From 20th to 24th Oct. 2012, Prof. Olaf Kolditz, the head of Department Environmental Informatics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Professor of Technology Universiy Dresden, Germany and his colleagues visited Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion (GIEC), CAS. GIEC and UFZ held a kick off ceremony for the Sino-German Cooperative Project Geo-Reservoir Modeling for Energy Resources Research.

The project kicked off via a joint workshop on Modeling for Energy Research on 22nd Oct. 2012. Prof. Olaf Kolditz, the members of UFZ delegation, scientists and students from GIEC attended the workshop. Dr. Nengyou Wu, the Deputy Director General of GIEC and Prof. Olaf Kolditz addressed the workshop.They emphasized the role and significances of the cooperative project. Dr. Olaf Kolditz also introduced OpenGeoSys, a software system and the application fields of OpenGeoSys, particularly in the energy research field. Eight scientists from both sides, UFZ and GIEC presented their research fields, simulation and experimental methods, results and applications of current and previous researches. During the workshop, the research progress, key scientific issues and direction on gas hydrate, geothermal energy and CCS have been deeply discussed。

After the workshop, members of the project held a face to face communication for the other days. The commonly interested academic fields, key contents and methods of cooperation have been discussed thoroughly. A short-term scheme based on the PPP project afoot to working productively has been proposed and a long-term cooperation plan has been drafted. It has been decided that each year four scientists from UFZ will visit GIEC, and four scientists from GIEC will go to UFZ.

The workshop and visiting is a part of Project Based Personal Exchange Program (PPP), co-sponsored by China Scholarship Council (CSC) and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). This project, focusing on science, technology and education aims at the cooperation between UFZ and GIEC. The project concentrates on geothermal energy and gas hydrate resources, which is the extraordinary research priority both in China and Germany. In addition to the research activities, this project will also focussed on academic exchange, accompanying joint workshops and educational activities (training courses for PhD students and scientists).

The visiting and PPP project will launch the further cooperation between UFZ and GIEC in the energy field.