Steering Committee

“Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of the present and the future, and one that we can only meet with the joint effort of science and society. Every day, interdisciplinary climate research shows us how crucial a role research and science play in societal development. Our Ministry’s aim for the ZKfN is to pool all the relevant expertise in Lower Saxony, to create momentum through our varied calls for proposals and inspire ideas from the scientific community, and to encourage cooperation with non-academic partners.”

“ ‘Spirits that I’ve summoned my commands ignore’ – Goethe’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice captures in words what more and more people are now realising. Climate change is here. For more than 50 years, science has been warning us with increasing urgency of the impacts of this change. At this point, the eleventh hour has passed. We have upset the system’s fragile balance and now can only hope to ward off some of the worst-case scenarios. I am glad to be a part of the ZKfN's Steering Committee. It is close to my heart that we shape our research projects with a view to how we can share their topics and results with the general public. ‘From knowledge to action’ has to be the motto when it comes to climate protection and adaptation.”

“The climate crisis and its impact pose the biggest threat of our time for humanity. It is imperative that we exhaust every possibility to identify strategies for climate protection and resilience and, more to the point, implement those strategies. I look forward to contributing my experience – in innovation and active nature conservation, as well as from my work with universities – to the Steering Committee.”

“The climate crisis has long since become a reality. Our task now is to join forces and devote all our energy to climate protection and adaptive measures. On the Steering Committee, I am committed to bringing research and practice together.”

“The necessary socio-ecological transformation must take place under enormous time pressure. Close coordination between science, business, civil society and politics can help to address open questions and research needs more quickly and efficiently.”

“One of the major political and social challenges is to move from planning to action. With my work on the steering committee, I would like to contribute to ensuring that science communication, transdisciplinary collaboration and application orientation have a prominent place in the work of the ZKfN.”