About the doctoral centre
In view of global challenges such as climate and environmental protection, securing the supply of energy and water, innovations in key technologies, international competitiveness or questions of justice, the inter- and transdisciplinary field of sustainability science has established itself worldwide. The range of topics covered documents the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations and widely recognized. Trans- and interdisciplinary forms of research have established themselves under the term of sustainability sciences, which share an orientation towards the goals of sustainable development. In this context, the need has arisen from various directions to view the search for solutions in the engineering and natural sciences more strongly against the background of the social embedding of technology. For example, the analysis of innovation processes and the diffusion of technology has clearly demonstrated the recognition of the "social shaping of technology".
For this reason, the sustainability sciences integrate several branches of science and research in order to gain insights for social, socio-economic, engineering (or technical) and natural science challenges. A key requirement here is not to view individual problems from disciplinary perspectives. Only this integrated view of the problems to be worked on allows for a complexity appropriate to the subject. The aim is to clarify the various effects and interactions on the one hand, but also the influences of involved and interested actors. This is all about the complex interactions between environment and society. This common background is the starting point of a predominantly applied and practice-oriented research on and for sustainable development.
In the doctoral centre, sustainability engineering and sustainability natural sciences as well as sustainability social and sustainability socialsciences form the common foundation. The doctoral centre aims to carry out trans- and interdisciplinary doctoral studies in this context. The research in the doctoral centre focuses on processes and products that contribute to sustainable development. The aim is to address social, socio-economic, engineering and scientific challenges in a discipline-based and interdisciplinary balanced way. The focus is on methodological and content-related competencies that enable technological and social innovations and live a trans- and interdisciplinary cooperation in research.