in the area of environmental research and technology that frequently have no access to the market in Jiangsu, Michaela Gerdes, UTBW, says. "The competence center will offer solutions in this respect."
