6th Framework Network of Excellence projekt (2004-2009)

Homepage: www.alter-net.info

Project summary:

This Network of Excellence (NoE) creates a European long-term inter-disciplinary facility for research on the complex relationship between ecosystems, biodiversity and society. It will provide scientific support for policy assessment and development on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the European Union, and a facility for information retrieval and reporting on biodiversity-related issues.

It will achieve this by implementing research, management and cultural changes within and between its component organisations, and by developing integrated research agendas that will focus the research activities of its members on priority policy issues. The result will be a unique inter-disciplinary network linking a variety of stakeholders including research scientists, science communicators, policy makers and the public.

A novel approach to integration of ecological and socio-environmental methodologies will be developed, recognising the fact that biodiversity research should be done in the context of ecosystems and their long-term dynamics. To achieve this, the core research undertaken by the NoE will be structured around a common framework based on the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model. This framework will ensure that research contributes directly to our understanding of the inter-relationship between biodiversity and the services it provides to society, and vice versa. The framework, and the research it supports, will also facilitate the long-term institutional changes that will be necessary to accomplish the ALTER-net objectives for durable integration.

ALTER-Net works in tight co-operation with International Long-Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) as well as regional and national LTER organisations, facilitating the formation of LTER-Europe and new national networks.

24 institutions from 17 European countries are participating in the project. The project coordinator is Terry Parr, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK. The Hungarian partner is the Institute of Ecology and Botany of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (IEB-HAS), representing the Hungarian Long-term Ecological Research Network (Hungarian LTER), and the KISKUN LTER. The Hungarian contact person is Kertész Miklós. Other Hungarian participating intsitutes are the Balaton Limnological Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (BLRI-HAS, representing Balaton LTER), and Department of Ecology, Debrecen University (DU, representing Síkfőkút LTER)

Main researchers of the project