Networking event for the funding call ‘Climate Change, Justice, Society: Just Transition’

EcoQuest is a digital education platform for elementary school students that teaches sustainability and social responsibility through playful, action-oriented learning formats. The focus is on how children can not only acquire knowledge about social and environmental challenges but also become active shapers of a sustainable future. For this call for proposals, we are particularly interested in research questions at the intersection of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), climate communication, self-efficacy, and just transition. Through EcoQuest, innovative educational approaches can be developed, tested, and scientifically monitored in school settings. We are seeking partners from the fields of educational, transformation, or environmental psychology research who would like to collaborate on researching future-oriented skills and social participation among young people.

We operate as a center of expertise at three locations in Lower Saxony and welcome contacts, project inquiries, and discussions about project ideas related to our areas of focus: • Sustainable land use: carbon farming, soil life, nutrient cycles, agroforestry, etc. • Biochar: Applications in agriculture and industry, production, regional material cycles • Recycling and processing of residual materials • The role of bioplastics in the development of value chains • Energy use of biomass: e.g., biogas, biofuels, pyrolysis products, wood gas

pecanode GmbH is a service provider specializing in meteorology and local climatology, based in Goslar, Lower Saxony. Our expertise lies in the analysis of meteorological stressors such as heat stress, wind comfort, UV radiation, and other weather-related health risks. We have experience in conducting urban climate and vulnerability analyses, which we have already successfully applied in various municipal projects and research initiatives. When collaborating with you, we offer to contribute our meteorological expertise to the project so that, together, we can identify increased stressors resulting from climate change and assess the climatic effectiveness of potential adaptation measures. We would be happy to discuss potential project ideas with you.

The Green Office at TU Braunschweig is the university’s sustainability office. As a transdisciplinary hub, we embed sustainability and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) holistically within the higher education sector. As an ideal practical partner, we combine strong networking and service expertise: we support the administration, facilitate the development of sustainable teaching, advise researchers on research grant applications, and offer educational programmes for students. We promote cross-departmental collaboration, create synergies on campus and build strategic bridges with external partners. In doing so, it is particularly important to us to give equal consideration to all three dimensions of sustainability – environmental, economic and social. We welcome enquiries about collaboration! Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Climate change is affecting municipalities at a time of tight budgets and limited political will. The planned real-world laboratory in Göttingen on equitable heat adaptation is based on the premise that climate adaptation cannot be achieved through technology, water, and green spaces alone, but instead requires integrating these elements with existing social infrastructure, such as neighborhood centers, welfare organizations, sports clubs, and civil society initiatives. These entities bring trust, networks, and the capacity for self-organization—elements that have rarely been considered part of municipal climate adaptation efforts until now. At the Göttingen real-world lab, we are working together with the local government and civil society to develop new, solidarity-based, equitable, and cost-effective approaches to heat adaptation. Leon Caspari Sustainable Urban Development at the City of Göttingen https://www.goettingen.de/buergerservice/personen/l-caspari-900003074-25480.html Dr. Jannik Schritt Institute of Ethnology at Georg-August University of Göttingen https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/dr.+jannik+schritt/210466.html

The Institute for Ethics, History, and Philosophy of Medicine at MHH has been working for several years on issues at the intersection of health care and climate change, or “planetary health.” Our research focuses on the ethical issues(“conflicts of interest”) that arise in relation to medical care and environmental sustainability. Our work to date has addressed the role of healthcare professionals, as well as climate change and research ethics. We conduct ethical and conceptual research, qualitative and quantitative social research, and systematic reviews. I am happy to serve as a point of contact for potential initiatives at the intersection of climate change and health.

The August-Wilhelm Scheer Institute (AWSI), Center for Digital GreenTech, develops AI- and data-driven methods to support a just and evidence-based climate transformation. The focus is on scalable analyses of heterogeneous environmental, infrastructure, and social data (e.g., sensor technology, bioacoustics, Earth observation) to shed light on the interactions between climate change, ecosystems, and societal systems. AWSI integrates data-driven models, digital twins, and interoperable data spaces (FAIR, semantically standardized) to make the impacts of transformation measures measurable and to support decision-making processes. Contributions address monitoring, resilience assessment, and optimization of climate-relevant infrastructure (e.g., water, bioeconomy, circular economy), taking into account sustainability, equity, and practical feasibility in real-world laboratories and in collaboration with industry partners.

In line with our vision, “Inspire and Drive Sustainability,” we, as an engineering firm specializing in climate change management, have focused our work on the areas of sustainable development and addressing the challenges of climate change. A key focus of our work is developing climate adaptation strategies for municipalities, cities, and counties. We’d be happy to contribute our expertise in the following areas, among others, and look forward to discussing project ideas and more: tailored evaluation and processing of climate data, hydroclimatological analyses and modeling, (participatory) climate risk and vulnerability analyses, as well as action planning, the design of co-creative processes, facilitation, and process support (including in the context of ESD).

beWirken lab is dedicated to sustainable learning and the active participation of children and young people, particularly when it comes to climate change, justice, and society. As a nonprofit limited liability company (GmbH), we are committed to supporting younger audiences and strive to make complex (climate-related) topics tangible and understandable. As an agency, knowledge transfer and science communication are just as central to our mission as specific programs focused on education or labor market development.