Prof. Dr. Géraldine Pflieger

University of Geneva

A professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and a science representative in the Swiss delegation at the UN Climate Change Conferences (COPs).

Prof. Dr. Natasha de Vere

The Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen

A biodiversity scientist and botany curator, as well as a leading researcher in projects on the importance of plants and gardens for human health, well-being, biodiversity, and the environment.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Gerhard

Heidelberg University

A professor for Human Geography of North America, and a leading scientist in several European networks, including the 4EU+ Alliance Flagship Urban Health and Demographic Change.

Raoul Schmidt-Lamontain

Mayor for Climate Protection, Environment and Mobility, City of Heidelberg

Host & facilitator:

Dr. Maximilian Jungmann

Heidelberg Center for the Environment, Heidelberg University

Mostly, universities are embedded in a city-context. Within cities, universities perform as strong stakeholders not only due to their physical size with respect to covered area and buildings, their large numbers of employees, students and academic staff, but also due to the massive energy consumption within certain research activities. Therefore, from a sustainability perspective, it appears logic that city governance and university administration should aspire for harnessing synergies in their attempts to promote “green” traffic concepts and alternative energy policies.  Additional challenges come from climate change-induced “heat islands”, loss of biodiversity, but also from the need to develop passive housing standards. In case of historical buildings or entire city quarters, additional challenges may arise from reconciling adaptive technologies with the need for monument protection. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research at universities could address all these challenges and develop concepts for evidence-based solutions.  Since effective concepts to meet the above-mentioned challenges often require acceptance of and/or collaboration with the local population, citizen science can operate as a means to integrate public opinion and awareness into sustainability strategies. Being a link between academic science and city governance, citizen science – such as for data collection or as part of co-creation processes – may prove instrumental for jointly developing inclusive solutions.

As a joint endeavour of partner universities of the 4EU+European University Alliance, the event provides a unique platform to discuss diverse approaches in addressing global challenges and thus open up new perspectives for promoting connections between cities and science.

The research incubator “Heidelberg Center for the Environment” (HCE) connects existing competencies in the environmental sciences across disciplinary boundaries at Heidelberg University and serves as a coordinating hub for local, regional and international cooperation and outreach. 
With the public event series "Heidelberger Brücke", HCE provides a platform for interdisciplinary exchange both within and beyond Heidelberg University. The series not only bridges different scientific disciplines but also connects the academic community with the interested public.
Within the framework of the 4EU+ European University Alliance, a transnational strategic alliance of eight universities, the HCE has a coordinating role for the alliance's flagship "Environmental transitions" in Heidelberg.
By organizing and hosting the event “From Advocacy to Action,” HCE advances the mission of this flagship initiative, since addressing environmental transition requires science that can identify development pathways that are just, fair, and politically acceptable without transgressing planetary boundaries.