The project seeks to provide access to the outcomes of transdisciplinary global change research on relevant issues such as climate change, the decline of biodiversity or the nutrition of the world for a broad public audience. It will be accomplished in cooperation with the library of the Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

Global change poses a unique and in many cases menacing process of transformation which re-shapes the relation of humanity to its natural livelihood. In search of a »Social Contract for Sustainability« (as the report of the German Advisory Council on Global Environmental Change from 2011 is called, http://www.wbgu.de/en/flagship-reports/fr-2011-a-social-contract) new pathways are required. In order to explore such pathways, technologies and systems of communication need to be designed in ways that enable external, non-scientific actors to take advantages from scientifically generated knowledge. The project »Knowledge Platform on Global Change Research« contributes to this endeavor by assembling a knowledge platform on Global Change issues that addresses scientists, students, and societal stakeholders from outside the university system. At the heart of the project is the development and implementation of an online-platform which will offer thematic dossiers on key issues, tutorials and e-learning opportunities, an annotated database of relevant academic literature and a networking and contact system with experts in the fields. These platform components will be closely linked to the further development of the thematic inventory of the university library in Lüneburg.