Polises Blog

European Geosciences Union - General Assembly in Vienna

Fri, 08 May 2026 14:59:00 +0200

From May 4th to 8th, I attended the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly for the first time in Vienna. This conference was the largest I've ever been to...

Modeling Nitrogen Reduction Policies for Maize: reflections from my Internship at UFZ

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 15:39:00 +0100

By Sujana Silwal

I joined the research unit POLISES at the Department of Ecological Modelling (UFZ) with the intention of working more closely at the intersection of agriculture, policy, and environmental systems. Coming from a background in sustainable agriculture,...

Night of Science at UFZ

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 15:08:00 +0200

On Friday, June 20^th, UFZ opened its doors for the Long Night of Science, and we were part of it with our station "Ich modellier mir die Welt, wie sie mir gefällt"...

Ökofeldtage - Organic Farming Fair

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 17:05:00 +0200

The Ökofeldtage – a fair for organic farming – was hosted for the first time in Saxony at the Wassergut Canitz GmbH, an organic farm near Leipzig from June 18^th-19^th. This year’s focus was...

Modeling with Salt Dough & Cardboard: Explaining Models through Play

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:25:00 +0200

During the Easter holidays, I had the opportunity to lead a creative workshop on (computer) modeling in cooperation with INSPIRATA e.V....

Global Land Program Open Science Meeting in México

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:33:00 +0100

At the beginning of November, Julia attended the 5th open science meeting of the Global Land Programme in the heart of México...

ZALF Landscape Conference 2024: Presenting Our Research in Berlin

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 15:02:00 +0200

From September 17th to 19th, the ZALF Landscape Conference brought together researchers to discuss the transformation of agricultural landscapes. This year, the conference took place in Berlin, and our group was well-represented by Birgit, Julia, Jona and Kaja...

Speeding up land-use modelling

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:00:00 +0200

In September 2024 the Polises group hostes a workshop with land-use modellers from all over the world...

POLISES retreat in Dessau

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 08:38:00 +0200

In July 2024 Birgit, Gunnar, Julia, Kaja and Jonathan went to Dessau-Roßlau for the yearly POLISES retreat...

OESA retreat in Dresden

Tue, 04 Jun 2024 14:57:00 +0200

In June 2024, the entire department for ecological modelling went to Dresden for the yearly OESA retreat...

Higrade Conference

Thu, 30 May 2024 13:00:00 +0200

Every year, the UFZ's Graduate School Higrade organises a half-day internal conference at which all third-year PhD students present their current work, and this year it was Julia's turn...

UFZ-Excursion for Students from BTU Cottbus

Tue, 28 May 2024 10:50:00 +0200

On the 28^th of May the second excursion from international students of the BTU Cottbus to the UFZ took place. During their visit...

Polises at Agra

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0200

Every two years Leipzig hosts the Agra, a large agricultural fair for central Germany...

InsuranceGrass Retreat in Leipzig

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 16:00:00 +0100

This year, the InsuranceGrass retreat took place in Leipzig on March 14 and 15...

UFZ Winter School 2024

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 16:00:00 +0100

From February 29 to March 09, the department for ecological modelling (OESA) organized the UFZ Winter School 2024 "Introduction to Ecological Modelling"...

DLG winter conference 2024

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 14:26:00 +0100

On February 21 Julia and Kaja joined the winter conference of the Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft (DLG) which was hosted in Leipzig. The overarching theme of the conference was the interplay of agricultural companies and political regulations.

POLISES at ECEM-Conference

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:42:00 +0200

From September 4-8 the POLISES working group participated in the 9th European Conference on Ecological Modelling, ECEM 2023...

Visit from students of the BTU Cottbus

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:25:00 +0200

On 9 June, we welcomed 20 international students from BTU Cottbus. As students of the Master's programme "Environmental and Resource Management" or PhD students in this field, they are potential candidates for a career at the UFZ...

POLISES retreat at Großbothen

Tue, 25 Jul 2023 13:09:00 +0200

In May 2023 Birgit, Gunnar, Julia and Kaja went to the Wilhelm Ostwald Park in Großbothen for the yearly POLISES retreat...

InsuranceGrass Retreat at ETH Zurich

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 16:19:00 +0200

After one year of online collaboration, Birgit and Julia met the InsuranceGrass project team in Zurich for a two days retreat...

Master’s project: Evaluating the spatial connectivity of fields und agri-environmental schemes

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 12:56:00 +0100

By Marlene Rimmert

As part of my Master’s degree in Environmental Systems Science at the University of Osnabrück, I did a so-called Master’s project in the POLISES group during my last semester. The aim of such a project is...

POLISES teaching at BESTMAP summer school

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 10:44:00 +0100

As part of the BESTMAP project, Birgit and Meike were teaching in the BESTMAP summer school on modelling...

Nitrogen management and my way into socio-environmental modelling

Wed, 25 May 2022 09:11:00 +0200

By Felix Jäger

Studying abstract mathematics, you usually don’t know what this should be good for. Of course, you are told that mathematical thinking is needed in countless contexts and that mathematicians can work nearly everywhere. But, as is so often the case, being told something and experiencing its truth are two entirely different things...

Internship project: Impact of field characteristics on the allocation of agri-environmental schemes

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 11:39:00 +0100

By Johanna Eichler

I spent six weeks during February and March 2022 as an intern at the POLISES working group. Unfortunately, I did not spend the internship in Leipzig but in home office in Osnabrück where I am studying for a Master's degree in System Science. Nevertheless,...

Potential side effects of insurance programs: A summary of recent POLISES research outcomes

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 08:08:00 +0200

During the last years, a main focus of our work within POLISES was on potential side effects of insurance programs. In addition to the review article on maladaptive outcomes of climate insurance...