Young Investigator Groups

The junior research groups at the Alfred Wegener Institute are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Helmholtz Association and the European Research Council. There are currently 7 such groups at the institute.

Contact

Department of Research Support

Dr Lars Henning

Directorate's Office

Dr Corinna Kanzog

Helmholtz Junior Research Groups

Observation of permafrost on Herschel Island (Photo: Boris Radosavljevic)

With the Helmholtz Junior Research Groups, the Helmholtz Association supports the early independence of young scientists and offers them a reliable career perspective. This programme is designed to provide outstanding working conditions in a research-oriented environment for the best foreign and domestic junior researchers. It is aimed at junior employees who have completed their doctorates within the past two to six years.

Further information about this programme can be found on the pages of the Helmholtz Association

BMBF FONA Programme

Eroding permafrost coast on the Siberian Bykovsky Peninsula (Photo: Guido Grosse)

Within the framework of the BMBF-FONA-Programme (Research for Sustainable Development), decision bases for future-oriented action will be developed and innovative solutions for a sustainable society will be delivered. With the third framework programme (FONA³), this sustainability research in Germany is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funding programme "Junior Research Groups on Global Change - 4+1" enables young scientists to meet the challenges of global change with exceptional and innovative research ideas and to find feasible solutions.

For further information, please visit the website of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

ERC Starting Grant Junior Research Groups

Soil sampling on the Bykovsky peninsula (Photo: Thomas Opel)

ERC Starting Grants support aspiring research group leaders who want to establish a well-equipped research team and conduct independent research in Europe. The programme is aimed at promising researchers with proven potential to become independent leaders of a new and excellent research team. It is aimed at junior employees who have completed their doctorates within the past two to seven years.

For more information, visit the European Research Council website.

ARJEL

To better understand the role of jellies in the Arctic seas, the Helmholtz Young Investigator project ARJEL - ARctic JELlifish, will combine the most recent technologies in optics, acoustics, and environmental DNA analyses. Integrative field surveys will allow us to link distributional patterns of jellies to sea-ice and oceanographic features. Furthermore, we will apply species distribution models to a broader set of archived data to understand observed species patterns and to predict changes under future scenarios.

Link to the project page

MarESys

MarESys aims to better understand the current and future CO2 uptake by the ocean and its drivers. To this end, we further develop the marine ecosystem compartment of the Earth System model and apply this in simulations of the last decades and of the future.

Link to the project page

Porträt der AWI-Biologin Dr. Judith Hauck

Portrait of AWI biologist Dr Judith Hauck — Porträt Dr. Judith Hauck (Photo: Sina Löschke)

CLOC

CLOC (Cosmic Links between Ocean Sediments and Ice Cores) employs cosmogenic radionuclides (10Be, 14C, 26Al, 36Cl) to date and synchronize different environmental archives. Global variations in their production rates due to changes in the geomagnetic field and solar activity, allow us to establish a connection between a wide range of climate archives (ice cores, sediments, speleothems) and regions and investigate the dynamics of past climate changes.

Link to the project page

SiDe-EFFECT

The aim of SiDe-EFFECT - Silicic acid Decline Effect in the Arctic Ecosystem - is to assess the consequences of the decline in silicic acid concentrations in the inflow of North Atlantic water into the Eurasian Arctic on the Arctic marine ecosystem using an ecosystems biology approach. By combining novel and classical approaches to study phytoplankton physiology, biodiversity and zooplankton interactions we aim to improve current projections of the fate of the Arctic Ocean in times of climate change.

Link to the project page

PermaRisk

FluxWin

FluxWin focuses on how carbon and nitrogen cycling and resulting greenhouse gas emissions change between the growing season, when plants and scientists are active, and outside of the growing season, when plants are not active and many fewer measurements are collected.

Link to the project page

SPACE

SPACE (Space-time structure of climate change) determines the spatial and temporal structure of climate change on time scales from years to millennia. This structure allows us to test climate models, improve our understanding of climate variability and provide a more solid basis for climate reconstruction.

Link to the project page