Project description

Universities, as places where future decision-makers are trained and at the same time as (discourse) spaces, play a key role in the social transformation process as a testing ground for solutions for greater sustainability. Against this background, a cooperation of four Thuringian universities as part of the research project “KLIMA-Netzwerk für mehr Nachhaltigkeit in Thüringen” will bundle the respective competences of the universities, make them mutually available in the network and further develop them based on a division of labour.

Four subprojects will be implemented as part of the project. In its subproject "Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)", the University of Erfurt will look at exemplary transformative teaching-learning arrangements (LLA), evaluate their transformative effectiveness and develop best-practice events (KLIMA.LLA). In a second subproject, Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences is dedicated to the implementation of a climate-friendly campus, addressing in particular the energy and resource flows at universities. Following on from this, Erfurt University of Applied Sciences is also working on the implementation of a climate-friendly campus in a third subproject focussing on mobility and biodiversity. At Ilmenau University of Technology, a sustainability communication centre (ANK) will be established in a fourth subproject to support the mutual transfer of project results within the network and to the region.

In the KLIMA network, the pilot projects carried out at each of the four locations are publicised to the other participants and adapted to the respective universities so that the results achieved can have an impact across universities through the network. The respective projects are not limited to the universities, but integrate stakeholders from administration, business and civil society and thus develop social impact in the region and beyond. Teaching, research and transfer go hand in hand and aim to change the participating universities and the region towards greater sustainability.

Institutionalisation steps and incentive mechanisms ensure the long-term anchoring of the transformation process in the respective universities - even beyond the funding period.