Welcome to KIT/IMKIFU
The IMKIFU, KIT-Campus Alpin, is the largest Bavarian climate research institute and has been based in Garmisch-Partenkirchen since 1962. Founded in 1954, it is the oldest continuing research institute on global environmental issues in Germany. After 40 years in the Fraunhofer-Association, it has been part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers as part of today's KIT since 2002. Research at the institute is characterized by great complexity and high social relevance. KIT/IMKIFU research is active worldwide in projects and partnerships - because the global dimension of climate change and the impact of humans on the environment make it necessary to deal with local environmental issues in a global context.
Researchers at IMKIFU are investigating changes in the atmosphere, the water balance and living conditions for vegetation and society in the context of global climate change. Studying the processes at the boundary between the atmosphere and the land surface is an essential basis for understanding climate change and developing strategies to help us deal with the changing conditions.
Together with partner institutes at KIT and other Helmholtz centers, IMKIFU participates in the Helmholtz research program Changing Earth – Sustaining our Future, as well as many other national and international research networks.
Heavy rains create small pools of water in many regions of East Africa—ideal breeding grounds for Anopheles mosquitoes, which transmit malaria. Using high-resolution meteorological models, researchers at KIT are calculating how mosquito nets can prevent infections most effectively.
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Team event to Analytica, the world’s leading trade fair for laboratory technology and analytics, to ensure that our laboratory equipment is up to date.
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C4LaNd addresses the problem of how to meet the ever-increasing and often conflicting demands on land for food, renewable energy, and materials without compromising biodiversity conservation and climate action. A multidisciplinary and international research environment.
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Retreats offer space for intensive and detailed work on topics for which there is often not enough time in the day-to-day business. The focus was on the issue of abuse of power in the scientific environment, also in collaboration with Ms. Boda, Head of the Office for Good Scientific Practice GWP.
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On February 26, students from the Irmengardschule investigated the role of native grassland soils and arable soils as sources and sinks for climate-relevant biogenic greenhouse gases in the laboratory of the Landscape Biogeochemistry Department.
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Take a look behind the scenes at IFU with our Girls' Day program:
A day as a climate researcher - the effects of climate change on soil, water, air and plants - from measurement to modeling.
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Proposal for emission reduction measures in the German natural gas sector. PD Dr. Ralf Sussmann got invited to contribute in the Helmholtz's public participation in the German government's new climate protection programme. Forwarding to Helmholtz Changing Earth (document pages 10-11).
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The research podcast on methane in the climate catastrophe. PD Dr. Ralf Sussmann talks about methane measurements on the Zugspitze and his proposals for reducing emissions, which were submitted to the Helmholtz Association's public participation process on the German government's climate protection programme. Forwarding to KIT.
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The WASCAL research group around Prof. Dr. Kunstmann which engages in eddy-flux measurements of methane fluxes from rice cultivation and compensation options from natural forests in West Africa is nominated for the Frontier Planet price 2026. Forwarding to BBAW.
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