2012 - 2017	ERC Advanced Grant - ABYSS (Assessment of Bacterial Life and Matter Cycling in Deep-Sea Surface Sediments)
2011 - 2014	FP EU project ECO2
2009 - 2012	Marie Curie Action "Initial Training Networks" – ITN SenseNet
2009 - 2012	BMBF project BIOACID
2009 - 2011	7 FP EU project HYPOX (coordinator)
2009 - 2012	7 FP EU project HERMIONE (WP leader)
2009 - 2011	FP EU project EUROFLEETS
2009 - 2013	MARUM Excellence Cluster Project “Hydrothermal Vents”
2007 - 2011	EU 6th FP NoE ESONET (Demonstration Mission “LOOME” (Long term observation of mud volcanism))
2007 - 2012	Graduate School of the Excellence Initiative “GLOMAR”

Previous projects

2009 - 2010	DFG MERIAN expedition HOMER 1 + 2
2007 - 2010	EUROCORES EuroDeep “Chemeco”
2006 - 2010	CNRS GDRE DIWOOD (Collaboration Univ Pierre et Marie Curie, CNRS, MPI)
2006 - 2010	ESF EUROCORES EuroDiversity “MicroSystems”
2005 - 2009	DFG Research Center RCOM II, Teilbereich E Fluid and gas seepage along continental margins: structures, processes and budgets
2008	DFG METEOR expedition Guineco
2005 - 2009	EU 6th FP IP HERMES “Hotspot ecosystem research on margins of Europe’s seas”
2007	DFG METEOR expedition MICROHAB (M72/2)
2007	DFG METEOR expedition BIONIL (M70/2)
2005 - 2008	BMBF project MUMM “Microbial turnover of methane above marine gas hydrate”
2003 - 2007	ESF project “MEDIFLUX - An integrated study of fluid seepage through the seabed of the Nile deep-sea fan“
2003 - 2006	6th FP EU project STREP “EXOCET – Extreme ecosystem studies in the deep Ocean: technological developments“
2006	DFG METEOR proposal BIONIL (M70/2)
2004 - 2005	DAAD-ICCTI Projektbezogener Personenaustausch mit Portugal (PPP) Acções Integradas Luso-Alemãs
2002 - 2005	5th FP EU project “METROL – Methane fluxes in ocean margin sediments: microbiological and geochemical control“
2002 - 2005	DFG/ODP project „Analysis of the distribution and diversity of methanotrophic microbial consortia at Hydrate Ridge (Cascadia Margin, Offshore Oregon; ODP Leg 204 in 2002)
2000 - 2003	BMBF project MUMM “Microbial turnover of methane above marine gas hydrate”
1999 - 2000	BMBF project BIGSET II “Biogeochemical transport of matter and energy in the deep-sea”
1999 - 2000	DFG project “Pressure sensitivity of microbial processes in deep-sea sediments”

Professional Memberships

Current Professional Memberships and Committees

- Advisory Board "C-DEBI" Center for Dark Biosphere (NSF Science and Technology Center, USC LA, USA)
- Scientific Steering Committee Deep Life Directorate of the Deep Carbon Observatory (Sloan Foundation, Carnegie USA)
- Advisory Board National History Museum Berlin
- Advisory Board Senckenberg Museum
- Advisory Board GeoBioCenter Munich (LMU)
- Advisory Board Institute for Polar Research IPEV (France)
- External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society
- Science Council of Germany (Wissenschaftsrat)
- Advisory Board Diversitas D
- National Committee for Global Change Research
- Commission of the Senate for Oceanography (DFG, Germany)
- Head of the Scientific Committee of the Annette-Barthelt-Price for Marine Research
- Advisory Board of the Excellence Cluster "Future Ocean" University Kiel
- Science Committee NIOZ
- Head of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Baltic Sea Research
- Monaco Blue Initiative (Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation)
- Membership American Society of Microbiology
- Membership American Society for Limnology and Oceanography
- Membership European Geosciences Union
- Membership American Geophysical Union
- Membership VAAM/FEMS
- Membership ISME

Past Professional Memberships and Committees

- Advisory board “International Census of Marine Microbial Life” ICOMM
- Steering Committee ChEss (Biogeography of Chemosynthetic Ecosystems), Census of Marine Life
- Scientific Council of CNRS Section „Planete et Universe“ (France)
- Scientific Committee of IFREMER (France)
- Scientific Committee DIVERSITAS International (UNESCO, ESSP)

Professional Services

- Editorial Boards of the ISME Journal (Nature Publishing Group), Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Geobiology, Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Marine Biology Research (new journal, previously SARSIA and OPHELIA), Environmental Microbiology
- Reviewer for Journals Science, Nature, MEPS, Limnology and Oceanography, Deep Sea Research I + II, Marine Biology, Marine Geology, Progress in Oceanography, Journal of Sea Research, Organic Geochemistry, AEM, Microbial Ecology, Springer Verlag,
- Reviewer for funding agencies: DFG, BMBF, ERC, NSF, NOAA, NWO, NERC, ANR, CNRS, SNSF, FWO