KIT supports new Transformation Center

The successful urban transition lab “District Future – Urban Lab” plans to establish a “Transformation Center for Sustainable Futures and Cultural Change” in Karlsruhe. The project is funded by the KIT with 150.000 euros in the next year.

Zukunftsraum des Reallabors 131: KIT findet Stadt — In front of the Future Space, the heart of the urban transition lab (Photo: Behrendt / KIT)

Closely connecting science and society – this is exactly what the “Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainable Futures and Cultural Change” (short: KAT) is about. The new project will be established at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology within the next years.

The KAT will be based on the two award-winning ITAS projects “District Future – Urban Lab” and “Urban Transition Lab 131”, which focus on transformative and transdisciplinary research – with a spatial focus on the Oststadt of Karlsruhe.

The KAT aims to generate knowledge and contribute to research on the “great transformation”, which is strongly recommended by the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). The goal is to support the long-term process of cultural change towards sustainable future by transforming our society – technically, socially and institutionally.

The follow-up funding allows the research project “District Future” to continue its work. Also, the “Future Space for Sustainability and Science”, which opened in 2015 and has become the spatial and communicative “heart” of the real-world lab, can be continued. (14.12.2017)

Further links and information:

Website of the District Future – Urban Lab
Project description of the Urban Transition Lab 131
WBGU Flagship Report World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability