Over the years, he has developed and maintained strong collaborative ties with world-class research institutes in Germany and helped the GEOMAR Helmholtz Institute for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, establish its Marine Mineral Resources (MMR) group, who explore the natural resources of the oceans.
This highly successful partnership was recently rewarded with a prestigious NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program (CREATE) grant. The grant, worth $1.65M, supports Dr. Hannington to develop and implement a one-of-a-kind international graduate training program in marine geology. The program called “International CREATE in Marine Geodynamics and Georesources”, or iMAGE, allows graduate students to explore the seafloor and gain critical new knowledge about the origins of the Earth's crust and its contained resources.
Students of the program gain invaluable experience working with international collaborators at sea and on land, and are trained in state-of-the-art modeling of the Earth’s crust. While working on their own research topics, the students participate in joint field schools, receive hands-on training in the application of marine technology, and join intensive courses on marine geodynamics and georesources delivered at collaborating centres, both in Canada and Germany. They gain significant advantages over regular graduate programs through international networking, professional skills development and organized engagement with industry and other stakeholders. The knowledge and experience they gain as part of this unique program makes them highly sought after in the Canadian resources and energy sectors as well as in government and academia.
