Environment, Culture, Sustainability

The project management agency of the German Aerospace Center (PT-DLR) helps Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to administer domestic and international research grant programs in the environmental, cultural and sustainability domains.

These programs, which mainly focus on the environmental aspects of sustainable development, are realized in cooperation with the following BMBF departments: 721 (Culture, sustainability, and environmental law), 722 (Humanities, social science and cultural studies), 723 (Global change) and 724 (Sustainability in the manufacturing and service sector).

The PT-DLR mainly supports R&D in the area of sustainable business and processes of global change. The organization also helps fund projects in the following realms: (a) sustainability oriented social ecology; (b) basic scientific research; and (c) social science research that deals with areas such as predicting future trends, particularly with regard to the natural sciences and technology.

The PT-DLR's main project management tasks are as follows:

• Conceptual work
  The creation of position papers on the state of the art of science and technology, the conception of funding foci, the preparation and determination of promotional measures, consulting.
• Controlling
  Professional and administrative project tracking, interim and success appraisal, financial control.
• Evaluation
  External assessments of applications, evaluation of funding concepts, staging of seminars.
• General Management
  Project coordination, branch office function, accompanying measures, PR work, organisation and moderation of major events and specialist conferences.   
• EU-wide and international cooperation
  Support of the BMBF in the conceptual and organisational design of cross-border research funding.
  

In addition, the PT-DLR is currently acting as the national clearing house for the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7), and in this capacity is in charge of issues concerning climate change, atmospheric research, biodiversity, ecosystems, and modeling.