Goals and Roles

Humankind influences its environment to a significant extent and is in turn increasingly dependent on its changes. Climate change, increasing vulnerability to natural hazards, species decline and extinction and other critical developments have been observed for decades, and important resources, such as drinking water or fertile soils threaten to become scarce. This is why the Helmholtz Association is engaged in foresighted, preventive research for the future. The research centres in the Research Field Earth and Environment study the fundamental functions of System Earth and the interactions between society and nature, thereby creating a sound knowledge base for securing the long-term foundations of society.

The Research Field aims to understand the complex changes of Earth and environment in detail and to develop future scenarios so that decision-makers in politics and society receive sound scientific recommendations for their actions. The diversity of questions calls for the effective and efficient use of the scientific infrastructure and new kinds of strategic research networks within and beyond the Helmholtz Association.

Expertise and resources are pooled through national and international collaboration with universities and research institutions, for example in Virtual Institutes and also in increased collaboration and cooperation activities at European level. The 18 current Helmholtz Virtual Institutes demonstrate the excellent links and connections between the individual centres and university partners. In addition, the Research Field is also contributing to two Excellence Clusters: “The Ocean in the Earth System” (University of Bremen/AWI), and “Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction” (University of Hamburg/GKSS), as well as a Graduate School (“Global Change in the Marine Realm”, University of Bremen/AWI). These collaborations were developed as part of the Excellence Initiative of the German Government and demonstrate the high level of cooperation with partners outside the Helmholtz Association. Within the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the former Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and the University of Karlsruhe combine their efforts in the KIT Centre “Climate and Environment”, which will provide important contributions to the Research Field Earth and Environment.

The Climate Initiative is a new research collaboration focusing on regional climate analysis and prediction. It pools the expertise and competencies of various Helmholtz Centres in close collaboration with universities and non-university research groups in order to study and explore the regional impact of global climate change. Socioeconomic aspects are also taken into account to draw up concrete recommendations on the sustainable cultivation of forests and agricultural areas as well as on efficient water management. The Climate Initiative also works closely together with the regional Helmholtz Climate Offices (Southern, Central, and Northern Germany, Polar Regions and Sea Level Rise), and the newly founded Climate Service Centre as a communication platform for climate relevant questions. A further initiative with the strong participation of university partners is represented in the “Water Science Alliance”, which strategically focuses the expertise and competencies in water and hydrological research.

Cross-centre and cross-institutional research projects at international level are playing an ever more important role in the Helmholtz Association. For example, five Helmholtz Centres have been conducting research together with the UN Organisation ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America/Spanish: CEPAL) and partners from Latin America since 2007 in the initiative “Risk Habitat Megacity” in order to draw up strategies for sustainable development in megacities and conurbations. A further responsibility for the Research Field lies in promoting young scientists and researchers. We are continually extending and expanding the existing measures and structures, in most cases in cooperation with external partners.

In the field of education and training, these are the Graduate Schools and Helmholtz Research Schools. In the field of independent, autonomous research the Young Investigators Groups are promoted. Funding was obtained for the UFZ’s Helmholtz Interdisciplinary Graduate School for Environmental Research with its six university partners, for the AWI’s Helmholtz Research School on Earth System Science with two university partners, and also for a further Helmholtz Graduate School (AWI’s Helmholtz Graduate School for Polar and Marine Research). Furthermore, 15 Helmholtz Young Investigators Groups are currently being funded. The successful networking of the Research Field Earth and Environment in teaching and concomitant measures aimed at promoting young scientists and researchers are also reflected institutionally. In 2008, for example, and as part of the Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance – JARA – the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the RWTH Aachen joined forces in the “German Research School for Simulation Science.

The programmes in the funding period 2009-2013

The Research Field Earth and Environment has rearranged the research programmes for the coming years. The previous programme “Sustainable Development and Technology” will no longer be continued within the Research Field Earth and Environment.

A large proportion of this programme has been transferred to the Research Fields Energy and Key Technologies. The previous programmes “Biogeosystems: Dynamics, Adaptation and Adjustment” and “Sustainable Use of Landscapes” merged in 2009 and now form the programme “Terrestrial Environment”. The Research Field pools its research activities in four programmes since 2009.

To address overarching research topics and to create methodological and organisational synergies, the programme is additionally establishing and expanding cross-cutting programme and research field initiatives such as “Climate” (AWI, FZJ, KIT, GFZ, GKSS, HMGU, UFZ), “Integrated Earth Observation System” (Network EOS: AWI, DLR, GFZ, GKSS, FZJ, KIT) and methodological working groups in the field of “Modelling” (AWI, GFZ, KIT, FZJ, HMGU, GKSS, UFZ).

A further key element is to be seen in the joint creation and operation of cross-programme infrastructures, such as the research aircraft HALO or the “Terrestrial Environmental Observatories” (TERENO). The latter will establish up to four selected terrestrial observatories in regions that are representative of Germany by 2010, thereby creating a TERENO Network on the basis of existing research stations and long-term data series.

Involved Helmholtz Centres

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

Forschungszentrum Jülich

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

GKSS Research Centre Geesthacht

Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Centre for Environmental Health

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