DTU Environment has a created a successful network with universities in newly industrialised and developing countries. These relationships with other universities are focussed on areas that correspond to DTU Environment’s main areas of expertise. DTU Environment has experience with projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, as well as Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (NIS). So far the projects have been related to the following: Development of new curricula and courses; capacity building; continued education; and research in DTU Environment core competence areas.

DTU Environment has taken the initiative to participate in several programmes supported by the Danish Government and EU. Moreover, DTU Environment participates in the IHP (International Hydrological Programme), where DTU Environment coordinates a part of the integrated urban water management.

Capacity building projects are often carried out in collaboration with other universities, consultants, contractors and government authorities, while research projects are often carried out with the participation of other research institutions and industry.

Capacity building  

In projects with an element of capacity building, DTU Environment most often collaborate with local universities, which can support institutional sustainability. DTU Environment has through the e-Centre developed an internet-based communication platform, which is applied in a number of ways including: project management, development of educational programmes, and shared project materials. The system also serves as a Learning Management System, LMS, meaning that training and educational courses can be undertaken using the internet. The pedagogical approach is to use “blended learning”, which is a combination of traditional teaching and internet-based teaching. Furthermore, we focus on project and problem oriented teaching, which is one of the strengths of DTU.

DTU Environment can partake in capacity building projects that provide and develop certified continued education courses. The courses are offered partly by DTU and partly by the local universities. For example, the eCentre at DTU Environment recently managed a capacity building project that involved the establishment of a number of water supply facilities in Sri Lanka in cooperation with a Danish entrepreneur (DANIDA Mixed Credits) following the above mentioned principles.

Research in developing countries  

Research is also conducted in collaboration with local universities and relevant authorities. So far, the geographical focus has been Asia, Africa and Latin America.

University collaboration  

During the last decade, DTU Environment has enlarged its collaboration with universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America through a number of DANIDA and EU financed projects within education, continued education and research. DTU Environment has been able to maintain these networks through new project activities. These university networks can facilitate the establishment of new collaboration projects with external partners.