Fundamental Issues of Biodiversity

In addition to the climate crisis, the global decline in biodiversity is regarded as the most significant ecological challenge of our time. Consequently, research into biodiversity and its conservation is of great importance.

As a research funding institution, the German Research Foundation (DFG) is well-positioned to play a pivotal role in advancing urgently needed biodiversity research. The areas in which there is currently a particular need for research are of significant importance for funding policy. DFG advisory bodies (Senate Commissions and working groups) can identify and formulate these needs. Such DFG advisory bodies also exist for biodiversity research.

The Permanent Senate Commission on Fundamental Issues of Biological Diversity (SKBV) and the Working Group on Access and Benefit-Sharing (AG ABS) are independent interdisciplinary expert forums that continuously prepare new scientific findings relating to biodiversity research with regard to their social and political significance. They represent the interests of basic research in the political and legislative environment and contribute to the DFG's committees, politics, and society in an advisory capacity.

The SKBV and the ABS working groups convene every six months. In these meetings, the committees coordinate expert opinions drafted by sub-working groups, develop guidelines for the DFG's application procedures, organize topic-related round tables, and review current political and legislative activities.

Professor Dr. Sabine Schlacke is a member of the Senate Commission, established on January 1, 2018. She provides support to the SKBV and the ABS working group in particular with regard to the clarification of legal issues that arise, for example, from international legal regulations on the protection of biodiversity (including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol), from the development of new research technologies, methods and procedures, or that are relevant to research data management.