Highly Endowed Award for AWI Researcher:

Prof. Dr Antje Boetius, Head of the Deep Sea Research Group at the AWI and Professor of Geomicrobiology at the University of Bremen has been awarded the Advanced Grant of the European Research Council and thus received confirmation of the commitment of funds to the amount of about 3.4 million Euro. Over the course of the next five years, the renowned biologist from Bremen will use the funds to explore the seabed of the Arctic deep sea and to unravel the role of the largely unknown, mysterious bacterial communities living there.

The deep-sea research group headed by Antje Boetius at the Alfred Wegener Institute has been researching the biological communities of the Arctic seabed at the institute's own deep sea observatory HAUSGARTEN in the Fram Strait for many years. With the "Advanced Grant" the European Research Council honours her work and provides the opportunity to explore in greater detail the tiny waste recyclers living in the marine sediment – in particular by way of new, innovative methods. Her research project, funded by the Research Council with the maximum sum of 3.4 million Euro, is called "ABYSS – Assessment of bacterial life and matter cycling in deep sea surface sediments" and aims for the inclusion of cooperation from various research institutions. The launch of this ground-breaking deep sea research project is planned for the coming year. Antje Boetius intends to carry out a large proportion of the investigations at sea and at the deep sea observatory of the Alfred Wegener Institute.

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