International Master of Science in Applied Ecology

Environmental protection is certainly the greatest current challenge to mankind as it plays a crucial role in economic and societal development throughout the world. It is by rising to this challenge that we will be able to generate sustainable development within human societies. Over the last decades, the analyses carried out by ecologists have revealed the great fragility of natural balances and the dramatic ecological consequences of human activities. In recent years, governmental policies have sought to integrate this ecological awareness in the economic decisions that are taken and in the evolution of societies. In this crucial evolution of human society, the European Community has played and continues to play an important role and its leadership is recognized worldwide.

The study program International Master in Applied Ecology enables an academic and a professional qualification in the field environmental issues. This master degree in Applied Ecology is awarded by a Joint Degree of University of Coimbra and Kiel University. IMAE offers an integrated European study program that adresses the global task of applying ecological knowledge to protect and sustain a coherent environment. The competences conveyed cover the understanding of human-related or natural environmental impacts, the ability to carry carry out ecological  diagnostics, the understanding dynamics and functions in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the understanding of the consequences of global change and biodiversity impoverishment on these ecosystems. On this basis our students obtain a toolbox that empowers them to countersteer the diametrical effects of global change on global well-beeing.

Therefore, the competences acquired in study program are assets in the realisation of a wide variety of science driven ecological projects throughout the world.