Our Stories

We speak with Wolfram Weckwerth, Head of the Molecular Systems Biology lab and the Vienna Metabolomics Center at the University of Vienna, about the EAT-Lancet Report from a biological systems perspective. He reflects on plant diversity, stress resilience, and the limits of yield-driven agriculture - and introduces AIPN, a new research platform that brings together metabolomics, microbiome research, psychology, and AI to translate planetary health diets into data-driven, personalised strategies

Thilo Hofmann, environmental scientist and co-director of the Environment and Climate Research Hub at the University of Vienna, reflects on the EAT-Lancet Report. Drawing on his work on soils, water systems, and persistent contaminants like microplastics and PFAS, he highlights how pollutants can undermine nutrient cycles, ecosystem health, and the long-term sustainability of food production - and why interdisciplinary research is essential.

Franz Essl, ECH member, ecologist and biodiversity researcher at the University of Vienna, discusses the EAT-Lancet Report with the ECH Editorial Team, focusing on how food systems contribute to biodiversity loss and climate change. He argues that protecting intact ecosystems is fundamental to long-term food security - and that only interdisciplinary research can address the complexity of global food system transformation.

On 25 February, Social Economist Valentina Ausserladscheider and Biodiversity Researcher Stefan Dullinger (both University of Vienna), discussed climate change, winter tourism, and biodiversity in the Alpine region with media representatives from several countries. We take a closer look at their research in our article “Melting Certainties”.

A recent Nature study led by the University of Texas at Austin, with participation from the University of Vienna (Valerie De Anda), sheds new light on the emergence of complex life. By reconstructing the metabolism of Asgard archaea, researchers show that oxygen-based energy metabolism likely evolved before the acquisition of mitochondria, suggesting an earlier origin of bioenergetic complexity.

At the event ‘Understanding Microplastics – What We Know Today and Why Panic Is Not the Solution’ organised by the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and the ECH of the University of Vienna on 27 March, ECH Co-Director Thilo Hofmann, together with other experts, will shed light on the current state of knowledge about microplastics in humans and the environment.