Wednesday 28 November 2012

4th GDRI meeting in Montpellier


Dear GDRI participant

We have the great pleasure to announce that the 4th GDRI meeting will be held in MontpellierFrance. The aim of this meeting will be to encourage interactions within and between WP participants by organizing sessions along cross-cutting themes (see proposal below) as well as short workshops. We expect around 40 participants. We have already scheduled one invited speaker, Brian Chase who will give a talk on past climate in Southern Africa.

To finalize the organization of the meeting, we will need you to answer several questions.
In a file sent by email, we have provided a choice of dates and timetables for the meeting as well as of sessions. If you plan to attend the meeting, we ask you to return the form before the 31 of December 2012. Please indicate:

  1. date preferences (3 options)
  2. timetable preferences (3 options)
  3. talk or workshop proposal


Some details of the budget
As for previous meetings, the French organisers will cover fees for the accommodation, food, coffee breaks, airport shuttle of all delegates, as well as travel expenses for the French participants. The South-African budget will finance the travel expenses of the South-African delegates (for more information, please contact your WP coordinator or Conrad Matthee -cam@sun.ac.za)

We very much look forward to hearing from you before the 31st of December

See you soon in Montpellier

The organisers
Janice Britton-Davidian &  Guila Ganem

Sunday 14 October 2012

Creation of the GDRI blog/website: 14th october 2012

          We are happy to launch the blog of the GDRI 191 South Africa-France : "Biodiversity and Global Change in Southern Africa".

           This blog will give an overview of our actions and also will regularly present commentaries/posts on  South African-French research collaboration from the GDRI participants.


More than 60 scientists are involved, from eight French Research Institutions (CNRS, EPHE, INRA, CIRAD) or Universities (Montpellier II, Grenoble I, Paris VI, La RĂ©union) and eight South African institutions including Universities (Wits, Pretoria, Rhodes, Stellenbosch, UKZN and UCT), the Transvaal Museum and a governmental institution (SANBI) as well as the University of Zimbabwe.