A global coalition of eight synthesis centres and initiatives, all part of the International Synthesis Consortium and led by the sDiv Synthesis Centre in Leipzig, Germany, has concluded an extraordinary joint call addressing one of today’s most urgent scientific challenges: the intersection of biodiversity and climate change.
The call resulted in 14 funded projects and associated postdoc positions, supported by approximately 1.7 million euros in research funding from the different centres — a rare, highly coordinated effort in which organisations from different countries will examine the same problem through different scientific lenses, frameworks, and approaches.
“We were able to activate a significant number of researchers across political and disciplinary borders,” says Dr Marten Winter, Head of sDiv. “Researchers around the world will be collaborating across different synthesis centres and launching initiatives at a scale that we synthesis centres could previously only dream of.”
Synthesis centres bring researchers together to combine existing data, knowledge and expertise in order to generate new insights. A total of 214 researchers are involved in the funded projects which will run between 2-3 years and span five continents.
The portfolio of projects ranges from modelling biodiversity futures to understanding Amazonian floodplains, from climate‑resilient inland fisheries to blue‑carbon ecosystems, and from Arctic freshwater systems to community‑based resource governance, showcasing the diversity of expertise united through this global effort. An inaugural joint virtual symposium is planned for early June.
Since its founding in 2013, the sDiv Synthesis Centre at iDiv has become a model for centres worldwide, integrating ecological data to generate insights into biodiversity change, its drivers and its consequences for ecosystem functioning. sDiv has supported hundreds of international collaborations and contributed to more than 50,000 citations in the scientific literature.
Participating institutions
- African Synthesis Centre for Climate Change, Environment and Development (ASCEND), South Africa
- Aquatic Synthesis Research Center (AquaSYNC), Denmark
- Canadian Institute of Ecology and Evolution (CIEE-ICEE), Canada
- Centro de Síntese em Biodiversidade e Serviços Ecossistêmicos (SinBiose), Brazil
- Institute for Global Change Biology (IGCB), University of Michigan, United States
- Just Transformations to Sustainability (JTS) Initiative , University of Notre Dame, United States
- National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS), United States
- sDiv Synthesis Centre of iDiv, Germany
“This initiative demonstrates the need for, and power of, global collaboration. By pooling expertise and resources, we can address biodiversity and climate challenges at a scale no single institution could achieve alone”, says Ben Halpern, Director of NCEAS in the United States. “It leverages the insights, creative energy, and diversity of perspectives that are needed to address one of the most pressing environmental challenges humanity faces”.
Marisa Mamede, Executive Secretary of SinBiose in Brazil, adds: “Global collaboration on this issue comes at a crucial moment, when we need sound evidence to inform decision-making and political action. The expectation is that through this joint effort and synergy, we can deliver a message that is relevant at the global level”.
sDiv’s contribution to the international research effort
Beyond coordinating the call, sDiv will also host two of the newly funded projects at iDiv in Leipzig. sModelProBio, which starts today, and sEcoCarbonMarkets, which will begin in the autumn. These projects reflect sDiv’s commitment to advancing synthesis research that informs conservation, policy and sustainable management.
As the projects move into their implementation phase, the International Synthesis Consortium aims to deliver actionable insights for policymakers. By combining global expertise with integrated data analysis, the initiative seeks to accelerate the science needed to safeguard biodiversity in a rapidly changing climate.
Related links
Contact
Dr Marten Winter
Head of sDiv
Telephone: +49 341 9733129
Email: marten.winter@idiv.de
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