OUR MEMBERS

IOW - LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FÜR OSTSEEFORSCHUNG WARNEMÜNDE

The IOW's research activities focus on the Baltic Sea, which, with its limited water exchange due to its close connections to the North Sea and a very large catchment area, is a prime example of a coastal sea under utilisation pressure. At the same time, the broad spectrum of environmental conditions in the Baltic Sea offers researchers at the IOW an ideal setting in which to investigate the most diverse issues of modern marine research - right on our doorstep.

With Biological and Physical Oceanography, Marine Chemistry and Marine Geology, all four basic disciplines of marine research are represented at the IOW. This enables an interdisciplinary approach.

One of the important cross-sectional tasks of the IOW is the collection of long-term data series in the Baltic Sea. This is carried out both on behalf of the German Federal Government for the Helsinki Commission and as part of the IOW's own research programme. The Institute prepares annual status assessments on the basis of regular data collection.

The research vessel ELISABETH MANN BORGESE is available to the IOW for its work in the Baltic Sea. In addition, the institute has access to the ships of the German research fleet, such as the FS METEOR or the FS MARIA S. MERIAN. The IOW is also working on the further development of innovative measurement technology. In view of the size of the oceans and the multitude of processes taking place here, measurements can only be incomplete and so one of the challenges of marine research is to obtain as much information as possible from this data. New techniques, methods and evaluation procedures are being developed at the IOW for this purpose.

The IOW in figures

As a member of the Leibniz Association, the IOW receives basic funding from the federal and state governments; in addition, the staff also raise third-party funds. On average, the IOW has a total budget of over 20 million euros per year. Around half of the 220 employees are researchers.