The Leuphana Transformation Lab: A space for interdisciplinary research on transformation
2026-04-29 How can we better understand social, environmental, and technological transformations? And how can research help us shape the future responsibly in ways that rekindle our capacity for future-oriented thinking? The Leuphana Transformation Lab develops new approaches to engaging, across and beyond disciplines, with the challenges of the present.
In October 2025, Leuphana successfully launched the university-wide structural development program “Embracing Transformation.” With this program, the university strengthens its national and international standing as a research university and sharpens its profile in addressing the challenges of contemporary society. At its core lies an analytical, conceptual, and methodological engagement with transformation.
Within the framework of “Embracing Transformation,” Leuphana has established the Transformation Lab as a central, cross-faculty institution dedicated to researching transformation processes and their social, ecological, and technological dimensions. Its aim is to develop an independent school of thought that understands transformation as a multi-layered concept, grounded in inter and transdisciplinary, reflexive research. In doing so, the Lab fosters collaboration between academia, the arts, and society, while pushing current research boundaries and fostering international partnerships.
By consolidating activities from the university’s key subject areas and psychology as a hub science, the Lab promotes university-wide networking and creates synergies among departments, initiatives, and existing structures. At the same time, it expands connections with other labs and researchers working on transformation processes. A central component is the doctoral program “Embracing Transformation,” which is housed within the Lab. More than 40 doctoral researchers from around the world are given the opportunity to develop their profiles in transformation research and to become part of a global discourse.
The Lab conducts research across different thematic fields, which are brought together through shared conceptual and terminological work. Particular emphasis is placed on questions around the diverse epistemologies of transformation, the relationship between disruption and transformation, and the spatial and temporal dimensions of transformation. The Lab develops and tests new research methods and communication formats that incorporate artistic and design-based processes, thereby enabling innovative forms of knowledge production and actively shaping transformation processes. In this way, it integrates the contributions of researchers and practitioners into a multifaceted body of knowledge on transformation for 21st-century society.
The Transformation Lab opens with the event series ‘Transformation Dialogues,’ bringing together international guests to raise and discuss key conceptual and terminological questions about transformation. The first Dialogue will take place on May 6, 2026, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the central building of Leuphana.
The Transformation Lab provides important impetus for innovative and responsible transformation research. Its findings are systematically transferred into teaching, continuing education, as well as into societal and economic practice.