Sustainability Research- Objectives & Characterstics

Leuphana University Lüneburg already has a strong and well-established research profile in sustainability sciences as a field within the various branches and disciplines of the university. After filling up to nine new professorial positions, Leuphana will have a total of about 25 professors who serve the academic research focus, covering branches of sustainability oriented economics, law, planning, and political sciences, as well as ecology, environmental chemistry and environmental communication. On account of their academic background as well as their current or previous research, an additional number of professors from business psychology, the natural sciences, engineering and computer science also contribute to the initiative.

The distinctive character of the research at Leuphana rests in essence on its clear sustainability orientation and transdisciplinarity, as well as on its balance between the humanities and the natural sciences.  These unique characteristics form a promising basis for further growth in the field.

A competitive analysis among German-speaking universities with a presence in the environmental and sustainability sciences shows the following strengths at Leuphana University Lüneburg as the basis for its further development:

1. Leuphana University Lüneburg has an unusually wide range of sustainability research at its disposal, which is required for any thorough implementation of transdisciplinary sustainability research.
   
   
2. The coexistence of both the natural and the social sciences dedicated to sustainability and their joint deployment in a research focus has, even internationally, so far existed only to a limited extent.
   
   
3. Leuphana university lüneburg is unique for focusing comprehensively on agents as the basic research principle for sustainability sciences.
   
   
4. Leuphana University Lüneburg is already well established today on account of its concrete application in research practices of inter- and transdisciplinary methods.
   
   
5. Research and its transfer to applications as well as the existing course offerings in the sustainability sciences are already today distinguishing features of Leuphana University Lüneburg

On the basis of these already existing strengths, the academic initiative on sustainability research will be expanded to more distinctly represent Leuphana’s research fields internationally in the future. In the coming years Leuphana will build on the existing basis to develop more third-party funded projects, high quality publications and larger number of doctoral degrees. As part of the European Unions large-scale project “Innovation Incubator Lüneburg,” more employment opportunities in the Lüneburg region will be created and the region’s research potential (as defined by the Lisbon strategy) strengthened.

The current gaps in research that result from a lack of clarity among German-speaking universities about their sustainability orientation can be filled by the research program of the academic initiative on sustainability research by systematically investigating fundamental topics in the academic mission of “sustainability.” This requires placing the action oriented research goals first, which necessitates identifying the central problems of sustainability, while formulating and analyzing policy and organizational recommendations from a transdisciplinary point of view. On account of their inherent complexity, solving environmental and sustainability problems relevant to our life world requires the collaboration of different academic disciplines.

In the context of a transdisciplinary cooperation, the academic implementation of a research program can be accomplished by including two fundamental research perspectives and experts and different stakeholders from the practical world: a humanities and natural science/technical perspective. The structural implementation of the initiative is represented in the graph.