Cooperations & Networks

Creating Social Entrepreneurs and InnovatorsAURORA Alliance

In autumn 2016, UDE was a German founding member of the AURORA network, whose common strength lies in its members’ combination of research excellence and social responsibility. The high priority AURORA affords sustainability as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) re-flects its main mission to combine academic excellence with social relevance.

In 2020 started the Aurora Alliance which consists of 9 Universities. It equips european Universities to provide a diverse student population with the skills and mindsets needed to contribute to addressing societal challenges as social entrepreneurs and innovators. The Aurora Alliance has developed a set of 6 work packages supported by the napro including "Sustainability Pioneers" and "Aurora Learning for Societal Impact".
To AURORA website

ISCNInternational Sustainable Campus Network

The International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) supports universities around the world in their exchange of information, interests, ideas and best practice examples to promote a sustainable campus in teaching and research. The network includes numerous prestigious universities (Harvard University, Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford and many more) as well as over 70 other institutions of higher education on five continents. UDE was the first university in North Rhine-Westphalia to join the network in 2016, initially limited to a five-year mem-bership. Participating in ISCN facilitates exchange and networking on the topic of sustainable campus de-velopment with nationally and internationally leading universities around the world. Membership in this network can benefit UDE by enabling a give and take of incentives and an exchange of knowledge on promoting sustainable development. By sharing our own experien-ces and progress, UDE and our sustainability initiatives can also serve as a model for others. Currently, the other German members are Leuphana University of Lüneburg, FU Berlin, TU Darmstadt University and the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart

To ISCN website
Foto: Marquard/RUB

UA Ruhr-cooperation for Sustainability

In 2019, the Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) supported a joint initiative of the Technische Universität (TU) Dortmund, the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) on the topic of sustainability with up to 30,000 euros and a term of one year. The project of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) is the first to be supported within the MERCUR.Admin program.

This initiative aims to raise awareness of the topic of sustainability and to promote and sustainably anchor the development at the participating universities. First of all, it was analysed to what extent the three universities are already active in the field of sustainability. In this way it can be determined in which fields there is a need for action. The results of this stocktaking were recorded in a joint internal sustainability report of the RUB partners - more precisely the sustainability process (napro) of the UDE, the Sustainability Working Group of the TU Dortmund University and the Department of Strategic Campus Development of the RUB. Measures and programmes are to be developed in perspective for the identified fields of action.