German Sustainability Science Summit 2021

On 8 and 9 July 2021, the German Sustainability Science Summit 2021 took place for the first time as an interactive online event. The conference continued the series of German Future Earth Summits organised by the German Committee Future Earth (Deutsches Komitee für Nachhaltigkeitsforschung, DKN) and provided a platform for exchange on new scientific findings and research needs in the field of sustainability research.

Around 500 participants from all over the world, most of them based in Germany, had registered for the online event and participated spread over two days. About 150 participants acted as hosts and speakers of the 30 different summit sessions. The summit was preceded by an early-career researcher workshop on opportunities and challenges for early-career scientists in inter- and trans-disciplinary sustainability science.

One important item on the summit program was the discussion of the DKN position paper on central topic areas and open research questions in sustainability research, which was presented by the committee and will now be further developed. Most of the other summit sessions were proposed and set up in response to an open call for session proposals issued in spring 2021. In addition to the sessions with presentations and discussions, the online conference platform enabled networking via various innovative tools.

The DKN would like to thank all participants for their valuable contributions and the fruitful discussions. Please stay tuned for more information on the summit and on follow-up activities.

For more information about the German Sustainability Science Summit 2021 please visit here.