The goal of this consortium is to stimulate state-of-the-art ecological research, by creating synergies between the research groups PLECO (prof. Ivan Janssens, project coordinator with Methusalem funding, prof. Ivan Nijs, prof. Matteo Campioli), EVECO (prof. Erik Mathyssen) and ECOSPHERE (prof. Stijn Temmerman and Jonas Schoelynck).