Founded in 1991, the University of Potsdam has firmly established itself within the scientific landscape. Nearly 20,000 young people study here at the largest university in the Federal State Brandenburg. The University of Potsdam has a total of around 2.650 employees, among them there are nearly 260 professors and 1.500 scientific research assistants. More than 40% of the full-time researchers are women. The main activities of the University of Potsdam, education and research, are strongly supported by the central administration which comprises more than 500 staff members. The University of Potsdam is successful in acquiring third-party funds and has a longstanding record of national and international research projects. During the 7th Framework programme 43 EU research projects were implemented here, among them 2 coordinated Marie-Curie ITNs and 6 ERC Grants. The University benefits from a close cooperation with the whole range of renowned non-university research institutes in the proximity. By combining its own research capacities with them, promoting international research cooperation as well as technology transfer and supporting promising young researchers, the University of Potsdam permanently raises its national and international visibility.

Principal Investigator:

Ariane Walz (PhD) is a junior professor for Landscape Management at the Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, Univ. of Potsdam since march 2012 and is visiting scientist of the Group of Ecosystem Stability and Dynamics within PIK. Her research focuses on large scale modelling of terrestrial ecosystems and on landscape management in mountain areas with a special emphasis on combining computer-based tools and participatory approaches for estimating the provisioning of ecosystem services. In Ecopotential she leads WP8 (Cross Scale Interaction) and is also involved in WP6.