How do I travel climate-friendly? How do I save power during media consumption? How do I design an eco-friendly workplace? Sustainable living and working are a challenge. Researchers and students from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) will collect innovative solutions to these and other questions together with citizens. The “wir-forschen.digital” initiative invites everyone to send in their personal challenges at https://wir-forschen.digital/nachhaltigkeit/
There are many obstacles to living and working sustainably. They are diverse and vary from person to person, at work as well as at home. KIT researchers and students are rising to the challenge by organizing an exchange with citizens. During a seminar in the upcoming 2023 summer semester, they will collect proposals for solutions.
“We are open to all kinds of questions and want to include all kinds of people,” says Professor Alexander Mädche at the KIT Institute of Information Systems and Marketing (ISSM). His colleague at ISSM, Professor Christof Weinhardt, adds: “The participatively developed digital platform is easily accessible and renders the entire research process transparent.” And Professor Petra Nieken at the KIT Institute of Management emphasizes: “We are looking forward to having many citizens join us. This allows us to create a real connection between science and society.” The results are presented in a public presentation in July as well as at the KIT Science Week in October, to which all participants and everyone interested are invited.
Digital Campaign for Everyone
The digital campaign “Living and Working Sustainably? Challenge Accepted!“ has started at the beginning of March. It is part of the Digital Citizen Science Initiative ”wir-forschen.digital,“ where citizens actively contribute to the research via digital platforms and therefore time and space-independently, on one level with the scientists. In collaboration with the Institute of Management, the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis, and especially the Karlsruhe Transformation Center for Sustainability and Cultural Change as part of the Institute, four topics are offered during the campaign: “Climate-friendly travel,” “power-saving consumption,” ”climate-friendly office,” and “communication and participation in the energy transition.”
Anyone interested can join the campaign now at https://wir-forschen.digital/nachhaltigkeit/
Tangible Science with Digital Citizen Science
Digital Citizen Science offers all citizens a simple way to contribute to research processes. This opportunity to share personal topics for research, experiences, and data with researchers is meant to make science more tangible. KIT scientists are developing research methods and infrastructure together with citizens via the Digital Citizen Science platform that allows anyone who is interested to actively participate in research activities. It also enables communication with researchers and with other interested people.
About the KIT Science Week 2023
The KIT Science Week 2023 takes place from October 10 to 15 and it will focus on sustainability and climate protection. The motto is: Think global, act local – together into a sustainable future. Researchers from around the globe meet for an exchange on the newest developments and there will be workshops and views behind the stage of science and research for anyone interested.
The KIT Science Week is part of KIT’s successful excellence proposal, combining a high-ranking scientific conference of international scientists with various public events.
Further information (in German) on the new campaign
Further information on the KIT Science Week
Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 10,000 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,800 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.