Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (United Kingdom)

The Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) is the UK's Centre of Excellence in the terrestrial and freshwater environmental sciences. Our parent organisation is the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). CEH's staff have specialist skills in a wide range of environmental disciplines, ranging in scale from the gene to whole Earth systems. Research is aimed at improving our understanding of both the environment and the processes that underlie the Earth's support systems. We are particularly interested in the impacts of human activity on natural environments.

We aim to generate practicable solutions to today's pressing environmental problems, so that a healthy, wealthy and sustainable environment can be enhanced and maintained in the UK and worldwide.

Research at CEH describes and understands the dynamics of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems through integrated monitoring, experimentation and modelling. CEH seeks to enhance the United Kingdom's industrial competitiveness through technology transfer and to improve research training in the United Kingdom and capacity building overseas. Finally, CEH is the custodian of nationally-important environmental data, with a key role in promoting public awareness and understanding through communication of relevant research.

CEH was created in 2000 through a merger of four formerly independent institutes. It has approx. 500 staff, well-equipped laboratories and field facilities at five main sites across Great Britain. The headquarters of CEH are located at Wallingford, 20km south of Oxford. Other sites can be found at Bangor, Edinburgh, Lancaster and Oxford. CEH has an annual budget of approx. 41 million Euro, being financed primarily by the Natural Environment Research Council and contracted research carried out for government customers and the European Research Framework Programme.

CEH research is managed in three interdisciplinary Science Programmes addressing key environmental themes and issues:

• Biodiversity
• Water
• Biogeochemistry

[The work of these Programmes is supported by the
Environmental Information Data Centre.]