The University of Leeds is an international centre of excellence for research and teaching. It ranks among the top 10 research universities in the UK, with some 3,000 researchers and an annual research income in 2002 of more than £63 million, of which 9.5% is from EU awards. The Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) and the newly-formed University Interfaculty Institute on Global Environmental Change and Biodiversity serve to bring together researchers on these issues from across the University. The research staff making up the Centre are drawn from the Schools of Biology, Earth Sciences and Geography, are all of which are of international stature as judged in the last UK Research Assessment Exercise. The CBC is recognised as a Centre of Excellence and has been awarded a Marie Curie training site in Biodiversity and Conservation.

RESEARCH TEAM: Bill Kunin, Koos Biesmeijer