As a scientist, Dr. Kutsch is experienced in data acquisition, post-processing, data analysis and modeling of ecosystem carbon budgets. He has worked on ecosystem carbon cycling for 25 years in Europe and Africa. As Director General, Dr. Kutsch is the legal representative and overall coordinator of the ICOS Research Infrastructure and has coordinated the implementation of ICOS which is now fully operational. His current work comprises the administration and operations of the distributed observational networks and central facilities including the data flow between the different observational programs of ICOS, the data centre of ICOS (‘Carbon Portal’). Dr. Kutsch is responsible for the external representation of ICOS which aims to be part of European and global integration initiatives that that support the usage of in-situ observations for improving the national inventories on greenhouse gases.