Science for a sustainable society
A year ago, UNESCO launched the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development. ITAS sustainability expert Jürgen Kopfmüller and other researchers now observe an increasing number of scientific organizations that want to advance the transformation and become more sustainable themselves. This is also due to the current global political situation, which makes it necessary for science to position itself in terms of independence and responsibility.
Together with 13 co-authors from eleven research institutions in Germany and Switzerland, Kopfmüller has now presented an impulse paper that addresses universities as well as non-university research institutions and independent institutes.
The paper examines the role of science organizations in relation to
a) society with its sustainability challenges,
b) their own position and options within the scientific system, and
c) a critical reflection on their own organization and possible transformation paths.
According to Kopfmüller and his co-authors, every organization must eventually find its own way. To support this process, researchers formulate questions that science organizations should ask themselves and also provide initial answers: What are their social goals and purposes? How can they further develop the scientific system to promote a sustainability transformation? And how must they transform themselves as an organization? (01.09.2025)
Bibliographic data:
Nölting, B.; Kopfmüller, J.; Zimmermann, A. B.; Bernert, P.; Barth, M.; Becker, S.; Fischer, D.; Molitor, H.; Pechlaner, H.; Schneider, F.; Schweizer, P.-J.; Stamm, C.; Wäger, P.; Wilhelm, R.
Wissenschaftsorganisationen als Impulsgeber einer Nachhaltigkeitstransformation.
2025. GAIA, 34 (2), 83–87. doi.org/10.14512/gaia.34.2.4