Current notice
Application deadline: March 15, 2026
Notification of acceptance: mid-April 2026
Rethinking Sustainability: Interdisciplinary Approaches and Practical Challenges
How is sustainability understood across different academic and practical perspectives, particularly when viewed in an international context? How can we rethink it in a more open, integrative way that moves beyond buzzwords, rigid frameworks, and disciplinary boundaries?
This interdisciplinary Summer School invites doctoral candidates from the University of Bonn, the Bonn Research Alliance (BORA) and the University of St Andrews to critically engage with sustainability as a concept, practice, and field of action. Rethinking Sustainability creates space to question dominant narratives, explore alternative perspectives, and reflect on how sustainability is shaped across science, policy, culture, and everyday practices.
At the heart of the Summer School is your own research project. Participants are invited to apply with a project they are currently working on — this can be a dissertation, a work-related sustainability initiative, a publication idea, or a specific subtheme they wish to develop further. Throughout the program, your project will become an integral part of the sessions: you will map it, reflect on it, and actively work on it in dialogue with peers, researchers, and practitioners.
Dates and Application
When?
Monday, June 22, 2026
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Friday, June 26, 2026
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Application
Please fill in the application form and upload an up-to-date CV.
Application deadline: March 15, 2026.
Program
- Conceptualizing & Interrogating Sustainability
- Situating Sustainability in Your Own Project
- Rethinking Resource Use & the Economy
- Connecting Sustainability, Science, Culture & the Arts
- Relating to Nature: Challenges & Reflections
- Reflecting Sustainability in Higher Education & Academia
- Interlinking Science & Policy
The program also features excursions in Bonn, offering opportunities to explore sustainability in practice, engage with local initiatives, and connect theoretical debates to concrete contexts.
This Summer School is best suited for doctoral candidates from the University of Bonn, members of the Bonn Research Alliance (BORA) and the University of St Andrews from all disciplines who are working on sustainability-related topics and are interested in critically reflecting on their own work in an open, interdisciplinary environment.
- Further development of your own research project
- New concepts and critical perspectives on sustainability
- Inspiration beyond disciplinary boundaries
- Networking with other engaged early-career researchers
Join us for an intensive, reflective, and collaborative week of thinking, questioning, and reimagining sustainability!
Film and photo reference
The University of Bonn takes photos and videos during the Summer School, which are published as part of its public relations work on the internet, in print media, and on social media channels. By participating in the Summer School, participants agree to the taking of photos and videos as well as their storage and publication. Please speak to our photographers and camera operators on site if you do not wish to be photographed or filmed.
Welcome to Bonn!
In many respects, Bonn offers the best conditions for excellent, international, transdisciplinary, closely networked research: In addition to four universities, the international science region of Bonn is home to numerous research institutes.The Bonn region also plays a strong role in advising the federal government and in cooperating with the United Nations.
As a German city of the United Nations with inhabitants of 170 nationalities, Bonn has about 125 international NGOs and 5 international schools. In addition, 13 diplomatic missions are located here as well as more than 25 UN organizations, including the UN World Climate Secretariat (UNFCCC).
Find out more about what Bonn has to offer!
Bonn as a Sustainability Hub
Bonn is home to many experts in the field of sustainability and sustainable development in Germany and abroad - in associations, international organizations, think tanks and universities. The University of Bonn is the first university in Germany to establish a Vice Rectorate for Sustainability and to make the topic a cross-cutting task for the entire institution.
Find out more about:
- Bonn as a Sustainability Hub
- Working Group Plural Sustainabilities
- Sustainbility at the University of Bonn
Find out more about Bonn as a competence center for Climate Change and Biodiversity.
Frequently Asked Questions
This Summer School is best suited for doctoral candidates from the University of Bonn, members of the Bonn Research Alliance (BORA) and the University of St Andrews from all disciplines who are working on sustainability-related topics and are interested in critically reflecting on their own work in an open, interdisciplinary environment.
- Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing SCAI
- Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics FKIE
- Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems IAIS
- German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
- Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), Museum Koenig Bonn
- Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics (MPIECON)
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics (MPIM)
- Max Planck Institute for Neurobiology of Behavior – caesar (MPINB)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR)
- bicc (Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies)
- German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
- United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS)
Application for doctoral candidates from the University of Bonn and BORA:
Please fill in the registration form and upload an up-to-date CV that illustrates your experience, competencies and interests in sustainability (research) (in a PDF file, titled “family name_name_CV”) here.
The University of St Andrews recruited suitable participants through its own application process.
Application deadline: 15 March 2026
Notification of acceptance: mid-April 2026
Selection criteria: Participants will be selected based on their alignment with the Summer School’s themes and their motivation to actively engage and contribute to the program.
We charge a registration fee of 50 EUR (cash), which is due upon acceptance of your application.
The spoken language is English.
No. This program is designed for full participation only.
Since we recruit candidates from the University of Bonn and the Bonn Research Alliance (BORA), our recruitment efforts focus on applicants in Bonn and the surrounding region.
There are no travel funds available.
Contact and Organization
Dr Silke Tönsjost
Genscherallee 3
53113 Bonn
Dr Sandra Gilgan
Dechenstr. 3-11
D-53115 Bonn
The Summer School is organized by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the Bonn Research Alliance (BORA) at the University of Bonn in collaboration with the St Andrews Centre for Critical Sustainabilities (StACCS) at the University of St Andrews.
Cooperation Partners
