Spring Campus 2017
University Alliance for Sustainability: Spring Campus 2017 “Societal Transformation to Sustainability: Universities as Pacesetters?“
From March 27-31 Freie Universität will host the second Spring Campus event of the University Alliance for Sustainability on the topic “Societal Transformation to Sustainability: Universities as Pacesetters?”
Following a whole institution approach, the Spring Campus brings together researchers, management staff, as well as PhD candidates and students to contribute to a lively discussion of the event’s topic.
Coming from different cultural and professional backgrounds, participants will also share experiences on how international networks can connect communities and trigger engagement in sustainability. In this way the Alliance hopes to contribute to spreading innovative ideas, interesting research and sustainable campus solutions across the globe and to spark extended dialogue between all stakeholders on campus and beyond.
Program Design
A complete overview of the conference program is available in our Spring Campus Guide.
The Opening Day invites all participants of the Spring Campus to attend. It features keynote speeches from renowned experts as well as presentations from representatives from UAS partner universities.
We are delighted to announce contributions from Jürgen Trittin (former German Federal Minister for the Environment), Hilligje van’t Land (IAU), Winfried Kraus (BMBF) and Prof. Eran Feitelson (HUJI).
The talks will be followed by a facilitated discussion on the overall topic, elaborating on the question of the relevance of universities in the societal transformation to sustainability.
On Tuesday, March 28 and Wednesday, March 29 we will continue with a program of four parallel research and management workshops. For further information download the Spring Campus Guide.
Workshop I: “Governing by Numbers - The Role of Indicators, Data and Empirical Evidence in the Political Transformation to Sustainability” chaired by Prof. Philipp Lepenies (FUB)
Workshop II: “Managing Responsibility of Research at Universities” chaired by Dr. Klaus Jacob (FUB)
Workshop III: “Climate Change in Cities: Mitigation and Adaptation” chaired by Prof. Sahar Sodoudi (FUB)
Workshop IV: "Feasible or Illusion: Economic Globalization and Decarbonization?" chaired by Prof. Kurt Hübner (UBC), Dr. Achim Brunnengräber (FUB)
Workshop V: “Participation as Trigger for Committed University Communities” chaired by Andreas Wanke, Katrin Risch (FUB)
Additionally, a PhD Workshop will complete the Spring Campus with a two-day meeting from Thursday to Friday, March 30-31.
PhD Workshop: "Climate Policies after Paris", chaired by Prof. Kurt Hübner (UBC)
Daily plenary sessions from 9:00 to 10:30 with key notes on overarching topics will give you the opportunity to meet and discuss with all conference participants. On Tuesday the session will deal with the topic “German Energy Transition”, with contributions from Dr. Dörte Ohlhorst, Prof. Catherine Mitchell, Dr. Kerstin Tews, facilitated by Dr. Jan Beermann. A second session on Wednesday morning will discuss “Food for Thought: Global Food Chains and the Universities' contribution to Sustainable Food Systems” chaired by Prof. Gülay Çağlar.
During the previous Spring Campus in 2016 more than 120 researchers, practitioners and students from 19 universities, 8 institutes and 11 different countries contributed to the international sustainability discourse. We look forward to welcoming participants from all over the world to once again critically reflect on the role of universities as societal actors and their integral function for the great transformation.
A complete conference documentation is available in the UAS Pool.