Structure of the Project

Network-Forum for Biodiversity Research Germany (NeFo) is a project of Diversitas Germany, a scientific association supporting the International Diversitas program and is actively supported by Diversitas members.

NeFo is subdivided into two sections:

The NETWORK-section synthesizes an overview of the biodiversity research landscape in Germany (research landscape). Reports are issued to describe the situation of ecological, taxonomic and socio-economic disciplines related to biodiversity research in Germany. Furthermore, workshops dealing with urgent topics are organized resulting in reports and position papers.

The FORUM-section deals with the connection between research community and society. A focal point is the service centre for stakeholders functioning as a contact point for politicians, administrators, conservation managers, NGO’s and further stakeholders to the research community. Questions of these stakeholders are either directly answered or contact to scientists with relevant expertise is facilitated. Additionally, urgent topics are proactively processed and presented in an easily accessible and understandable way for all stakeholders. Another main task is to strengthen the connection between science and media. Scientists can communicate their research results that are relevant for society to NeFo and thereby benefit from NeFo’s network with relevant media (press,TV etc.) and the ability to present relevant research via a state of the art internet portal (www.biodiversity.de) and electronic newsletters. This allows scientist to make there research more relevant to society. On the other side, Nefo supports media to gain access to latest research and experts in every field of biodiversity related research.

Three main partners carry out the project. Project activities are already supported by many stakeholders in the biodiversity research community and we invite everyone in the research community to participate in NeFo.

The NETWORK-section is organized by the Museum of Natural History Berlin and the University of Potsdam. The FORUM-section and the allover project coordination are carried out by the Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig.

The main tool of NeFo is the internet portal www.biodiversity.de. The portal provides biodiversity related information targeted at specific audiences (research community, policy maker, public/media) in a timely manner. The portal organizes all its information within target audience categories that can be found on the top of the website (For the research community; For policy; For media & the public).