News and Highlights
Upcoming Events
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Highlights 2024
Highlights 2023
Highlights 2022
Highlights 2021
Highlights 2020
Highlights 2019
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Building a Knowledge Community
Upcoming Events
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14 - 15 August, 2025 - MultiTip - Enhancing Resilience (ER) Capstone Workshop in Entebbe, Uganda.
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Our researchers from Heidelberg University, University of Kassel Fisheries Institutes of Tanzania (TAFIRI), Kenya (KMFRI) and Uganda (NaFIRRI) and the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) will meet in Entebbe, Uganda and present a summary of the MultiTip - ER policy implications ton policy makers and fisher representatives.
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This workshop marks the final event and conclusion of a successful MultiTip research project.
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Highlights 2025
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1 - 2 July 2025 - Final Conference of the International Research Programme "Tipping points, dynamics and interactions of social and ecological systems" (GlobalTip) in Frankfurt, Germany.
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MultiTip ER researchers joined fellow GlobalTip researchers in Frankfurt. GlobalTip is the second phase of the Biotip research programme funded by the BMFTR, which MultiTip is a part of. This workshop marks the final event and conclusion of a successful GlobalTip research programme.
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MultiTip project coordinator, Timo Goeschl (U. Heidelberg), and researchers Astrid Dannenberg (U. Kassel), Pia Pico (U. Kassel), Patrick Maus (U. Heidelberg) and Sorell de Silva (U. Heidelberg) held a total of 5 presentations on the MultiTip project - providing an overview the projects main findings. A introductory poster of the project was also on display.
MultiTip Project Poster which was on display at the GlobalTip Final Conference
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The international research programme “Tipping points, dynamics and interactions of social and ecological systems” was announced by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) in September 2015. The projects cover all continents and habitats, Europe, South America, Africa and Asia; oceans, a lake, dry rangeland, tropical rainforest and a steppe. The projects were dealing with threats to fish resources due to overfishing, threat to productivity losses of rainforest soils and deterioration of dry rangeland as well as the loss of a large entire steppe-ecosystem due to overuse and land management change caused by lifestyle changes. GlobalTip (former BioTip) has been the first research programme on tipping points of this seize worldwide (worth over 45 Mio. €).
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The conference discussed findings and challenges related to detecting tipping points and approaches on how to prevent or reverse them. Topics included the importance of tipping points as means of accuracy and verifying key drivers of the tipping. Climate change has been one of the important key drivers under observation of the projects. A recent huge desk top study revealed the biggest knowledge gap within the social component of the tipping points and the interaction of ecological and social dynamics leading to tipping points. Therefore, the conference also focussed on social aspects of ecological tipping points as well as social tipping points.
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June 2025 - Sorell de Silva presented the paper "Subsidising Compliance: A Field Experiment on discounted sustainable fishing gear at Lake Victoria" at the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (EAERE) summer conference in Bergen, Norway.
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June 2025 - Pia pico presented the paper "Fishers’ Preferences for Monitoring Control and Surveillance Systems: A Comparative Study of Kenya and Uganda on Lake Victoria" at the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (EAERE) summer conference in Bergen, Norway.
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June 2025 - Sorell de Silva presented a poster on the paper "Subsidising Compliance: A Field Experiment on discounted sustainable fishing gear at Lake Victoria" at the German Development Economics (GDE) conference in Frankfurt, Germany.
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June 2025 - Timo Goeschl presented a poster on the paper "Multi-Unit Willingness-To-Pay Elicitation in The Field " at the German Development Economics (GDE) conference in Frankfurt, Germany.
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May 2025 - Sorell de Silva presented the paper "Subsidising Compliance: A Field Experiment on discounted sustainable fishing gear at Lake Victoria" at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economics (AERE) summer conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
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March, 2025 - Sorell de Silva presented the paper "Subsidising Compliance: A Field Experiment on discounted sustainable fishing gear at Lake Victoria" at the Environmental Economics Brownbag Seminar at the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany.
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13 - 14 March, 2025 - MultiTip - Enhancing Resilience (ER) Synthesis Workshop in Heidelberg, Germany.
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Researchers from Heidelberg University, Kassel University, Fisheries Institutes of Tanzania (TAFIRI), Kenya (KMFRI) and Uganda (NaFIRRI) and the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) met in Heidelberg, Germany to discuss research completed in MultiTip ER.
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The workshop was titled "MutliTip ER: Insights and Policy Implications".
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After presenting and discussing results, MultiTip researchers discussed potential policy briefs which will be disseminated to stakeholders including policy makers and fisher representatives in the Lake Victoria region.
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A document that details the MultiTip ER research conducted up to the workshop date was compiled and distributed before the workshop - the "Pre-workshop Summary" can be downloaded here.
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January 2025 - MultiTip Research Project featured in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
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The Neue Zürcher Zeitung featured the MultiTip Research Project, highlighting key insights from our work. The article includes direct contributions from MultiTip researchers Timo Goeschl (Heidelberg University) and Chrispine Nyamweya (KMFRI).
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To view the full article (in German only) click here.
