Future Conference NRW: Universities demand solutions for sustainability

Future Conference NRW: Universities demand solutions for sustainability

The future is a hotly debated topic in North Rhine-Westphalia. The first future conference, which will take place on November 12th and 13th, 2025 University of Duisburg-Essen took place, brought together representatives from 16 universities and 20 colleges of applied sciences. The aim of this large meeting was to tackle the urgent transformation tasks brought about by climate change, the mobility transition and digitalization.

Science Minister Ina Brandes attended the conference as patron and emphasized the high level of excellence of the research landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia. She emphasized the need for close cooperation between universities in order to translate basic research into practical applications more quickly and thus achieve the sustainability goals. “What we are developing here will help to overcome the great challenges of our time,” says Brandes.
The conference was initiated by the Sustainability Initiative of the Humboldt Universities and the Sustainability Alliance NAW.NRW and was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science with around 1.9 million euros.

Interdisciplinary exchange for sustainable solutions

The conference included not only general discussions on the agenda, but also interdisciplinary future workshops. These should serve to develop ideas for the implementation of sustainability goals. Topics such as “climate change and health” as well as “transport and mobility transition” were discussed. The aim was to develop practical solutions based on science that make a real difference.
The organizers, including Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff from the Bergische University of Wuppertal and Prof. Dr. Oliver Locker-Grütjen from the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, emphasized the need for a scouting and cooperation format. This is intended to help make possible solutions visible and strengthen networking beyond the conference.

Overall, the goal is to develop viable solutions that address not only the ecological but also the social challenges in North Rhine-Westphalia. The focus is not only on research, but also on practical implementation in collaboration with politics, municipalities and companies. Like that Federal Ministry of Education and Research emphasizes, the “Sustainability in Science” initiative promotes a culture of innovation, which is of central importance for universities and research institutions. Students are actively involved in the process in order to make their universities climate-neutral.

Step by step towards climate neutrality

The conference's future workshops are not only an opportunity to conduct research, but also to intensify collaboration between science and practice. In this way, ideas and approaches developed in the workshops can be implemented into local projects. The Ministry of Culture and Science aims to strengthen the responsibility of universities for sustainable development through such initiatives.

In summary, it can be said that the first Future Conference NRW was a big step in the right direction. The participants agreed: In order to tackle complex challenges such as climate change and social justice, an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach is essential. This is the only way to develop sustainable solution strategies together that will benefit both current and future generations.