Research Today,
Secure Tomorrow.

Tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution demands collaboration across and beyond disciplines. The ECH provides essential knowledge, space for collaboration, and support for our shared future.

Kickstarting Environmental Solutions

We are facing a triple crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution each pose separate yet interconnected challenges. An integrated and mechanistic understanding and approach to these different facets of the crisis is necessary to ensure a sustainable future for us all. The ECH brings together researchers to produce excellent scientific knowledge that can provide us with solutions for this multitude of challenges.

Our Focus Areas

Latest news and projects from our focus areas:

Clean Environment

Climate Resilience

Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Changing Society

Recent Talking Points

20.05.2025

Looking at Nature Eases Physical Pain – Here’s Why

Observing nature can help us feel less pain. Now, for the first time, brain scans confirm what we subjectively feel, and point to why our perception of pain might change.

Read more

20.05.2025

As a Scientist, How Do you Respond to Opposing Views? – A Piece of Advice From the Past

Science is increasingly facing criticism and political scrutiny - but not all criticism is the same.

Read more

20.05.2025

Storytellers: How the Residues of Innovation Could Guide our Decisions

Who would say no to innovation? But every promising innovation leaves environmental traces – some we expect, others surprise us decades later.

Read more

19.05.2025

Schadstoffe in Lebensmitteln – Nachbericht zum 13. Umwelt im Gespräch

Schadstoffe in Lebensmitteln – ein Thema, das selten emotionslos diskutiert wird. Zwischen wachsender Sorge über Mikroplastik, Pestizide und sogenannte Ewigkeitschemikalien einerseits und einer immer differenzierteren wissenschaftlichen Bewertung andererseits ist Raum für viele Fragen.

Read more

13.05.2025

„Lebens- und Wirtschaftsraum Alpen“ – Erkenntnisse vom 25. Klimatag

Vom 23. bis zum 25. April luden das Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA) und die Universität Innsbruck zum 25. Österreichischen Klimatag nach Innsbruck ein. Das Thema: „Lebens- und Wirtschaftsraum Alpen“. Die ECH-Redaktion hat mit Valentina Ausserladscheider vom Institut für Wirtschaftssoziologie gesprochen, die beim Klimatag vor Ort war.

Read more

29.04.2025

Concerning Chemicals from the Wear of Climbing Shoes Cause Trouble in Indoor Halls

Those who climb indoors are doing something for their health. But climbing shoes contain chemicals of concern that can enter the lungs of climbers through the abrasion of the soles.

Read more

22.04.2025

ECH Launches New Seed Funding Projects

Following a competetive review process, the Environment and Climate Research Hub is proud to present its three new Seed Funding projects: From Lab to Litigation, Exploring Social Perceptions of Chlordecone and Other Phytochemical Compounds, and From Decay to Delay.

Read more

22.04.2025

From Decay to Delay: Organic Matter’s Fate in Soils, Inland Waters, and Ocean

As one of the ECH's 2025 Seed Funding projects, this interdisciplinary project seeks to better understand organic matter (OM) dynamics in various terrestrial and water ecosystems, by integrating biogeochemical and microbial ecology perspectives in combination with expert knowledge from different fields.

Read more

22.04.2025

From Lab to Litigation: Translating Scientific Evidence to the Court

As one of the ECH's 2025 Seed Funding projects, this project led by ECH-members Stephanie Nitsch and Nils Güttler seeks to understand how scientific evidence has, or has not, been incorporated into legal practice, thereby fostering an in-depth and collaborative approach to horizontal environmental litigation.

Read more

22.04.2025

Exploring Social Perceptions of Chlordecone and Other Phytochemical Compounds: A Mixed-Methods Study in Martinique (French Antilles)

This interdisciplinary research project is part of the ECH 2025 Seed Funding projects and led by Giorgio Brocco and Mathew White. It explores the socio-cultural, psychological, and emotional perceptions related to chlordecone and other more recent phytochemical substances used in agriculture in Martinique, a French Overseas Department in the Caribbean.

Read more

ECH

Clean Environment

Climate Resilience

Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Changing Society

Upcoming Events

  • (DE) Climate Walks am Circle U. Climate Day 2025

    06.05.2025

    Universität Wien

    Read more

  • 14. Umwelt im Gespräch – Nachhaltiges Leben: Zwischen Ideal und Realität

    11.11.2025

    Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

    Read more