The ICN is looking for research projects that pursue approaches of transformative and transdisciplinary sustainability science. In the nexus of the three innovation fields of the ICN (climate protection, resource conservation and well-being), the pilot projects should exemplarily develop, research, pilot and evaluate the sustainability ideas of the ICN and prepare them for expansion.

Two-year funding starting in 2024

Institutes at the University of Freiburg and KIT as well as state-funded universities and non-university research institutions from Baden-Württemberg that cooperate with them are eligible to apply for and receive funding. The projects must fit thematically into one or more of the three innovation fields of the ICN, have a visible significance for urban-rural relations in the Upper Rhine region, involve the University of Freiburg and the KIT and build on close cooperation with practical partners. When selecting the projects, criteria such as scientific excellence, a comprehensive reference to sustainability, solution and innovation orientation, interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity and long-term orientation are taken into account.

The announcement of the funded projects will be made in January 2024. Subject to the funding commitment by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts for the State of Baden-Württemberg, the funding is initially planned to run for two years, starting in the first quarter of 2024. Further information on the requirements and procedure for submitting projects can be found in the official call for proposals.

About the Sustainability Innovation Campus

The Sustainability Innovation Campus (ICN) is a joint initiative by the University of Freiburg (UFR) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Under the guiding principle “Transformations for Urban Regions of the Future: Climate Protection, Resource Conservation, and Well-Being,” the two universities are setting their sights on comprehensive social, technical, and economic innovations – along with a network of actors from science, industry, politics, administration, and civil society. Together they aim to contribute to the ‘great transformation’ towards a sustainable society.

The research and transfer activities of ICN are based on a holistic approach: In contrast to conventional (purely) technical innovations, system innovations are combined with entrepreneurial, ecological, and social innovations, thus making social change possible in the first place. The simultaneous further development of the innovation ecosystem – a network encompassing everyone from the actors generating the ideas for innovations and those implementing them to the users – has the goal of expediting the transfer of sustainability innovations.