Partnering with a European leader: Water Institute researchers visit KIT
A recent visit to Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has opened new doors for collaboration between researchers at the Water Institute and colleagues at one of Europe’s top technical universities.
Supported by an International Research Partnership Grant (IRPG) and facilitated by the Water Institute, Bruce MacVicar, Bryan Tolson, Juliane Mai and Maricor Arlos travelled to KIT to share research expertise, explore joint projects and student exchanges, and build relationships with researchers at the KIT Institute for Water and Environment.
The visit featured lab tours of the Theodor Rehbock Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory and the Aerodynamics Lab, along with a field demonstration of a research project on in-situ measurements of surface runoff and roughness. Participants also visited the River Rhein floodplains and engaged in-depth discussions about research priorities, graduate student training, and international funding opportunities. Waterloo researchers gave presentations on their work and that of the Water Institute, while KIT researchers shared insights into their strategic research areas and ongoing student-led projects.
Dr. Cristoff Gromke showing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Wind Tunnel at KIT to Dr. Maricor Arlos. LEGO is for roughness.
KIT is internationally renowned for its strengths in groundwater and hydrogeology, as well as flood risk and climate resilience—areas that strongly align with Water Institute members’ expertise and interests.
“KIT has identified the University of Waterloo as a potential North American partner university based on shared interests in research and teaching, and shared values of diversity and interdisciplinarity. Water and climate research and education are important parts of the KIT strategic plan, with an English Master’s program in Water Science and Engineering that may be an opportunity for educational exchanges, and existing interdisciplinary interfaces such as the Helmholtz Program on the Changing Earth, the Urban Research Initiative and the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology that may help to facilitate research collaboration.
"This trip was about building on our existing connections and identifying where we can do more together—whether it’s joint research, student mobility, or larger collaborative grants,” said Bruce MacVicar, Professor and Director of Environmental Engineering at Waterloo. “There was strong alignment between our groups and a lot of enthusiasm to move forward.”
The short-term plans are to send a Waterloo student to KIT to learn from KIT’s expertise in numerical modelling, take some courses, and develop project-based collaborations of mutual interest. A KIT Master’s student is also expected to join a Waterloo research team working on a numerical modelling project based on laboratory results of vegetation growth and morphologic change in the Bow River in Calgary, Alberta. Other team members are pursuing similar collaborations, with an eye toward growing them into larger, multi-institutional initiatives.
Discussions also touched on opportunities to co-develop proposals for major international funding programs, such as the European Research Council’s Synergy Grants, NSERC’s International Alliance program, and future Horizon II Europe applications. Larger grants will require significant consortiums to be built, which will take time, but there is interest at both universities in connecting with other researchers that may be working on similar themes both in Europe and Canada.
“Several large-scale, pan-European interdisciplinary initiatives related to water, in particular Nature-based Solutions and river restoration, have been funded very recently under Horizon Europe by the European Commission” said Water Institute Executive Director Roy Brouwer, who evaluated the outcomes of one of these initiatives for the Commission earlier this year. “The Office of Research offers great support to the Water Institute and its members to find relevant connections and funding opportunities” he said.
The visit highlights the value of seeding early-stage international partnerships that centre not only on shared research interests but also on student training and mobility. The Water Institute continues to play a key role in supporting its members in developing meaningful international collaborations that can evolve into impactful, long-term partnerships.
“This was a good learning experience and provided opportunities for networking — both for future research and student exchanges. I have met a couple of folks including Dr. Stephan Fuchs working on water quality management and there are some synergies between our research activities. I am very grateful for this opportunity and looking forward to what the future holds” said Dr. Maricor Arlos.
With momentum growing and several collaborative threads already in motion, the Water Institute looks forward to seeing how this partnership evolves—and how it can support both students and faculty members.
To learn more about KIT’s Institute for Water and Environment, visit their website here.
Photo (Back row): Bruce MacVicar, Maricor Arlos, Bryan Tolson, Mario Franca (Front Row) Juliane Mai, Uwe Ehret, Davide Vanzo, Ulrike Scherrer and Olivier Eiff.
On the banks of the Rhine River
Dr. Peter Oberle and Ph.D. Candidate Tim Jakobs explain the surface runoff experiments to Dr. Bryan Tolson
Construction of a scale model of a large hydropower dam for physical testing of the spillway capacity.
Small hydropower dam on the Pfintz River
Dr. Cristoff Gromke demonstrates a small wind tunnel used to show the interaction between wind, buildings, and emissions from a chimney.
A presentation on Water Research at KIT from Prof Olivier Eiff
