Founded in 1460, the University of Basel is the oldest university in Switzerland and has a history of success going back over 550 years. Today, it has over 12,000 students (of which around 57 percent are women) from over a hundred nations (24% are international students), including around 2,900 PhD students. The University of Basel comprises seven faculties covering a wide spectrum of academic disciplines and leads research and education in its affiliated clinics and university hospitals. It regularly ranks among the 100 top universities in the world in international rankings, thanks to its research achievements. Life Sciences is one of the five strategic focal areas of the university. The University of Basel is an experienced host institution regarding European research funding programmes and has been involved in more than 270 FP7 and H2020 projects including 51 ERC grants and 87 Marie Curie actions, of which 31 Marie Curie Training Networks (FP7 and H2020 ITN) and 63 individual Marie Curie Fellowship programs. University of Basel will contribute to the development of a methodology for monitoring/modelling land degradation and desertification processes at pan-European scale. In this context, a special attention will be paid to the relationships between desertification and soil erosion processes, with the latter acting as a possible triggering factor of desertification through its ability of removing nutrient-rich topsoil, leaving coarse, sandy particles with poor water-retaining capacity.