Abstract
Summary:
Sustainability science has become more and more important over the last years, as within times where
the need for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, the need for healthy ecosystems as well as
for social cohesion and justice have become pressing issues, a sustainable transformation is of utmost
urgency.
The German Sustainability Science Summit 2021 continued the series of German Future Earth Summits
organized by the German Committee Future Earth (DKN). In this way, the DKN provides a platform for
exchange on new scientific findings and research needs in the field of sustainability research and to foster
interdisciplinary collaborations within Future Earth and beyond. Future Earth is a network of scientists,
researchers and innovators designed to provide the knowledge needed to support transformations
towards sustainability. The focus of the summit was explicitly dedicated to national and international
interdisciplinary and integrative sustainability science, while discussing the previous and future work of
the DKN.
Around 500 participants from 46 countries from all over the world registered for the German
Sustainability Science Summit 2021. The conference was held as an online event on 8th and 9th July 2021,
with about 150 participants acting as hosts and speakers of the 29 different summit sessions.The summit
was preceded by an early-career researcher workshop on 7th July 2021 on opportunities and challenges
for early-career scientists in inter- and trans-disciplinary sustainability science.
One important item on the summit program was the discussion of the DKN position paper on central focus
topics and open research questions in sustainability research. The position paper was brought forward
by the DKN committee members, c oming from very different disciplines, and prior to the summit was
provided to all participants. The paper comprises the focus topics which were discussed during several
sessions of the summit, such as (1) Normativity in sustainability research, (2) Extreme events: collapse or
resilience? - the role of health, well-being and social cohesion for reaching the sustainable development
goals, (3) Diet, biodiversity and h ealth - the role of sustainable diets for healthy people and healthy
ecosystems, and (4) Scale challenges in climate change, risk and adaptation research in the context of
sustainable development. The lively discussions and interesting comments on the position paper will be
reflected in the future work of the DKN.
Most of the summit sessions were set up in response to an open call for session proposals. In addition to
the various scientific sessions and science-policy sessions with presentations and lively discussions, the
online conference platform enabled networking via v arious innovative tools including a poster and
networking session with a virtual art exhibition. The sessions covered a broad range of topics, including
climate change adaptation finance, the role of participation in just science and governance, water security,
biodiversity, planning and construction, systemic risks, and others. Also the three active DKN working
groups outlined their topics on (1) Modelling the human environmental interactions in the anthropocene,
(2) Antici pating and transforming coastal f utures, and (3) Sustainable, transformative and circu lar
bioeconomy.
The diverse program was rounded up with two vivid plenary panel discussions, shedding light on the new
social contract for climate change adaptation in dynamic societies and concluding the summit with
perspectives of international sustainability science.
The DKN thanks all panelists, speakers, presenters and participants for joining the summit, for all their
contributions and for participating in the enlightening and lively discussions. Many thanks also go to the
event agency Con Gressa for the technical realization of the event and for the creation of the summit
logo. And last but not least, strong thanks to the German Science Foun dation (DFG), without which the
summit would not have been possible.