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Highlights 2024
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March 2024 - Johannes Kammerer, successfully completed his Ph.D. through the MultiTip project. His dissertation is titled "Mathematical Modeling of the Nile Perch Fishery in Lake Victoria."
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Abstract: The question of the optimal regulatory paradigm for harvesting Lake Victoria’s Nile perch is subject to considerable debate. The dissertation develops, analyzes and simulates a new bio-economic model of the Nile perch fishery that couples a bio-energetic fish population model to an economic model of the fishery, incorporating the size structure of the fish population and of the gear selectivity. The model suggests that fishing should be selective, focusing on larger fish. This challenges the current understanding and suggests new directions for modeling the fishery of Lake Victoria.
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Highlights 2023
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1 October, 2023 - Launch of MultiTip Phase 2 - MultiTip ER, Enhancing Resilience.
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MultiTip Enhancing Resilience (ER) is another two years of collaborative research on Lake Victoria fisheries. Our researchers from Universities of Heidelberg and Kassel and our research partners from fisheries institutes in the Lake Victoria region (LVFO, TAFIRI, NaFIRRI and KMFRI) continue studying ecological tipping points at Lake Victoria with a special focus on fisheries management and enhancing the resilience of the resource system.
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September 2023 - Pia Fischer presented “The effects of growing groups and scarcity on the use of a common pool resource – a lab-in-the-field experiment with Lake Victoria fishers” at the VfS Annual Meeting 2023, Regensburg, Germany.
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September 2023 - Philipp Handel presented “Impact of Externalities on Fishers Risk-Taking: Evidence from an Experimental Study at Lake Victoria” at the annual conference of the Society for Experimental Economic Research, Erfurt, Germany.
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September 2023 - Philipp Handel presented “The demand for incomplete punishment institutions to promote “cooperation” presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for experimental economic research, Erfurt, Germany.
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July 2023 - Philipp Handel presented “Impact of Externalities on Fishers Risk-Taking Decisions: Evidence from an Experimental Study at Lake Victoria” presentation at the 8th Workshop on Experimental Economics for the Environment, Bochum, Germany
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June 2023 - Pia Fischer presented “The effects of resource scarcity and migration on harvesting behavior of Lake Victoria fishers” at the 27th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Limassol, Cyprus.
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June 2023 - Johannes Kammerer presented the paper "Size selective fishing: The effect of size selectivity on yield and income in the Nile perch fishery of LV" at the EAERE 2023 conference in Limassol, Cyprus.
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May 2023 - Johannes Kammerer presented the paper "Size selective fishing: The effect of size selectivity on yield and income in the Nile perch fishery of LV" at the 7th Workshop on Age-structured Models in Natural Resource Economics in Würzburg, Germany.
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4th April, 2023 - Policy Insights from MultiTip at Lake Victoria stakeholder workshop in Entebbe, Uganda.
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Our researchers from Heidelberg University and University of Kassel joined our partners from the Lake Victoria region in presenting a summary of the policy implications of MultiTip to the the governing organisations around Lake Victoria (TAFIRI, NaFIRRI and KMFRI). The workshop enabled us to successfully share our results and receive feedback on improving our policy briefs and on areas of future research. We are grateful for the opportunity to discuss our findings with stakeholders and we are looking forwarding to more collaborative work in the region.
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- 5th April, 2023 - Research workshop in Entebbe, Uganda.
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Our researchers from Heidelberg University and University of Kassel joined our research partners from Lake Victoria to discuss the future of the MultiTip project in the region. We successfully co-created a plan for disseminating our improved policy briefs (using feedback from the day before). We also discussed Phase 2 of the project - MultiTip ER (Enhancing Resilience), another 2 years of collaborative research starting in October, 2023.
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17th and 18th January, 2023 - Johannes Kammerer presented the research insights and policy implications of MultiTip at the final workshop of SeaUseTip Consortium (Spatio-temporal analysis of tipping points in the socio-ecological system of the North Sea) in Hamburg, Germany. The workshop also featured other BioTip projects and discuss their insights on socio-ecological systems, tipping points and common pool resource management.
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January 2023: Philipp Handel presented “Externalities of risk-taking and the willingness to take risk” at EAERE-ETH European Winter School, Ascona, Switzerland.
Highlights 2022
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24th and 25th November, 2022 - MultiTip: Insights and Policy Implications Workshop in Heidelberg, Germany.
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Our researchers from Heidelberg University and University of Kassel, as well as our partners from Lake Victoria and the members of our scientific advisory board meet to discuss the insights and implications of MultiTip.
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To download our Pre-Workshop Summary click here.
Our researchers and partners met on the 24th and 25th of November, 2022 in Heidelberg, Germany to discuss the main policy implications of MultiTip. At this point, MultiTip has already completed three and a half years of research.
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Nov, 2022 - Johannes Kammerer presented the paper "Size selective fishing: The effect of size selectivity on yield and income in the Nile perch fishery of LV" at the ARBEC 2022 conference in Kisumu, Kenya (online).
