1. Coordination of the German contribution to the WASCAL graduate schools, support of WASCAL students in their research activities, and promotion of the professional exchange by involving German and West African scientists and experts in the WASCAL network, as well as strengthening of regional communication and collaboration.

2. Strengthening of the content knowledge and technical and methodological skills of junior scientists and experts through targeted teaching and training measures as well as workshops and excursions, particularly in the field of ground-based field data sampling, application-oriented remote sensing data analysis and spatial-temporal assessment and analysis of the variability of the agrarian-ecological use of savannah systems.

3. Deepening of knowledge and skills in the field of human-land interactions in the context of climate change and food security in West Africa by expanding the land use observation network and by aiming at satellite-based agricultural monitoring, in particular of rice areas, and model-based carbon sequestration in vegetation and the variability and dynamics of fire events in savanna ecosystems, and their effects on the fire-induced release of greenhouse gas emissions.

4. Support in science-based decision-making by deriving WASCAL services with regard to emissions and immissions of greenhouse gases with the further aim of developing and disseminating thematic policy briefs and strategy papers, and deriving further research potential in the region

5. Sustainable utilization of derived datasets for West African scientists and experts into operational applications and systems by developing and implementing an information technology infrastructure for integrated data analysis by installing a data cube on the WASCAL high performance computer in the WASCAL CoC.