Leuphana University of Lueneburg

Sustaina­bi­li­ty re­se­arch, cul­tu­ral re­se­arch, edu­ca­ti­on, ma­nage­ment and en­tre­pre­neurship: Through the­se four sci­ence in­itia­ti­ves, through its in cour­se work and re­se­arch, Leu­pha­na Uni­ver­si­ty of Lüne­burg ad­dres­ses the chal­len­ges of ci­vil so­cie­ty in the 21st cen­tu­ry. The bo­dies re­s­pon­si­ble for the­se in­itia­ti­ves are the faculties new­ly es­ta­blis­hed in 2010: Education, Culture, Business und Sustainability.

The­re are re­se­arch to­pics span­ning mul­ti­ple fa­cul­ties – in ke­eping with de­ve­lop­ments of cur­rent and fu­ture re­le­van­ce – de­vo­ted to the De­mo­cra­cy, Di­gi­tal Me­dia and Health. Com­pa­ni­on to the sub­stan­ti­ve qua­li­ty of the cur­ri­cu­lum, Leu­pha­na pla­ces par­ti­cu­lar re­li­an­ce on stu­dents' re­s­pon­si­bi­li­ty, cu­rio­si­ty and in­itia­ti­ve, on a broad-ran­ging chan­ge in per­spec­tive that ques­ti­ons pres­u­m­a­b­ly sett­led know­ledge, and on dia­lo­gue not only among the va­rious di­sci­pli­nes but bet­ween sci­ence and prac­tice.

The cour­se of stu­dy fol­lows a de­gree mo­del uni­que to the Ger­man hig­her-edu­ca­ti­on land­scape, a model that has al­re­a­dy re­cei­ved mul­ti­ple awards. With its launch of the Di­gi­tal School in 2013, Leu­pha­na also en­t­e­red the age of the on­line uni­ver­si­ties, whe­re it is set­ting new stan­dards in so­ci­al learning. For its de­ve­lop­ment as a hu­ma­nis­tic, ac­tion-ori­en­ted and sustainable uni­ver­si­ty, in 2007 Leu­pha­na re­cei­ved an award from the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty's in­no­va­ti­on agen­cy for the Ger­man sci­ence sys­tem, the Stif­ter­ver­band für die Deut­sche Wis­sen­schaft, in its com­pe­ti­ti­on de­vo­ted to 'Ex­cel­lence Stra­te­gies for Small and Me­di­um-Si­zed Uni­ver­si­ties', and in 2010 from the Mer­ca­tor Foun­da­ti­on and the Volks­wa­gen Foun­da­ti­on for the na­ti­onwi­de com­pe­ti­ti­on on 'The Fu­ture of Instruction'.

To streng­t­hen Lüne­burg as a lo­ca­ti­on for re­se­arch and busi­ness, sci­en­tists and the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty are working side by side on vi­sio­na­ry pro­jects un­der uni­que con­di­ti­ons, as part of the EU-spon­so­red re­gio­nal de­ve­lop­ment pro­ject for In­no­va­ti­on In­cu­ba­tors. A to­tal of ne­ar­ly EUR 100 mil­li­on is flo­wing into re­gio­nal eco­no­mic de­ve­lop­ment. In more than 50 pro­jects, the­re are some 300 firms in the for­mer Lüne­burg district working with teams of re­se­ar­chers on be­half of a broad ran­ge of new re­se­arch and in­fra­struc­tu­re pro­jects and mea­su­res in edu­ca­ti­on and trai­ning.

The In­cu­ba­tor pla­ces the em­pha­sis on the to­pics of Di­gi­tal Me­dia, Health and Sustainable En­er­gy. Cur­rent­ly a new main buil­ding is being built on the Uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus as part of the Cam­pus of the Fu­ture de­si­gned by ar­chi­tect and part-time Leu­pha­na pro­fes­sor Da­ni­el Li­bes­kind. Leu­pha­na in­vi­tes mo­ti­va­ted and com­mit­ted peop­le to this work­shop for chan­ge, in­di­vi­du­als who want to be­co­me ac­tive and are wil­ling to sta­ke out a po­si­ti­on on be­half of their con­vic­tions. Peop­le with pas­si­on and a thirst for re­s­pon­si­bi­li­ty, who want to learn from and with one ano­ther and dis­co­ver new points of view – of the world, one ano­ther and them­sel­ves.