Fighting climate change will require far-reaching measures in the future. At the University of Erfurt, we are currently planning on establishing the Institute for Planetary Health Behavior (working title), which will focus on the cause and potential combatant of climate change — humans and their behaviour. The term planetary health is understood to mean the consequences for humans and nature that result from human intervention in nature. Our scientific work is going to focus on the societal, political and individual level and initiate a transformation towards better planetary and human health: because our health depends on a healthy planet.
The institute is currently being founded and, according to the current planning status, brings together scientists from health communication (Prof. Cornelia Betsch und Dr. Mirjam Jenny), social, organizational and economic psychology (Prof. Tilmann Betsch), educational research (Prof. Johannes Bauer), empirical social research (Prof. Guido Mehlkop) and communication science (Prof. Dr. Fabian Prochazka). The professional spectrum will be expanded in the future.
This institute will build bridges to scientific institutions that conduct scientific and biomedical research on climate and health, and to alliances that place climate and health protection on a political level. We want to provide behavioral science tools and new concepts for science communication and journalism as well as education to contribute to a healthy future.
With the Thuringian Research Award, the Free State has been honouring top scientific achievements of Thuringian universities and non-university research institutions once a year since 1995. In 2022, the award in the category "Applied Research" goes to Prof. Dr. Cornelia Betsch and her team for the project: "Understanding and Changing Infection Protection Behaviour".
Herrenhausen Conference
"Climate crisis and systemic risks: Lessons Learned from COVID-19"
June 21-23, 2023
At this conference we want to debate if the systemic risk awareness gained by COVID-19 is transferable to systemic climate risks and vice versa? and, what are the lessons learned in both directions and what conclusions can be drawn?
Cornelia Betsch and Mirjam Jenny are co-organizing the conference. The Steering Committee also consists of Markus Reichstein (Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena), Kristie Ebi (Center for Health and the Global Environment, University of Washington, USA), Dorothea Frank (Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena), Debarati Guha-Sapir (University of Louvain, Belgium; previously Director CRED, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters), Ilan Noy (University of Wellington, New Zeeland), Reinhard Mechler (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria), Ann-Sophie Stevance (International Science Council, Paris)
The German Psychology Prize 2021 goes to Prof. Cornelia Betsch for her outstanding research on the behavior and perception of the population during the corona pandemic. Due to the pandemic situation, the ceremony planned for April 1, 2022 in Berlin had to be postponed to late summer. On the planned day of the ceremony, the supporting program with scientific lectures took place virtually.
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University of Erfurt (Campus)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt
