UM IoE Mission Statement

The University of Montana’s Institute on Ecosystems (IoE) serves as a catalyst for innovative, interdisciplinary research that addresses environmental and natural resources challenges. This mission includes supporting the research enterprise of participating faculty and their trainees by providing administrative support and management for grants and contracts, funding for graduate student research and affiliated invited speakers, and marketing of faculty and trainee achievement. UM IoE support enables participating faculty to effectively carry out and communicate their research in Montana and beyond.

It’s like nothing else in the United States.

The Montana Institute on Ecosystems studies the large landscapes and riverscapes of Big Sky Country, and beyond, and how they will be affected by environmental change. Other environmental centers around the nation are based at a single institution, but the IoE employs the resources of the entire Montana University System to achieve its goals. 

Formed in 2011, the institute is currently co-directed by Professors Frank Rosenzweig of the University of Montana and Andy Hansen of Montana State University. Its start-up funding was from a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research and a $4 million state match.

One of the big questions IoE works to answer is how Montanans respond to environmental change so that the state can achieve economic and lifestyle sustainability.

More than 20 faculty researcher members from UM, including those from the Division of Biological Sciences, Wildlife Biology, Forestry, Chemistry, and the Flathead Lake Biological Station, are UM IoE affiliates. Their research covers everything from evolutionary genetics, genomics, host-microbe interactions, and animal weaponry to drought stress and fire physiology. 

The work encompasses a spectrum of research, from the natural sciences to the cultural aspects of people's interactions with their environment. IoE enhances science research across the entire state and around the globe.

The institute offers research and internship opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students. Fellowships and stipends are available to attract the best and brightest graduate students to Montana. The IoE also fosters interdisciplinary research, creating connections among researchers across and between campuses.