TY - JOUR A1 - Nölting, Benjamin A1 - Molitor, Heike A1 - Reimann, Julian A1 - Skroblin, Jan-Hendrick A1 - Dembski, Nadine T1 - Transfer for Sustainable Development at Higher Education Institutions — Untapped Potential for Education for Sustainable Development and for Societal Transformation T2 - Sustainabilty N2 - Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly confronted with societal needs beyond research and teaching. These include sustainable development and technology transfer as well as the practical application of knowledge and ideas. Several HEIs already put sustainable development and transfer into practice. These practitioner–university partnerships comprise a broad range of actors, disciplines, topics, and formats. However, transfer activities that contribute to sustainable development in society still make up only a very small part of HEIs’ activities. In response to calls from society as a whole, HEIs could combine transfer and sustainable development more systematically. In this article, we suggest a concept of transfer for sustainable development. The focus is on sustainability transfer in teaching. We used mixed methods for this conceptual work: exploratory workshops, expert interviews, and a case study of transfer in teaching. One of the results presented in this article is a working definition of sustainability transfer at HEIs. In addition, six characteristics for describing sustainability transfer in its various forms are formulated. This conceptualization makes it possible to analyze the diversity of HEIs’ sustainability transfer activities, it helps to identify and encourage potential transfer actors at HEIs as well as practitioners, and, thus, tap the full potential of sustainability transfer. KW - sustainable development KW - higher education institutions KW - university KW - transfer KW - practitioner-university partnership KW - societal impact KW - education for sustainable development Y1 - 2022 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-hnee/frontdoor/index/index/docId/239 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-2395 SN - 2071-1050 VL - 12 IS - 7 PB - MDPI ER -