Organisation profile

Sustainability has many facets. Inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching characterize the School of Sustainability. Scientists in our research projects work together in the laboratory, on the heath, in the grassland, in the classroom, with the city administration, with farmers, with non-governmental organizations, with companies, with students in the lecture hall and of course at their desks.

Furthermore, we work with regional and national political actors, e.g. ministries, as well as international organizations, e.g. UNEP, UNESCO, EU. We are part of national and international bodies, e.g. sustainability advisory boards of companies, member of the German Sustainability Award, World Biodiversity Council (IPBES), in order to contribute to social change with scientific findings.

Main research areas

Vision
Sustainability science investigates on a theoretical, conceptual and empirical level how to promote sustainable development and how to find and implement effective solutions for current social and ecological challenges. The aim is to create a more sustainable future.

Sustainability researchers are called upon to take responsibility for their research, which is anchored in existing scientific knowledge and methods and serves to make the world a better place for everyone.

Mission
We promote change towards a sustainable future by developing theories, concepts and practices of inclusive education for sustainability, research, governance and management.

We acknowledge the diversity and dynamics of values, norms and behaviour and contribute with transdisciplinary methods to ensuring that tensions and differences between different disciplines, methods, topics and standards are fruitfully taken up and used with productive compromises and further developments towards sustainable development.

Principles
The School of Sustainability is guided by the normative concepts of ecological system integrity and social and economic justice.

Ecological system integrity refers to the safeguarding of life-support systems, as well as the maintenance of the well-being of life on Earth.

With social and economic justice we strive for a world in which all people can fulfil their potential without endangering system integrity and the well-being of others.

Information about the School
The School of Sustainability includes...
... ca. 25 professors
... ca. 100 research assistants
... ca. 1000 students in Bachelor and Master courses

In various inter- and transdisciplinary projects we are constantly researching and working together on changes and solutions for current challenges.

  1. ISC3: Internationales Kooperationszentrum Nachhaltige Chemie ISC3 Phase II

    Kümmerer, K. (Project manager, academic)

    01.01.2131.12.24

    Project: Other

  2. Regularities in Reading Times

    Wallot, S. (Project manager, academic)

    German Research Foundation

    01.01.2131.12.22

    Project: Research

  3. Gender Equality in the 21st Century - Country-Level and Individual-Level Factors Related to Women’s and Men’s Intentions to Contribute to Childcare – A Cross-National Comparison across 49 Countries

    Schuster, C. (Project manager, academic), Martiny, S. E. (Partner), Schmader, T. (Partner), Block, K. (Partner), Van Laar, C. (Partner) & Meeussen, L. (Partner)

    German Research Foundation

    15.01.2131.12.23

    Project: Research

  4. RangeX: Mechanisms underlying the success and impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of range-expanding species under climate change

    Haider, S. (Project manager, academic), Buhaly, M. (Project staff), Alexander, J. M. (Coordination), Clark, V. R. (Partner), Høye, T. T. (Partner), Kardol, P. (Partner) & Vandvik, V. (Partner)

    01.04.2131.03.25

    Project: Research

  5. ZIL-Kontakt: Sustainable information logistics for digital contact tracing of infectious diseases

    Drews, P. (Project manager, academic), Funk, B. (Project manager, academic), Heger, J. (Project manager, academic), Lehr, D. (Project manager, academic), Zimmer, M. P. (Coordination), Kortmann, F. (Project staff), Fassmeyer, P. (Project staff) & Usko, N. (Project manager, academic)

    Europäische Union

    21.05.2131.03.23

    Project: Research

  6. A-SYM: The role of (non-)synchronous coordination and its quantification in joint action

    Wallot, S. (Project manager, academic), Mønster, D. (Project manager, academic), Leonardi, G. (Project manager, academic) & Gordon, I. (Project manager, academic)

    German Research Foundation

    01.07.2130.06.25

    Project: Research

  7. DigiTaL - Teilprojekt 04: Methoden-Wiki

    von Wehrden, H. (Project manager, academic), Chauhan, N. (Project manager, academic) & Rau, A.-L. (Project manager, academic)

    01.08.2131.12.25

    Project: Teaching

  8. DigiTaL - Teilprojekt 09: Digitale Lehr-/Lernformate zur Internationalisierung der Master- und Promotionsphase

    Abels, S. (Project manager, academic), Soltau, A. (Project manager, academic) & Sundermann, A. (Project staff)

    01.08.2131.12.25

    Project: Teaching

  9. Forschungskostenz. Stipendium Evely Araripe

    Kümmerer, K. (Project manager, academic)

    Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

    01.11.2131.03.22

    Project: Individual grant

  10. s4f: studies4future - Blog für Gesellschaftsgestaltung

    Möller, S. (Project manager, academic)

    01.11.2131.12.22

    Project: Transfer (Scientific Services)

  11. Move'n'Sense: Sense of place and mobility in cross-border contexts – essentialist and progressive perspectives

    Gottwald, S. (Project manager, academic) & Kołodyńska, I. (Project manager, academic)

    German Research Foundation

    05.11.2102.01.25

    Project: Research

  12. HyperSys: High Perfomance Analytical System

    Kümmerer, K. (Project manager, academic)

    Europäische Union

    15.11.2131.03.23

    Project: Research

  13. Postdoc Academy - 4. Kursdurchlauf

    Lang, D. J. (Project manager, academic)

    Robert-Bosch Foundation

    07.12.2107.06.22

    Project: Teaching

  14. Digidok: Das Versuchsprotokoll 2.0 - aus analog wird digital

    Abels, S. (Project manager, academic) & Stinken-Rösner, L. (Project staff)

