German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig

iDiv is a DFG research centre with more than 350 employees and members based primarily in Halle, Jena and Leipzig. Here, researchers from 30 nations establish the scientific basis for the sustainable management of our planet’s biodiversity. iDiv is a joint undertaking of three universities, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, and seven other non-university institutions. It is the first excellence centre in Germany operating across three federal borders, and is a role model for interregional Excellence Initiative. iDiv’s first mission is to provide the scientific foundation for the sustainable management of the earth’s biodiversity. iDiv endeavours to address the following questions: (1) How can we quantify biodiversity (and all its relevant facets) and reliably detect spatial and temporal changes in response to natural and anthropogenic drivers? (2) What are the evolutionary and ecological processes generating and maintaining biodiversity? (3) What is the role of biodiversity in regulating ecosystem functioning and provisioning of services to humanity? (4) How should biodiversity be integrated in the management of our planet’s resources and how can we safeguard biodiversity? iDiv’s second mission is to promote the development of the new field ‘Integrative Biodiversity Research’. The complexity of biodiversity science requires integration across disciplines (e.g. natural, social, engineering sciences), and scales (e.g. from molecular to organisms, from experimental plot to landscape scales, from observations to predictions).