AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems) is a research infrastructure which brings together a series of state-of-the-art experimental and analytical platforms for ecosystem research throughout Europe. By linking these platforms to modelling approaches, AnaEE advances our understanding of the environmental impacts of ongoing global change, and fosters adaptation and mitigation strategies for safeguarding ecosystem services and their economic and societal benefits. At the core of AnaEE’s approach is a network of distributed experimental facilities, through which ecosystems can be exposed to a series of controlled conditions, from land-use change, pollution, biological invasions, rising atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations, and to increasing extreme events such as droughts and heatwaves. There are four types of platforms: • Open-air ecosystem platforms; • Enclosed ecosystem platforms; • Analytical platforms; • Modelling platforms; AnaEE provides open and easy access to resources and services to a broad user community world-wide to conduct excellent experimental research, foster innovation and provide high-quality information. It is a key structure to obtain the knowledge necessary to tackle the complex global environmental challenges facing human societies. It forges evidence-based adaptation and mitigation strategies that assure plant, soil, water, biodiversity and ecosystem health today and in the future. Those strategies are needed to maintain essential services to society, including carbon sequestration, food security, clean water, biodiversity.