    01.01.2231.12.22

    Project: Research

  15. FoLe-Diklusiv: Forschendes Lernen mit digitalen Medien als Beitrag zu erfolgreicher Inklusion

    Stinken-Rösner, L. (Project manager, academic) & Abels, S. (Project manager, academic)

    01.01.2228.02.23

    Project: Research

  16. Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie Niedersachsen

    Heinrichs, H. (Project manager, academic), Hartmann, E. (Project staff) & Redenius, P. (Project staff)

    Ministry of Science and Culture of the State of Lower Saxony

    01.01.2231.12.25

    Project: Research

  17. Met-Total: Plant Meta-Metabolomics – Development of an Unbiased Survey of Habitat-Dependent Metabolic Diversity (Met-Total)

    Wessjohann, L. (Project manager, academic) & Haider, S. (Project staff)

    01.01.2231.12.24

    Project: Research

  18. Towards robust detection of plant diversity & management in grasslands’ spectral signals

    Doktor, D. (Project manager, academic) & Haider, S. (Project staff)

    01.01.2231.12.24

    Project: Research

  19. TRACE: TRACE – TRAit-environment interactions driving elevational range expansions under ClimatE change

    Haider, S. (Project manager, academic) & Ratier Backes, A. (Project manager, academic)

    01.01.2231.12.23

    Project: Research

  20. Föderung wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs - Nachhaltige Chemie

    Kümmerer, K. (Project manager, academic)

    01.04.2231.03.26

    Project: Research

  21. BETA-FOR: Understorey plant assemblages and primary production

    von Oheimb, G. (Project manager, academic) & Fichtner, A. (Project manager, academic)

    01.05.2201.05.26

    Project: Research

  22. IRISS: The InteRnatIonal ecosystem for accelerating the transition to Safe-and-Sustainable-by-design materials, products and processes

    Kümmerer, K. (Project manager, academic), Olsson, O. (Project manager, academic) & Apel, C. (Project staff)

    01.06.2231.05.25

    Project: Research

  23. TransPharm: Transforming into a sustainable European pharmaceutical sector

    Kümmerer, K. (Project manager, academic) & Olsson, O. (Project manager, academic)

    01.06.2231.05.26

    Project: Research

  24. SPONSORs Zertifikats

    Schaltegger, S. (Project manager, academic), Schmitt, C. (Coordination) & Sachs, B. (Project staff)

    01.07.2230.06.24

    Project: Transfer (professional training)

  25. Transformations:Räume für zukunftsorientiertes Lernen

    Japsen, A. (Coordination), Meier, N. (Coordination), Wenzel, M. (Project manager, academic), Farny, S. (Project manager, academic), Schmidt, T. (Project manager, academic) & Cnossen, B. (Project manager, academic)

    01.07.2231.12.23

    Project: Other

  26. GrünlandVielfalt: Ökologische und gesellschaftliche Grünland-Transformation in der Ise-Niederung"

    Petersen-Schlapkohl, U. (Project manager, academic), Temperton, V. (Partner) & Ernst, L. M. (Project staff)

    01.10.22 → …

    Project: Research

  27. KuNaH: Hochschulen in Gesellschaft – Realexperimente transformativer Lern- und Forschungsprozesse für eine Kultur der Nachhaltigkeit an Hochschulen: Teilprojekt D - Begleitung Realexperimente und Synthese

    Schaltegger, S. (Project manager, academic), Lang, D. J. (Partner), Potthast, T. (Coordination), Singer-Brodowski, M. (Partner), Nölting, B. (Partner), Parodi, O. (Partner) & Scheiding, C. (Project staff)

    01.10.2230.09.25

    Project: Research

  28. DAS: Studienpfad für den Beruf als kommunale*r Klimamanager*in

    Hörisch, J. (Project manager, academic), Möller, S. (Project staff) & Redenius, P. (Project staff)

    01.10.2231.03.25

    Project: Research

  29. Circular EURO 2024

    Süßenbach, J. (Project manager, academic), Schröder, S. (Project staff), Greve, S. (Project staff) & Abels, S. (Project staff)

    25.10.2230.06.25

    Project: Research

  30. CCEHN: Climate Change & Early Humans in the North

    Urban, B. (Project manager, academic)

    01.11.2231.10.25

    Project: Research

  31. Account4GreenEco

    Schaltegger, S. (Project manager, academic)

    01.12.2230.11.25

    Project: Other

  32. FDS-G: Fühlen Denken Sprechen in der Grundschule - Fortbildung zur durchgängigen inhaltsorientierten Sprachförderung für alle Betreuungspersonen - Teilprojekt Emotionsentwicklung

    Salisch, M. (Project manager, academic), Voltmer, K. (Project manager, academic), Koch, K. (Partner), Langlotz, M. (Partner) & Hormann, O. (Partner)

    01.12.2230.11.25

    Project: Research

  33. TreeDi: Tree Diversity Interactions: The role of tree-tree interactions in local neighbourhoods in Chinese subtropical forests; P2: Complementarity through trait variation

    Haider, S. (Project manager, academic), Harpole, W. S. (Project manager, academic), Ma, Z. (Project manager, academic) & Yang, B. (Project manager, academic)

    01.12.2231.05.27

    Project: Research

  34. TreeDi: Tree Diversity Interactions (TreeDi): The role of tree-tree interactions in local neighbourhoods in Chinese subtropical forests; P1: Spatial above- and belowground complementarity

    von Oheimb, G. (Project manager, academic), Fichtner, A. (Project manager, academic), Liu, X. (Project manager, academic), Ma, K. (Project manager, academic) & Bu, W. (Project manager, academic)

    01.12.2231.05.27

    Project: Research

  35. PlanFoL: Auf die Planung kommt es an (PlanFoL)

    Abels, S. (Project manager, academic) & Hofer, E. (Project manager, academic)

    01.01.2330.06.26

    Project: Research

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