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Oct 2022 - Dr. Tillmann Eymess presented the paper "Subsidizing Compliance: A Multi-Unit Price List Mechanism for Legal Fishing Nets at LV" at the FHM$+$ Development Economics Workshop in Heidelberg.
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26th and 27th September, 2022 - Dr. Santiago Gómez-Cardona will be presenting on the paper: “Subsidizing Compliance: A Multi-Unit Price List Mechanism for Legal Fishing Nets at Lake Victoria” (2022) at the AURÖ Annual Junior Researcher Workshop in Environmental and Resource Economics, Graz.
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5th September, 2022 - Prof. Timo Goeschl presented the paper “Subsidising Compliance: A Multi-Unit Multiple Price List Approach to Determine Willingness to Pay for Legal Nets in the Lake Victoria fishery” at the 23rd BioECON conference in Exeter, UK.
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September 2022 - Pia Fischer presented “The effect of migration and resource scarcity on cooperation among fishers” presentation at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Economic research, Salzburg, Austria.
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June 2022 - Philipp Handel presented “The demand for incomplete punishment institutions to promote cooperation” at ESA World Meeting, Boston, USA.
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25th May, 2022 - Dr. Santiago Gómez-Cardona presented the paper "Subsidising Compliance: A Multi-Unit Price List Mechanism for Legal Fishing Nets at Lake Victoria" at the Environmental Economics Brownbag Seminar at the Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, Germany.
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May 2022 - Prof. Dr. Astrid Dannenberg presented “The demand for complete and incomplete punishment institutions to promote cooperation” at Behavioral Economics Workshop, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
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4th May, 2022 - Dr. Tillmann Eymess presented the paper "Subsidizing Compliance: A Multi-Unit Price List Mechanism for Legal Fishing Nets at Lake Victoria" at an internal seminar at Alfred Weber Institute of Economics, Heidelberg University.
Highlights 2021
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Oct, 2021 - Karlijn van den Broek presented "A tool for comparing mental models across cultures, stakeholders, and over time" at the 3rd International Conference on Environmental Psychology, Siracus.
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June 2021 - Phillip Handel presented “The Effects of Social Information and Luck on Risk Behavior of Small-Scale Fishers” online at 6th Workshop on Experimental Economics for the Environment, Innsbruck, Austria
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June 2021- Philipp Handel presented “The Effects of Social Information and Luck on Risk Behavior of Small-Scale Fishers” at the 26th Annual Conference of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (online).
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September 2021 - Philipp Handel presented (online) “The Effects of Social Information and Luck on Risk Behavior of Small-Scale Fishers” at the VfS annual conference 2021 Regensburg, Germany
Highlights 2020
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February 2020 - Philipp Handel presented “Understanding the Effect of Recent Luck and Social Examples on Risk-Taking in Lake Victoria fisheries” at 5th Workshop on Experimental Economics for the Environment, Heidelberg, Germany.
Highlights 2019
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July, 2019 - MultiTip Regional Stakeholder Kick-off event at Jinja, Uganda.
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MultiTip researchers from Heidelberg University and University of Kassel discussed and fine tuned the goals of MultiTip with stakeholders, including: our partners from LVFO, TAFIRI, NaFIRRI, KMFRI, representatives of the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and other fisher representatives.
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For more details visit: Project Design.
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July, 2019 - Karlijn van den Broek presented "Development of a standardized instrument to assess mental models for illiterate people in collaboration with LV stakeholders" at the 2nd International Conference on Environmental Psychology, Plymouth.
Building a Knowledge Community
Since 2019, the MultiTip team has been actively building a knowledge community on resilience in globally connected resource systems like the Lake Victoria SES. This community was built not only among partners, governing bodies, other stakeholders and end-users, but also among fellow researchers, students and the general public.
We achieve this using a variety of platforms and media:
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Prof. Timo Goeschl appeared in a live broadcast on ‘Systems at Tipping Point’ on public television (December 2020). This was watched by around 300,000 viewers in Germany (AGF, 2020) and led to numerous post- broadcast inquiries from the general public.
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The project video is posted on YouTube.
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The Mental Model Mapping Tool is available for free download on the App store and Google Play Store. It also has its own website, where it can be used online. The tool has already been downloaded more than 600 times. It was developed by Heidelberg University, the TAFIRI and Lambdaforge as part of the MultiTip project.
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We published a seasonal dedicated newsletter and a few social media posts.
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In total, our team gave 24 presentations at scientific conferences and workshops, including many located outside Germany. To see a list of these , see above.
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We initiated a one-year multidisciplinary group on Tipping Points at the Marsilius-Kolleg at Heidelberg University.
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Our team members lectured on the project to graduate and undergraduate students in 4 courses.
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MultiTip was invited by 2 non-German universities to talk about the outcomes of the research project.
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Our members trained around 10 junior researchers in the partner countries.
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1 MultiTip researcher, successfully completed his Ph.D. dissertation through the MultiTip project.
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The academic output of MultiTip also consists of 13 peer-reviewed publications and 8 planned publications/ discussion papers as contributions to the psychological, economic, and interdisciplinary literature (many co-authored with researchers from the Lake Victoria region).
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Updated on:
03.07.2025
