Research profile of TRA Sustainable Futures
The Transdisciplinary Research Area “Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Futures” (TRA Sustainable Futures) at the University of Bonn is a research alliance focusing on inter- and transdisciplinary research to find sustainable and healthy solutions for pressing global challenges in the research topics Agriculture, Climate and Ecosystems and Sustainable Healthy Diets. This includes research in the fields of Transformative Technologies and Societal Change and Innovations as two cross-cutting research areas, which play a crucial role in the above mentioned research topics.
Agriculture, Climate and Ecosystems
Agriculture provides essential nutrients and biomass for an increasingly diverse range of applications, but it also significantly contributes to environmental degradation and climate change through land-use changes, soil erosion, excessive water consumption, and pollution. Research on the topic "Agriculture, Climate and Ecosystems" aims to create resilient agricultural systems that both protect the environment and promote human health. This is achieved by combining approaches from the natural sciences, engineering, economics, and social sciences to develop holistic solutions for more sustainable agriculture.
Sustainable Healthy Diets
Our diets are often neither healthy nor sustainable, which affects the achievement of many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A sustainable diet should protect the environment, ensure food security, and be healthy for both present and future generations. However, many people worldwide suffer from malnutrition, nutrient deficiencies, and diet-related diseases, while unsustainable production processes strain the environment. Reserach on the topic "Sustainable Healthy Diets" aims to take a holistic approach to the food system and develop interdisciplinary solutions for sustainable and healthy nutrition, with a global perspective on interconnected food systems.
Transformative Technologies
Technological advancements can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through more precise measurement systems, improved data analysis technologies, and autonomous robots. Research in the cross-cutting research area "Transformative Technologies" focuses on making agricultural systems more efficient and sustainable. For example, it optimizes resource use and makes crop production more resilient to diseases and climate change through remote sensing and autonomous robots. Additionally, innovative, eco-friendly materials are being developed to reduce environmental impact, while solutions to societal challenges such as automation in healthcare and privacy protection in a digital world are being explored.
Societal Change and Innovations
A sustainable development of humanity requires profound behavioral changes as well as strategic and adaptive governance that fairly distributes benefits and burdens and manages transformation processes. Technological innovation alone is not enough; rather, "societal innovation" is needed, which takes ethical issues into account in culturally and ecologically diverse contexts. To promote sustainable production and consumption patterns in the global bioeconomy and to develop policy recommendations, various scientific disciplines work transdisciplinarily with stakeholders in the cross-cutting research area "Societal Change and Innovations."
The TRA Sustainable Futures has supported more than 30 project ideas and projects to date. Some examples of the projects can be found here.