Our Stories

Established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, ISA manages the mineral resources of the deep sea as the common heritage of mankind and develops the international rules governing their use. ECH member Alice Vadrot has been following the ISA negotiations with her Environmental Research Group for several years. Now, with the official observer status, more researchers from the University of Vienna can attend the meetings in person and contribute scientific insights directly.

Countries compete for many things: the FIFA World Cup trophy, access to markets and availability of minerals. And increasingly for people. Skilled workers turn out to be one of the most valuable resources for the energy transition. Preliminary research suggests that Asia and the Americas could have an edge on other regions in this race.

The OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) has published a new test guideline for the risk assessment of nanomaterials designed to determine the solubility and dissolution rate of nanomaterials under realistic environmental conditions.

We are changing the climate - and with it, the risk for landslides. Extreme weather and land use are increasing their number and severity. Particularly in urban areas, landslides have become the cause of many avoidable deaths. Now, researchers ranging from geologists to psychologists have united to rethink the issue holistically. The resulting research group wants to reduce landslide fatalities in the long run - despite urbanization and climate change.

For the third year in a row, the Environment and Climate Research Hub (ECH) at the University of Vienna has awarded it's Seed Funding to four different innovative, interdisciplinary research projects by it's members. From Musicology to Toxicology, from Demography to Geoscience - these projects show the importance of our Hub's mission: working together across disciplines to foster a deeper understanding of our environment and climate.

For a long time, the oceans were regarded as virtually inexhaustible. Today, climate change, acidification, deep-sea mining and the loss of marine biodiversity show that even the oceans’ resilience has its limits. How can conservation, utilisation and economic interests be reconciled? Experts from research and practice discussed this at the 15th edition of “Environmental Dialogue", organised by the Environment and Climate Research Hub (ECH) at the Natural History Museum Vienna.