Name:

Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel (IFM-GEOMAR)

Foundation under Public Law

Financing:

• Ministry for Research, Economics and Transport of the State of Schleswig-Holstein (MWWV)
• Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)

Affiliation:

• Leibniz Association (WGL)
• German Marine Research Konsortium(KDM)
• Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO)
• Marine Board of the European Science Foundation.

Employees: About 715, of which 370 are scientists (2009)

Professorships (joint positions with the Christian-Albrechts University of Kiel): 33

Annual Budget (2009):

• about 30.2 Mio. € institutional funding
• about 26.8 Mio. € project funding

Bodies:

• Board of Governors
• Scientific Advisory Board
• Directorate
• Scientific Council

The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel (IFM-GEOMAR) was founded in January 2004 through the merger of the Institut für Meereskunde (IfM) and the Research Center for Marine Geosciences (GEOMAR). The institute is a member of the Leibniz Association and employs more than 720 scientific and technical staff.

The institutes’ mandate is the interdisciplinary investigation of all relevant aspects of modern marine sciences, from sea floor geology to marine meteorology. Research is conducted worldwide in all oceans.

The institute has four major research divisions: ocean circulation and climate dynamics, marine biogeochemistry, marine ecology and the dynamics of the ocean floor.In addition, IFM-GEOMAR contributes to the excellence cluster "The Future Ocean" and the collaborative research centres, SFB 574 "Volatiles and Fluids in Subducton Zones" and SFB754: "Climate-Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean", funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG).

The Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences is associated with the University of Kiel in undergraduate and graduate teaching in the following fields: oceanography, meteorology, biological oceanography, fisheries biology, marine chemistry and geology.

In addition, the institute operates four research vessels, state-of-the-art equipment such as the manned submersible JAGO, the deep-sea robots ROV KIEL6000 and ABYSS as well as several major laboratories, access to high performance computing facilities and an attractive public aquarium.

IFM-GEOMAR cooperates with a number of small companies active in marine technology and science, partly founded by former staff members of the institute.

Last Update this page: 18.01.2010.