A spokesperson with Germany's Helmholtz Association says the scientific organization is still committed to research in Alberta.

The group recently withdrew from a joint oilsands research project with the University of Alberta because Canada’s environmental record was creating negative public backlash in Germany.

Spokesperson Reinhart Huettl says that the group has only cancelled its association with oilsands projects, which only represents 20 per cent of the research it is undertaking in the province.

“We will enlarge our Helmholtz-Alberta initiative, I think, significantly through other fields,” Huettl said.

“So we will work in the questions like health, we will look into remote sensing, we will look into mineral resources but also infectious diseases.”

The Helmholtz Association has four autonomously-operated centres working in Alberta.