In March 2019 the Research Centre Indian Ocean (RIO) at the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech) held a Start-up Workshop entitled ‘Ports and Trans-Ports in the Indian Ocean World’. The International Workshop was organised in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. Representatives from various countries attended the workshop: from the University of Tübingen in Germany, the Institute for Trans-disciplinary Archaeological Sciences (PAMA) in India, the University of Pisa in Italy, the Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilizations (ISMC) of the Aga Khan University in London, the Centre for Indus Valley Integrated Studies (CIVIS) of the Sindh University in Pakistan, the Centre for the Humanities (CHAM), NOVA FCSH in Portugal, the New York University in Shanghai and from the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. The results obtained during this workshop are supposed to further support the development of research profiles in the world of the Indian Ocean. One of the targets of RIO is to develop a hub of information exchange between networks with similar goals. An international conference on the Silk Roads to Land and to Water is under preparation. About the Author Dr. Michael Jansen, Professor emeritus at RWTH Aachen University in Germany and Professor for history of urbanization, conservation and heritage management at GUtech has been associated with the Indian subcontinent for more than 50 years. As an expert on the architecture of the Indus Valley Civilization he has extensively travelled in Pakistan and India. As Founding Rector of GUtech and as Director of the German Research Centre Mohenjo Daro with its extensive documentation, he has laid the foundation stone for the Research Centre Indian Ocean (RIO) at GUtech as a strategic research hub and focal point within the world of the Western Indian Ocean. Michaela Liehner-Jansen is a German art historian and cultural heritage and intercultural relations manager. She currently lives and works in Muscat together with her husband with whom she has widely traveled in the Sultanate of Oman and the Indian subcontinent. As the Secretary General of the Indian Ocean Research Centre (RIO) at the German University in Oman, she is instrumental in developing the Centre into a strategic think tank for past and future heritage.