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Transdisciplinary projects

Transdisciplinary Teaching at Leuphana

Transdisciplinary teaching at Leuphana brings together researchers, students, and external stakeholders – such as government agencies, companies, and NGOs – in a shared learning and development process. Over the course of one to two semesters, everyone works together on real-world, complex sustainability challenges. The focus is not on a predetermined outcome, but rather on open-ended, process-oriented collaboration: First, the problem is thoroughly analyzed and understood; then, scenarios and courses of action are developed collaboratively. Diverse values, perspectives, and power dynamics are deliberately incorporated so that the project can operate in an inclusive and solution-oriented manner across disciplinary boundaries.

In the process, students learn the methodological foundations of knowledge integration and collaborative design. They put their theoretical knowledge into practice and benefit from the experiences of the industry partners. These partners receive innovative ideas, well-founded recommendations for action, and creative solutions – the development of which they often lack the time for in their day-to-day work.

Transdisciplinary education is an integral part of all relevant sustainability-oriented degree programs:

Bachelor's degree programs

Master's degree programs

In these projects, students take on multiple roles: They serve as change agents for sustainable development, develop practical and creative expertise, share knowledge in real-world contexts, address contradictions, drive innovation, and act as ambassadors for Leuphana’s culture of sustainability in action.

New infrastructure “Collaborative Research with Societal Impact”

Since September 2026, the new “Collaborative Research with Societal Impact” infrastructure has been supporting projects through the transdisciplinary case study database in PubData. In cooperation with the Department of Software Development, E-Science, and Media Management at Leuphana’s Media and Information Center, students are provided with quality-assured publication and learning opportunities. Accompanying training courses teach skills in scholarly publishing, research data management, open science, open educational resources, copyright, and licensing, enabling students to produce and publish results in accordance with the principles of good scholarly practice and to reuse them to help solve long-term societal challenges.

Real-World Examples

  1. Real-world lab Nolte: Long-standing collaboration with Brauhaus Nolte on sustainable urban and neighborhood development in Neu Hagen as part of bachelor’s and master’s TD projects.
  2. Collaboration with the Lüneburg District on the “Biosphere.Regional-Sustainable” (Bio.Re‑Na) project and the student subproject “Sustainable Municipal Development” as part of bachelor’s and master’s thesis projects.
  3. Collaboration with the district and the city of Lüneburg on the project “StudiKommKlima: Study Pathway for a Career as a Municipal Climate Manager” to plan and implement municipal climate adaptation measures in Master-TD projects.