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The German Committee Future Earth Publishes Its Research Priorities for Sustainability Science

The German National Committee of Future Earth, DKN, recently published a position paper highlighting research gaps and suggesting forthcoming fields of research. The publication combines insights from global environmental change research and the environmental social sciences and humanities. This programmatic framework will form the basis of the future work program of the German National committee itself. Furthermore, it is hoped that it will motivate other scientists to engage across disciplinary boundaries with the manifold epistemological, theoretical, and methodological challenges of sustainability science.

This contribution addresses agents in science, science management, and science funding in a national and an international context. The paper has been developed over the past two years. It reflects discussions within the German Committee Future Earth in times of the COVID-19 pandemic and debates on the contents of the paper during the course of the German Sustainability Science Summit 2021.

The paper is organized in 6 chapters including each a set of open research questions:

  1. Approaches and goals of sustainability research
  2. How to attain sustainable development? Transformative change is key
  3. Scales as challenges in climate change, adaptation, and sustainable development research
  4. Extreme events and resilience: relations to human health, well-being and social cohesion
  5. Food systems, biodiversity, and health
  6. Dietary transformations towards sustainability

Download the position paper here.