SPS Blue Nile: Start of PhD-Sandwich-Program

Yasir Hageltom arrived this week at the Campus Alpin of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, initiating his PhD in the SPS Blue Nile project . The project's focus is on developing an advanced meteorological-hydrological forecasting system tailored for the Blue Nile Basin.

Within SPS Blue Nile, two African PhD candidates are benefitting from a sandwich program, offering them a unique opportunity to conduct research in Germany. Mr. Hageltom's primary institution is the Hydraulic Research Centre in Sudan, a key partner of the project. In the upcoming months, a second PhD student, from Ethiopia, will start at the University of Potsdam.

Mr. Hageltom will work on joint agricultural yield- and hydrological modelling of the Blue Nile River area. This will allow to extend the hydrometeorological seasonal predictions towards spatially distributed water availability and crop yield estimates. This kind of specialized PhD sandwich opportunity provides young researchers like Mr. Hageltom with valuable experiences through capacity building while facilitating the establishment of significant connections for their future careers. Notably, the sandwich program has already fostered collaboration between KIT and another project partner, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC).