SUNRISE LAB - "SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITY LANDSCAPE MÜNSTER – LIVING LABS AS DRIVERS OF TRANSFORMATION TO SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITIES"

How can universities be drivers of the sustainability transformation? This question is being addressed by the BMBF-funded joint project "Sustainable University Landscape Münster – Living labs as drivers of transformation towards sustainable universities". In this joint project, Münster's three major universities (University of Münster, Münster University of Applied Sciences and katho Münster) have joined forces to find out how the universities can make themselves as well as the city of Münster and its surrounding area more sustainable and thus contribute to the sustainability transformation of the city and society as a whole.

The central instrument for initiating these transformations, for testing project ideas and for strengthening the exchange between the various relevant stakeholders will be at least five living labs, which are located at the respective universities. In the context of transformation research in the social sciences, living labs are understood as means to implement project ideas together with stakeholders and/or citizens under controlled and controllable conditions and reflecting on these processes during the process.

The aim of the living labs in the SUNRISE LAB project is to jointly produce practically applicable knowledge with the participation of different actors, such as scientists, non-scientific employees of the universities, students, or society. This knowledge can then be applied more comprehensively to institutions such as the university or broader social contexts. One overarching living lab, the SUNRISE Lab which is located at Münster University of Applied Sciences, addresses the question of how living labs in general can succeed in universities as drivers of transformation. The other living labs, which are located at all three universities of the consortium, address specific problems of the transformation to a sustainable university and thus test how individual areas of the university and society can be influenced by new practices and new knowledge. The scientifically supported reflection processes in turn feed into the knowledge process of the overarching living lab.

The scientific management of the project at the University of Münster is in the hands of Prof. Dr. Doris Fuchs (Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research and Institute for Political Science) and Prof. Dr. Iris Dzudzek (StadtLabor Münster, Department of Geosciences). Tobias Breuckmann (StadtLabor, Department of Geosciences) and Dr. Rebecca Froese (Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research) are responsible for the operational implementation of the sub-projects at the University of Münster.

The loss of biodiversity and the disruption of material cycles are key challenges in the Anthropocene and for the sustainable design of the future.

With two inter- and transdisciplinary living labs on the topic of biodiversity and material cycles, the University of Münster addresses two key areas of sustainability research whose potential for the sustainable design of universities and cities have not yet been sufficiently explored, but which at the same time complement each other excellently in terms of content and inter- and transdisciplinary methodology.

• Based at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research, the living lab "Biodiversity" aims to explore concrete strategies for improving the biodiversity impacts of the various areas of university activity (research, teaching, transfer, operations, and governance). The aim is to examine the impact of the University of Münster's activities on biodiversity. Potentials and barriers arising from the environment of the city of Münster and the Münsterland as a region, as well as from relevant global dynamics will be identified. Concrete approaches to solutions will be developed jointly by the various status groups within the university as well as by municipal and regional stakeholders of the university. The information will be classified regarding their use of efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency approaches, and tested and reflected on with regard to aspects of social sustainability.
• The living lab "Material Cycles - Exercises in Caring Human-Environment Relationships", which is associated with the StadtLabor of Department 14 (Earth Sciences), deals with the question of how new caring relationships between people, but also between people and their surrounding environment, can be tested and established in urban society to initiate both socially and ecologically sustainable transformation processes. Located at the interface between university and the city, the project asks how universities can be better embedded in the city to implement sustainable transformations.

The overall project is planned for the duration of three years and is divided into four phases: (1) diagnosis, (2) development of transformation paths, (3) implementation of the living labs, and (4) evaluation and processing of the results for scaling up.

The overarching living lab extends over the entire duration of the project and begins with a survey phase on the structures and practices of sustainability at the universities in Münster, collecting positive examples and particularly prominent actors in sustainability transformation.

Furthermore, experiences already made, successes and hurdles of sustainability transformation will be collected. The core of the diagnosis will be qualitative interviews based on a comprehensive literature review as well as a quantitative online questionnaire, which will be conducted under the leadership of the participating researchers from the University of Münster.

In a second step, the resulting diagnostic report will be used to develop transformation pathways and tools that will guide the development of the various living labs. In a third step, these living labs will be established and developed and scientifically accompanied under the respective leadership of the universities. During this period, the universities and the project participants will maintain a close exchange to reflect on common developments and problems.

After the completion of the living labs, a final evaluation will be carried out based on the diagnosis and the development paths, which will serve the generalization and transferability of the developed transformation paths and instruments. The evaluation will also be led by the University of Münster and will include qualitative and quantitative surveys as well as the analysis of the data collected during the living labs.