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 JF - 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 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-2395 SN - 2071-1050 VL - 12 IS - 7 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Demele, Uwe A1 - Nölting, Benjamin A1 - Crewett, Wibke A1 - Georgiev, Georgi T1 - Sustainability Transfer as a Concept for Universities in Regional Transformation—A Case Study JF - Sustainabilty N2 - The research object of this study is the in-depth discourse on the sustainability transfer activities of higher education institutions (HEIs) and their contribution to a regional sustainable transformation. For this purpose, a heuristically-derived concept of sustainability transfer is empirically tested with a mixed-methods approach based on the example of Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE). The empirical findings demonstrate that the realization of sustainability transfer depends mainly on the personal initiative of teachers and researchers. Major barriers are a lack of time and financial resources. The observed concept of sustainability transfer is applicable to all study and research areas of HNEE. Involvement in sustainability transfer can include the whole of society, from politics, enterprises, and civil society to education and research institutions. Overall, the empirical testing of the concept offered by this study illustrates its practical suitability to capturing specifically those sustainability transfer activities that are not tapped by third mission approaches. This opens up a novel dimension for transfer potential at universities and their role in regional sustainability transformation. It also highlights that the interdependencies between HEIs and practitioners need to be more contextualized with quality criteria such as the value of the transfer performance or level of ambition. KW - higher education institutions KW - sustainability transformation KW - practitioner-university partnership KW - sustainable development KW - sustainable transfer Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:eb1-opus-2456 SN - 2071-1050 VL - 13 IS - 9 PB - MDPI ER -