HeKKSaGOn x L-INSIGHT spin-off seminar “Approaches in Environmental and Wildlife Conservation” was held on 2 November, 2022

On November 2nd, a seminar titled “Approaches in Environmental and Wildlife Conservation” was held at University of Heidelberg.  This seminar was a further extension of the event “Five Dialogues for Future Research and Science with Early Career Researchers” (November 23, 2021) organized by L-INSIGHT, Program for the Development of Next-generation Leading Scientists with Global Insight, sponsored by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan), and HeKKSaGOn Alliance.

The European Center supported this seminar by managing the coordination with University of Heidelberg who served as the host, and providing the opening remarks. L-INSIGHT fellow Dr. Shun Hongo (Center for African Area Studies), Dr. Hjalmer Kühl (Max Planck Institute), Dr. Jochen Müller (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), and Dr. Katharina Brotzmann (University of Heidelberg) served as speakers at the seminar.

Although they each specialize in different fields of research, they engaged in lively discussions on their respective research perspectives and methodologies on the common issue of “environmental conservation”. L-INSIGHT Fellow Hongo pointed out that although there are opportunities to meet at international conferences in the same research field, it is very meaningful to expand this kind of network across fields, and this can better be done in person than online.

After the period of online meetings, this was an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of face-to-face researcher exchange.