Aarhus University

1. Department. Aarhus University is a research and higher education institution with about 13.000 students and 900 PhD students. The staff includes 1700 scientists and 1700 technical staff who participate in several international projects, incl. 60 EU contracts in 2006. The Department of Biological Sciences has 65 scientists, 650 students and 40 PhD students covering a wide range of biological disciplines from molecular to field-oriented.

2. Expertise. The botany group behind PALMS has about 15 scientists with core expertise in vegetation ecology, macro-ecology, ethno-ecology, plant taxonomy, and bio-statistical methods; and the use of local knowledge to applied research and conservation has particular emphasis. Research focuses on tropical ecosystems not least in north-western South America. The institute has substantial experience in managing large projects from research and capacity building projects coordinated in Africa, Asia and South America.

3. Main contributions of the team to the project: The AU group leads WP1 on Diversity and Abundance of Palm Resources and WP9 that coordinates the project and have limited participation in WP3 on palm products, and WP7 and WP8 on information and dissemination.