ITAS at the German Future Earth Summit

The second "German Future Earth Summit" was held in Berlin on 28 and 29 January 2016 in the context of the Future Earth Program.

Following an invitation of the German DKN Future Earth Committee, almost 300 participants, most of them with a scientific background, discussed what has been achieved so far, the next steps, and the perspectives for the German sustainability research in an international context. The focus was on conceptual and methodical questions which are implied in concepts like integrative research and modelling, inter- and transdisciplinarity, co-design, and co-production.

ITAS was strongly represented at the summit. Armin Grunwald, member of the DKN and the Science Committee of Future Earth International, was one of the co-organizers of the summit and responsible for the session "Science-Society Interface".

On the eve of the conference, Stefan Böschen took part in the panel discussion "Pathways to Sustainability: Dealing with Uncertainty". The ITAS colleagues Jürgen Kopfmüller and Markus Winkelmann were involved in the organization and realization of a World Café on the topic "Reflection of Consequences in Research Processes" and several poster presentations.

Andreas Seebacher presented a poster on the ITAS project District Future – Urban Lab outlining the transformation of an existing urban quarter towards sustainability. The Urban Transition Lab 131 was also represented with a poster and a brochure and introduced by Colette Waitz. Kaidi Tamm presented the Karlsruhe School of Sustainability as an example for education at the interface between science and society. Together with Katja Saar, she was also responsible for the "photo box of sustainability" which gave visitors the opportunity to reflect on their role as scientists in sustainability processes and sketch their view on sustainability, take pictures, or share it online. (08.02.2016)

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