University of Tartu from Estonia is ALFAwetlands important partner, team player, communicator in a project-oriented world of science.
Contribution to ALFAwetlands project
EU Horizon projects such as ALFAwetlands are dedicated to answering relevant questions, relevant for both the scientific communities and the public. Hereby, collaborations and exchange amongst science and stakeholders play a major role in gathering mutual experiences, learning and training each other, and supporting future mutual activities. The University of Tartu in Estonia (UTartu) is a proud ALFAwetlands partner, and one of the oldest universities in the Baltic States and Northern Europe. Its study and research efforts made her within the top 1% of the world’s most cited university and research institutions.
Further, within the ALFAwetlands project scope, UTartu brings more than 20 years of profound experiences of examining the essential carbon and nitrogen cycles in different wetlands, peatlands, and forests. In addition to in-depth research sites in Estonia (Fig. 01 and 02), the team is already collaborating and researching around the world, from Malaysia to Africa and Amazonia.
UTartu Biometeolab group
The lead contributing partner for ALFAwetlands on behalf of UTartu is the Biometeolab group and coordinates the project relevant activities. Further, the lab acts as the PI (principal investigator) for Work package 3, that involves the majority of field activities under the ALFAwetlands umbrella. Although the research group “investigates physical, biological, and chemical processes that govern the exchange of trace gases” on its own sites (Fig. 03: ALFAwetlands Living Lab site Kuresoo), the collaborative character forces and requires to involve sites with differing site PIs from one Department, particularly the Department of Geography. Those PIs are responsible for the investigated site in general, the experimental site setups, and main contacts. This way, resources and ideas can be ideally allocated and shared, and additional research questions may be answered without strong borders and with varying project task efforts. Secondly, following our collaborative approach enhances team spirit within and far beyond any project-oriented matrix organization.
