ALTER-Net is integrating capacity across Europe to assess and forecast changes in biodiversity, structure, functions and dynamics of ecosystems and their services. This is being achieved in a number of ways. ALTER-Net is a focus of efforts to create a network of sites for European long-term terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem research (Long-Term Ecosystem Research sites, LTER). It is also developing a related network of Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) sites, which could be used to determine the socio-economic implications of, and public attitudes to, biodiversity loss. In 2005 ALTER-Net launched the International Press Centre for Biodiversity Research (IPCB), a regularly updated online source of news and press releases about international biodiversity research, serving journalists and other users. ALTER-Net has also established a Summer School, aimed at equipping young researchers with the knowledge and skills to undertake integrated biodiversity research at a European level.