The Institute For Interdisciplinary Mountain Research: Connecting Minds Across Borders In Science And Societies

The European Alps: peaks, glaciers, ski resorts, Otzi the iceman, crowded heritage sites, plants conquering high altitudes, abandoned areas, natural disasters-this is how they come across in the media. In everyday usage, the Alps often just mean mountains: on Instagram, #Alpen returns 1.5 million hits, #Berge 2.2 million; of the 7 million entries for #Mountains, 10% are for #Alps. The Alps are also an object of intense research. In Innsbruck, the heart of the Alps, the institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research was created to bridge disciplines in international mountain science.