________________
Chapter 06
Climate and Study of Glaciers
TiP together with the ITP will hold bilateral annual workshops, alternately in Germany and China. Three such workshops have already been organised (see box "How TiP evolved") in order to prepare the long-term joint programme; the 4th workshop is in preparation to be hold in autumn 2007. TiP will also promote the organisation of whole sessions during international scientific meetings co-chaired by the German and Chinese sides. Both, Germany and China, have already hosted the annual Himalaya-Karakoram-Tibet Workshop (HKTW), the main international discussion forum on geology of this region (14th HKTW 1999 in Etta I/Germany, 15th HKTW in Chengdu/China), and China intends to hold it again in 2010 (25th HKTW). The German side is ready to propose hosting the HKTW in 2012. This will be then organised for the first time as a joint meeting with the 5th Symposium of the Tibetan Plateau (focusing on environmental research). The time and scope of this joint conference would be ideal to present the results of TiP to a large and broad scientific community in a comprehensive way. International networking of TiP will furthermore enable the linking of the existing multifold international cooperation into a comprehensive programme. Thereby, new international networks can be formed. Besides numerous smaller activities existing links to other major programmes (among many other smaller cooperation) include:
INDEPTH ("International Deep Exploration of Tibet and the Himalayas" -Geophysical/ Geological programme of US-Canada-China-Germany; exploring structure of the crust; Phases 1-111 since 1992; Phase IV now running; Germans involved since beginning), ICDP (“Lake Qinghai Scientific Drilling Project" - northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau; drilling operations in summer 2005), NECLIME ("Neogene Climate Evolution in Eurasia" - international open network of palaeobotanists) DFG Graduate School 1364 Potsdam (“Shaping Earth's surface in a variable environment" - interaction of tectonics and climate and its impact on the biosphere, African-Asian monsoonal region) initiated in 2006, HIMPAC ("Himalayan palaeoclimate during the Quaternary - the Indian story": German/ DFG-Indian/DST; planned; workshops Nov 2005, Oct 2006), IODP (using marine data related to monsoon history and sediment input from the Tibetan Plateau), MARIS (Monsoon Asia regional integrated studies programme of the Earth System Science
Partnership covering monsoon related studies on the Tibet Plateau). 4.4 Promotion of young researchers
TiP will actively support and promote the education of interdisciplinary working young scientists. Mandatory elements within the education of PhD students will be: All PhD positions will be open for international young researchers. Young researchers within interdisciplinary projects will be guided and supervised by at least two experienced scientists from different disciplines (this shall not be in conflict with institution-specific regulations).
263
Tibetan Plateau: Formation-Climate-Ecosystems