Heidelberg Center for the Environment

The Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) helps to sustainably merge existing competencies at Heidelberg University in the environmental sciences. Going beyond the traditional boundaries of the natural, social and cultural sciences, the HCE aims to develop scientific solutions to the existential challenges and ecological consequences of natural, technological and societal changes on humans.

With its research focus on the interaction between humans and the environment, the centre makes important contributions to issues of social relevance. Because the complexity of today’s environmental problems goes beyond the analytical framework of any one method or discipline, the HCE employs a model of close interdisciplinary and integrative cooperation. To reach its goal, the HCE embraces a broad spectrum of disciplines that includes geography, the geosciences, biodiversity research, environmental physics, the social, economic and legal sciences as well as pre- and protohistory and medieval studies. Furthermore, the centre integrates central aspects of environmental research into teaching and public discourse.