A workshop on the Helmholtz-EOS Natural Disasters Networking Platform was held at the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam on June 1 and 2, 2005. Participants were from the national crisis management operational level as well as experts of the Helmholtz Association. Organizers of the workshop were the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) and the German Aerospace Research Center (DLR).

Goal of the networking platform is to improve the cooperation between scienctists and crisis management. During this workshop the information need of the institutions acting in a crisis situation are brought face to face with the scientific expertise available in the different Helmholtz institutions. Envisaging the fields flooding, earth quakes and oil spills, the information requirements of the potential users of the networking platform was discussed and the availability of relevant products and expertise in the Helmholtz Association demonstrated.

Many of the presented user needs are considered yet with the planning of the Natural Disasters Networking Platform. Therefore the discussion approved the relevance of the project and gave additional inputs for its realisation.

The positive and constructive atmosphere of the workshop as well as the stated intention to intensify the contacts between the participants gives much hope for the future development of the platform.