We live in times of multiple crises: economic crisis, ecological crisis, biodiversity crisis and crisis of distribution.
As these crises intensify and amplify each other, also voices for a radical transformation of society get louder. With this
in mind, the University of Applied Arts and the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft established the Open Innovation in Science Lab:
„Action for Sustainable Futures (ASF) hub“, which aims to find answers for the pressing question: What could a sustainable
transformation of society look like?
The ASF hub pursues the following aims:
- Fostering
societal awareness for sustainable development
- Enabling possibilities for action through the participation of civil
society representatives within projects
- Supporting inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations between civil society,
science and arts
- Developing impact criteria for participatory scientific and artistic research
- Increasing
democracy through offering possibilities for participation while considering diversity within society
The
ASF
hub will fund key project that will be oriented towards the UN
Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs), working on practical solutions with high societal relevance. Citizens will play an active part
in shaping these projects, which will combine scientific and artistic strategies. To enable participation for citizens with
little experience in project funding, the process of submitting projects is divided into two parts. Actors from different
parts of society can submit sketches for project ideas until the
30th of June, 2021 and will get support
in writing and submitting project proposals. Full proposals can be submitted until the 30th of September, 2021. The call for
proposals can be found
here.
Sustainability
Board
The Sustainability Board supports and advises the ASF hub in
scientific and artistic matters as the hub’s working committee. The Sustainability Board is involved in planning
the project call, selecting projects for funding, supporting projects and advising with Capability Building.
Members
of the Sustainability Board:
Key
Projects
Projects funded within the ASF hub are offered support through
project coaching, which starts already with the application process, to enable accessibility and diversity among applicants.
For their entire duration project will be continuously supported through workshops, in order to refine and revise research
questions. Experts from various disciplines will lead these workshops and in turn can participate in Capability Building activities.
Additionally, networking between projects will enable a peer-to-peer network.
Capability
Building
Scientists and experts who are part of the ASF hub have the possibility
to participate in diverse possibilities to develop and advance their capabilities in regard to transdisciplinary research,
participatory methods and cooperation between society, science and arts.