The PhD-representatives of the IRTG were excited to announce the first student-retreat of the CRC-phase back in September. The retreat successfully concluded on Wednesday, December 1^st, after one and a half days of intensive teambuilding and getting to know each other much better in the beautiful village of Monschau.

The third-party program provided by Outdoor Kreativ shed light on a variety of social and personal aspects related to group dynamics in a way that everyone could profit from.

The retreat was rounded out by a long walk through the historic center of Monschau and a movie night.

We are very happy with the outcome and hope for this event to become the root of many more to come!

Joint field work of the B-Cluster projects nearly finished the sampling in the coastal transect and gathered additional data for the B projects and clusters.

A special highlight was the joint activity with Gobabeb as well as the support by John Irish participating in the field work. For the 200 km transect at the Namibian coast line more than 600 beetles (Brinckia debilis & Carchares macer) as well as > 300 plants (Zygophyllum clavatum) were collected in ten plots for joint population genetic analyses. Additional sampling of beetles, silverfish and plant populations outside the transect, such as Zygophyllum stapfii and Kissenia capensis a Nambian endemic supplement the B-cluster projects.

August 2021. We are very happy to announce that IRTG Fellows Camila Riffo Contreras (D03) and Tiago Menezes Freire (A04), both have been selected to receive a 48-month DAAD scholarship to pursue their respective doctoral research projects within the CRC, starting from 1^st December 2021.

Currently, both Camila and Tiago receive an IRTG Fellowship funded by the CRC aimed at initiating new collaborative projects. These gave them time to prepare a funding proposal for their doctoral research project jointly with their respective supervisors, Michael Staubwasser and Patrick Grunert.

Both competed successfully in an international field of applicants from 8 countries within the Graduate School Scholarship Programme awarded to the Graduate School of Geosciences (GSGS) at Cologne, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

Many congratulations!