Cluster of Excellence "The Future Ocean"

The ocean, through its dominating influence on global climate and its major role as a source of important natural resources and devastating hazards, plays a key role in the lives of all human beings. At the same time, the ocean is increasingly being altered by anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, fisheries, pollution, waste disposal and other human activities. Within the Cluster of Excellence, a network of researchers at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel (CAU) and the participating Leibniz Institutes will, hence, investigate past, present and future ocean change, explore marine resources, develop strategies for their sustainable use and study hazards arising from the seas. Marine science is by its very nature an interdisciplinary scientific field of study. The Cluster will expand this research approach by including experts from disciplines which are not traditionally seen as marine, such as medicine, economics, social sciences and law, to study the environmental, socio-economic and legal aspects of the ocean in a truly multidisciplinary approach. Nowhere previously have experts from this wide range of disciplines and proven excellence come together to focus on questions of such key relevance to the Future Ocean. The research program here proposed will, therefore, significantly broaden and enhance the understanding of the ocean - understanding which is needed to provide sound guidance to decision makers.

Research within the Cluster will be organized under two themes (A) Oceans in the Greenhouse World and (B) Marine Resources and Risks. Within both themes, strong exisiting research groups will be strategically augmented by new Junior Research Groups (JRG's) and be supported by research platforms. Integrated curricula for training Ph.D. and Master's students will be developed in a new school of ocean sciences. Forums will be established to transfer research results acquired in the Cluster to decision makers, stakeholders, industry and the general public. Most of the funding requested will, however, be used to establish and endow Junior Research Groups in emerging research fields currently not covered by, but complementary to, those of the proponents. Junior Research Group leaders will be recruited from the international scientific community, with a tenure-track option for permanent professor positions (W2/W3) for highly successful researchers. Significant Cluster funding and the tenure-track perspective provided by the University and the participating Leibniz Institutes will permit the Cluster to attract, recruit and integrate truly outstanding young scientists. Through these means, the Cluster will strengthen and promote the University's profile as a leading European center for the study of the ocean system at large.

Executive Summary of the Cluster Proposal "The Future Ocean"(pdf, 445kb)

The Cluster of Excellence is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) until October 2011.

List of participating Institutes:

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