About

Welcome to CURT

Who we are

CURT stands for Comparative Urban ecology Research Training. We are a diverse group of urban ecologists from Melbourne and Berlin. As ‘natural spaces’ become more and more populated by humans, research in topics such as biodiversity, socio-ecological dynamics and ecosystem services is critical for the development of liveable, sustainable and resilient cities and towns. CURT strives to be the framework with which experts from Melbourne and Berlin may exchange ideas and work together to address the challenges facing the future of urban ecology. See our Aims and Melbourne and Berlin pages for more details about our network.

Foundation

We were established in 2021 as a new joint research project within the Melbourne/Berlin research partnership, funded in part by the Berlin University Alliance and the University of Melbourne. Curious about other selected projects within the Melbourne/Berlin research partnership? Click here, for an overview.

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the state of Berlin under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder


Partner Organisations

Our research network includes the universities, research institutions and other organisations where our collaborators are based. In Melbourne we partner with researchers from the GIRG “Green Infrastructure Research Group”, The Urban Light Lab, The WERG “Waterway Ecosystem Research Group” and others at the University of Melbourne. Many of our collaborators work within the School of Ecosystem and Forest Services at the University of Melbourne.

In Berlin we partner with various research groups within the Berlin University Alliance, specifically the Technische Universität Berlin /TU), Freie Universität Berlin (FU) and Humboldt Universität zu Berlin (HU). Many of our members can be found within the TU Dept. of Ecology, and within the research group Ecological Novelty at the FU. Other partner organisations in Berlin include the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), the ​​Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) and the Berlin Museum of Natural History (MfN).