COPERNICUS Alliance

A movement of French researchers invented "Camille Noûs", an imaginary scientific author intended to embody the collective dimension of scientific research. His creation seeks to underline that the sense of collective work has been devalued and forgotten during the last decades in academia, through various neoliberal research policies that prioritize competition over cooperation, and thereby favor individualism at all levels. Their manifesto points out important dimensions of research sustainability.

The book "Developing Sustainability Competences Through Pedagogical Approaches. Experiences from International Case Studies" edited by Prof. Rodrigo Lozano and Dr. Maria Barreiro-Gen (both University of Gävle) integrates practice-based original research on how sustainability is incorporated in curricula, the competences being developed, and the pedagogical approaches being used to develop the competences.

The face mask has become part of our daily attire and most likely will continue to be so for some time as the main measure of protection against COVID-19. Its use has led to a considerable increase consumption and production of plastic and other materials, with a serious negative impact on the environment. The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) has joined forces with two Basque companies to give a second life to used masks.

The pandemic has made it abundantly clear: The gravest threats we face today transcend national boundaries, are inextricably linked, and demand joint, knowledge-based actions in response. The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern and its longstanding partners have refined an effective and transformative approach to help solve current sustainability crises and train the next generation of change agents. In a policy brief (available in English and German) they outline lessons from CDE’s long-term experience in tackling shared challenges and addressing inequalities through inclusive, globe-spanning research and education.

On 4 February 2021, the cross-faculty Institute for Sustainable Development and Learning at Leuphana University Lüneburg (ISDL) hosted Distinguished Professor of Education Heila Lotz-Sisitka from Rhodes University to speak at its inaugural dialogue series on ESD for 2030. The dialogue mobilized members from education and sustainability learning communities from around the world focusing on the theme "Building forward better through ESD for 2030: The next chapter for sustainability learning" to generate conversation on the role of the new framework in recovery and reconstruction from the pandemic.

As the first university in Austria the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna recently published a Sustainability Report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. The report focuses on five areas: teaching, research, exchange with society as well as operations and organizational culture in the context of sustainability. The full sustainability report is available online (in German). 

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The Global Universities and Colleges Climate Letter is now official partner to the UNFCCC Race to Zero. As a proud signatory of the Global Climate Letter the CA encourages its members and friends to sign up and be part of the Race to Zero. The aim is to get as many networks and institutions as possible on board in order to showcase the commitments towards the attainment of SDG 4 (Education) and 13 (Climate Change). 

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Researchers at the Wuppertal Institute, Leuphana University of Lüneburg and Freie Universität of Berlin developed a handbook for the promotion of transformative and transdisciplinary competences within the framework of a new learning format called "Transformative Innovation Lab".

The University of Bern has set itself the goal of becoming a climate-neutral institution by 2025 in all areas in which it has direct influence. This ambitious goal is not only a necessity for the University of Bern due to continuing unchecked global warming, but also a question of credibility, as it is one of the world’s most acclaimed research institutions in climate change research. Furthermore, in its Strategy 2021, the University of Bern commits to integrating sustainability as an interdisciplinary issue in all areas of the university and promoting the respectful use of ecological, economic and social resources.

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The CA is an official partner of the International Transdisciplinarity (ITD) Conference “Creating spaces and cultivating mindsets for learning and experimentation”. The #itdconf2021 will take place online from 13-17 September 2021 and we invite CA members to attend! The conference aims to provide a platform for engagement, discussion, and action that links transdisciplinary research, learning, and practice. It is co-organized by the Transdisciplinarity Lab (TdLab), ETH Zurich, and the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net) of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. The Call for Contributions will open in January 2021.

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The University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) adheres to the Basque Country Platform against Food Waste. It has signed up to the Platform’s commitment to fight food waste and progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 12 ("Sustainable consumption and production").

How to teach sustainability in a disciplinary university landscape and reach students from all disciplines? The University of Graz addresses this common dilemma with a university-wide ”Basic Module”: Six optional introductory courses deal with interdisciplinary topics and provide an orientation, especially for young people at the start of their studies. Initiated by the RCE Graz-Styria, recently a new course dedicated to ”Sustainable Development” was added to the Basic Module, tailor-made for beginners.

Since the pandemic crisis, Higher Education Institutions have adopted a more agile approach by streamlining their processes for evaluations and exams. As experience and knowledge increases, resistance to digital technology diminishes and at the same time leads to a pedagogical transformation of Higher Education Institutions which also affects sustainability issues.

In the second edition of its report on actions towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, CRUE (Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities) reflects on its commitment to the SDGs through implementation of dedicated conferences, debate sessions, workshops, and other initiatives. The Annual Report 2019 summarizes and analyses activities of the CRUE network and different working groups at Spanish Universities, discussing how they fostered the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at national and international levels.

OnTL is a new Erasmus+ project focusing on exploring the possibilities and limitations of transformative and online learning. One of the key roles of the CA in the project is to convene a group of experimenters willing to try out and reflect on approaches and methods of transformative learning in a virtual environment. We are looking for volunteer higher education educators to take part in a program of experiments, broadly in the time-frame January-September 2021. We expect this to be a fun and deep learning experience – do you want to join the group?

Since 2018, the working group “critical discourse on excellence” – consisting of members of intermediary and professorial staff originally at the University of Bern but now also at other Swiss HEIs – has been discussing the scientific practices we consider appropriate for achieving “academic excellence”. From this nucleus, an initiative emerged and is gaining momentum: the Better Science Initiative. COPERNICUS Alliance members are invited to sign the initiative and check on the programme of an upcoming online conference (20-21 November 2020).

Creating a space for exchange, reflection, new ideas, and community building for transdisciplinary research tdAcademy is a platform that seeks to assess the current state of transdisciplinary research and provide capacity-building opportunities for researchers in the field. At the same time, it aims to strengthen its global research community. These are the main ideas of the new tdAcademy project, launched in June 2020 by the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), the Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft from the TU Berlin, and the Oeko-Institut. After its initiation, tdAcademy will soon start its guests and fellowship program.

Transforming learning to transform societies towards sustainability is the aim of the ESD for 2030 framework. This roadmap for ESD in 2020-2030 will be officially launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD taking place on 17-19 May 2021, in Berlin, Germany. In the lead-up to the World Conference, UNESCO hosts a series of ESD online workshops in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, and with the German Commission for UNESCO as advisory partner. The discussions and results from the series of online workshops will be used to further develop the conference program and help shape the agenda in Berlin next year. 

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