Northern Eurasia, belonging mostly to the Russian Federation, and its adjacent seas are subject to extreme and fast environmental changes which affect its societies (and their technical infrastructure) in dramatic and unprecendent ways in real time. Hence it is important to search for evidences which would allow to predict for the near future speed and extent of the alterations of the physical and biological boundary conditions and their effects on the human habitats of both indigenous as well as non-indigenous people. Important information on spatial and temporal rates of changes in the past (as well as potentially in the future) can be collected from historic time series observed in geological records. The successful megagrant therefore addressedpaleogeographic and geomorphologic changes of land surfaces (and shallow seafloors) in high latitudes which on the Northern hemispherein most areas are subject to permafrost (presently suffering under the impact of a relatively warm climatic phase). The establishment of precise time series of such changes from geological records require high precision dating facilities which have been built up by means of the megagrant and which are operating now under the umbrella of the KÖPPEN-Laboratory of the School of Earth Sciences of SPbGU. It is hoped for that the KÖPPEN -Laboratory will develop into an important national facility serving the geochronologicalneeds a wide range of national as well as international research institutions.