Networks and Collaboration
In 2019, the federal government, represented by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the northern German states founded the German Marine Research Alliance (DAM), which brings together the leading institutions in German marine research. Through its activities in the core areas of research, data management and digitalization, coordination of infrastructures and transfer, the DAM develops orientation and practical knowledge for politics, business and civil society – as a basis for the necessary change towards greater sustainability and the protection of the oceans. The DAM currently brings together 25 university and non-university institutions that conduct marine research. The DAM also cooperate with strategic partners to promote the sustainable management of coasts, seas and oceans. Researchers at the IOW play a key role in the DAM research missions CDRmare, sustainMare and mareXtreme.
More information: www.allianz-meeresforschung.de/en
Baltic Earth strives to achieve an improved Earth System understanding of the Baltic Sea region as the basis for science-based management in the face of climatic, environmental and human impact in the region. Baltic Earth brings together a broad international research community around core scientific issues identified as fundamental to informing societal efforts to achieve sustainability in the region. These core scientific issues are tackled through joint research efforts, workshops, conferences and capacity building events. Furthermore, courses are organized for masters students, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Baltic Earth targets the atmosphere, land and marine environment of the Baltic Sea, its drainage basin and nearby areas with relevance for the Baltic Sea region. In 2018 an expert network on climate change in the Baltic Sea region (EN CLIME) has been established between Baltic Earth and the Baltic Sea Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM), which publishes the Climate Change in the Baltic Sea Fact sheet. As of 4 February 2025, the International Baltic Earth Secretariat (IBES) is jointly hosted by IOW and Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (IO-PAN), Sopot, Poland.
More information: https://baltic.earth
Contact person at the IOW: Dr. Sonja Ehlers, Co-head of IBES
The German Climate Consortium (Deutsches Klima-Konsortium e.V. - DKK) represents the essential parts of German climate and climate impact research. Under the guiding principle “Research for Society, Economy and the Environment”, DKK brings together twenty-one internationally renowned research organizations. Amongst them are Max Planck Institutes, Helmholtz Centres, Leibniz Institutes, a Higher Federal Authority, the German Climate Computing Centre as well as Universities. These organizations make an important contribution to recognize and respond to climate change and climate impacts.
More information: www.deutsches-klima-konsortium.de.
EuroMarine is a European marine science network of excellence with currently 49 member institutions. Funded by 7th European Framework Programme, it was designed as a bottom-up organization that gives a voice to the European marine scientific community. Its primary goals are to support the identification and initial development of important emerging scientific topics and associated methodologies in marine sciences, as well as to foster new services relevant to the marine scientific community.
More information: www.euromarinenetwork.eu.
The Baltic Operational Oceanographic System (BOOS) is an association of institutions around the Baltic Sea that work together to further develop operational marine observation and forecasting. The IOW contributes to the network in particular its expertise in long-term observation of the Baltic Sea, oceanography, and the provision of observational data.
More information: www.boos.org/
The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a European research infrastructure for the long-term observation of the carbon cycle and greenhouse gas fluxes in the atmosphere, ecosystems, and oceans. The IOW is part of ICOS Germany and operates a certified ICOS ocean station with the measurements on board the ferry Finnmaid. The continuous measurements provide long-term data on the marine carbon system in the Baltic Sea.
More information: www.icos-cp.eu/
The IOW is involved in several consortia of the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). As a partner of NFDI4Biodiversity, the institute contributes to the development and application of solutions for FAIR-compliant management of biodiversity and environmental data. Within NFDI4Earth, the IOW is particularly involved in the User Support Network, where it contributes its many years of expertise in the management, curation, and publication of marine research data.
More information: www.nfdi4biodiversity.org and www.nfdi4earth.de
The IOW is a member of the Leibniz Research Network Biodiversity. The network brings together the expertise of Leibniz institutions in biodiversity research and promotes interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary exchange as well as joint research and knowledge-transfer activities. IOW researchers have contributed, among other things, to joint publications and network events.
More information: www.leibniz-biodiversitaet.de
The IOW is a member of the German Federation for Biological Data (GFBio). GFBio supports researchers in the sustainable and FAIR management of biological and environmental research data and provides, among other services, advice on data management plans, data publication, and the submission of sequence data. The IOW actively uses these services and, through its membership, supports the further development of the shared research data infrastructure.
More information: www.gfbio-ev.de
The association “Rostock denkt 365°” is aiming at promoting and advertising the city of Rostock as an important site of research and science. Members are various research institutions located within the Rostock region as well as representatives of economy, culture and politics.
More information*: www.rostock365.de
InTRES - Integrative and Transformative Research on Earth and Societies - is established to foster inter- and transdisciplinary research on the interlinkages between the Earth system and societies. It aims at generating system, target and transformative knowledge to lower societal pressures and risks according to Earth Boundaries and global development goals in the context of the Anthropocene.
More information: www.intres-platform.org
*Information only available in German