Our mission statement

We are a democratic, cosmopolitan university and guarantee the freedom of science, research and teaching. We emphasise cooperation and solidarity, promote participation, appreciation and diversity. Our core values are care and responsibility for a sustainable world. They are an expression of holistic ethics that understands the environment as an equal co-world. One of our central concerns is therefore the sustainability transformation of society. It is our deep conviction that ecological and social systems must remain intact, functional and viable for the future and should be further developed within ecologically immovable boundaries to fulfil fundamental social requirements.

Our scientific work, which is committed to our values and convictions, follows the principles of good scientific practice and takes place in a culture of critical and constructive discourse. In this way, we strive for findings that we reflect on ethically and that provide practical benefits for the common good. In doing so, we build on the rich tradition of the Eberswalde site and follow a sustainability standard that is rooted in the region.

Our university is a driving force for sustainable development in universities and society. This is why the principle of sustainability is firmly anchored in all of our degree programmes. Based on our diverse scientific expertise, we face social and professional challenges in terms of sustainable development and work on forward-looking social, technological and systemic sustainability innovations in an application-oriented manner. To this end, we conduct interdisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, are well connected internationally and work in partnership with networks of science, business, politics, administration and civil society. With our holistic institutional approach, we link teaching, research and transfer in close cooperation with the university administration and thus develop practically load-bearing capacity model solutions for a sustainable world. In this innovative environment, our students acquire their professional and organisational skills in terms of education for sustainable development and, as graduates, are both able and willing to take on responsibility. This is another reason why we actively promote social engagement in learning and teaching. Together, we are shaping the university as a place where everyone feels at home. Thanks to our clear profile, we are not only visible locally, regionally, throughout Germany and internationally, but also an attractive place to study and work.

In teaching and research, we develop solutions for a sustainability transformation. This makes our university a key point of reference in the field of sustainability. Teachers, students and researchers work together with practitioners to develop and test ways to create a sustainable world that is orientated towards the common good. In addition to consistency and efficiency, we focus on sufficiency strategies that enable natural resources to be used in an ecologically responsible manner and distributed in a spirit of solidarity. We self-critically reflect on our own actions. We offer space for open discourse and question how we as individuals, as a university and as a society can fulfil our responsibility for current and future generations and act effectively.