Page 14 - TU Dresden Sustainability Strategy 2023-2030

Societal change

In order to avoid further, irreversible damage to the ecosystem, we need to operate within
the planet’s limits and thus bring about societal change toward a more sustainable society.
The excellence measure „Disruption and Societal Change“ (TUDiSC) profiles disruption
as a fundamental category of research into societal change. Its prerequisites, logics, and
effects are recorded and researched here in an interdisciplinary manner, both in terms of
basic principles and exemplary objects. The focus is on the political, economic, social, and
cultural challenges that societies face in dealing with disruptions.

In Lusatia, TU Dresden is actively contributing to shaping structural change with the
establishment of the decentralized TUD|Lusatia Campus. Here, research projects
(such as in the previously cited LAB, the German Center for Astrophysics (DZA), or the
CircEcon project) are working on solutions to global challenges in order to further develop
Lusatia into a central area for knowledge and transfer. Sustainable construction, renewable
energy, and the mobility of the future also play a role, as do targeted educational measures
and participation in societal debates.

As multipliers, teachers have a key role to play in sustainable development. The Teacher
Academy Project – Teaching Sustainability (TAP-TS) of the Center for Teacher Education
and Educational Research (ZLSB) at TU Dresden is one of eleven European projects in the
Erasmus+ Teacher Academies funding line dedicated to teachers’ initial and continuous
education. The project aims to reinforce the skills of teachers and student teachers in teaching
sustainability. Participants from various European countries develop, trial, and implement
teaching and learning materials on the topic of sustainability.

Based on the goal of measuring and evaluating sustainability in various disciplines,
the PRISMA Centre for Sustainability Assessment and Policy pools the skills of TUD
researchers and other partner institutions in order to create synergies. The focus is on
questions of economically successful as well as ecologically and socially compatible long-
term development, taking into account spatial and temporal conditions with innovative,
interdisciplinary evaluation approaches.

14