ALTER-Net, a long-term biodiversity, ecosystem and awareness research network. – Year 7

Van Dijk, J., Ulateig, G. Terrasson, D., De Blust, G., Sier, A., Braat, L., Kanka, R., Mirtl, M., Török, K., Furman, E., Kertész, M., & Stadler, J. 2011. ALTER-Net, a long-term biodiversity, ecosystem and awareness research network – Year 7. – NINA Report 685, 83 pp. During year seven of ALTER-Net several activities have proven the added value of having the network and together with the partner contributions that have been spent on our network activities (i.e. Common Research Programme, Communication & Knowledge Transfer, Common Training Programme, Data Sharing Policy, Long Term Ecological Research - LTER, LifeWatch, InterDisciplinary Research - IDR and Multi-Site Experiment) we have further guaranteed the durable integration of European biodiversity research. In Vienna ALTER-Net arranged the workshop on our Common Research Strategy (CRS) which was very successful. During the workshop it was agreed to have a regularly updated CRS by means of an annual research priority meeting with Council, young researchers and stakeholders prior to setting our yearly activities. The ALTER-Net website and the enews letters are highly appreciated and with regular updates of ALTER-Net activities, biodiversity events, job vacancies, funding possibilities members of the website stay informed about what is going on. Both the LTER-Europe secretariat and the team working on the ALTER-Net/LTER-data infrastructure at UBA have been responsible for running the LTEREurope network and improving the data infrastructure of LTER-Europe respectively. For our work on InterDisciplinary Research ALTER-Net organized two very successful events; a conference in Vienna (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, what is the link between the two?) and a workshop in Paris (Ecosystem Services and Governance). Both outcomes are combined in a policy document (one long version for the research community and other interested persons and one short version especially for policy makers). Also this year ALTER-Net organized its Summer School which was again a great success and one of our most visible outputs of the network together with the work on Multi-Site Experiment II. Both the ALTER-Net Summer School and the Multi-Site Experiment involve many ALTER-Net partners and prove the added value of the network. The impressive list of 45 ongoing collaborative projects and 8 new joint proposals of which 3 are on the EU funding list from 2011, as well as the 198 publications with two or more ALTER-Net partners show that the fundament of the network is in place and the network is functioning. KEY WORDS : biodiversity, ecosystem, awareness, Interdisciplinary research, research network, NØKKELORD : biomangfold, økosystem, formidling, tverrfaglig kunnskap, forskningsnettver