At the end of November, we officially founded the new TUM Center for ALPine HAzards and Risk (TUM ALPHA), which is the first coordinating research center for natural hazards in Germany under the leadership of Prof. Michael Krautblatter (Chair of Landslide Research). The objectives are to interact with stakeholders from industry, politics, NGOs and international partner organizations, to enable cooperative research with partners from all Alpine countries and to create integrative funding opportunities.
TUM ALPHA was launched at the Schneefernerhaus environmental research station with representatives from the Alpine countries of Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and Slovenia. Afterwards, more than 60 participants networked at the AlpSenseRely project's stakeholder meeting for alpine natural hazards in climate change and discussed future research and action requirements. Participants included the Dean of the TUM School of Engineering and Design, representatives of the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment and the StMB, state geologists from Bavaria, Tyrol, Salzburg and South Tyrol, the German Alpine Association, the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service, mayors and disaster control officers from affected communities, representatives of cable cars, mountain huts, research institutions (SLF, UFS, GeoResearch) and around 10 professors from TUM's Geo, Environment, Engineering and Management department.