On May 2nd, members of the research unit gathered at Leuphana University in Lüneburg to discuss the state of their work, including successes and setbacks. To this end, participants shared what they have accomplished in the initial project phase and coordinated further steps. At the centre of the meeting were updates from all eight subprojects. This also provided a valuable opportunity for PhD students to get in-depth feedback on their dissertation projects and sparked lively discussions on methodology and more. The presented updates were certainly impressive, including even the first drafts of manuscripts to be submitted for publication in the coming months. One of those will be a paper on the KickOff in Kigali and the three horizons approach used therein.
Another theme of the workshop was the finetuning of collaboration between different subprojects, e.g., through data sharing. This is especially relevant for the spatial data which is currently being analysed and compiled in a database. Here, a lot of synergies became apparent which will help further interdisciplinary collaboration between natural and social science research.
After a long day of academic exchange with some organisational discussions, there is a shared sense of excitement to get more deeply into the research. Accordingly, there are already many plans from the various subprojects to return to the field in the coming months to gather data as well as engage with local stakeholders.
As always, stay tuned for more updates on this website!