Generation Change

Support for the transition phase at the Greifswald Mire Centre

In 2020, two of the three partners in the Greifswald Mire Centre (GMC) will face fundamental structural changes that could potentially have a major impact on the work of the GMC. On the one hand, Professor Hans Joosten, one of the "founding fathers" and "motors" of the GMC, is leaving university service. From 2020, with the support of the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Plettner Foundation, the university will establish the first permanent professorship for peatland sciences in Germany. Structural changes are also pending at the Succow Foundation. In this sensitive phase, the North German Foundation for Environment and Development (NUE) will support the management of the Greifswald Mire Centre from November 2019 for two years in shaping the "Generational Change Peatland". The project serves to smooth transitions, to introduce the new leading figures to the work and structure of the GMC, to integrate their own new ideas advantageously, to consolidate and expand networks for peatland research and protection, and to set the course for permanent basic funding.