Project duration: January 2023–December 2025

The WaNdel!4 collaborative research project, in partnership with Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences (THI), HTW Berlin and Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), is designing, testing and implementing measures for the sustainable transformation of higher education institutions.

The focus is on the organisation and fundamental understanding of universities as centres of teaching and research, the training of future specialists and leaders, the exemplary role of universities as regional drivers of sustainable transformation, universities as spaces for experimentation with bold yet academically sound transformation pathways, and the role of universities as independent economic factors within the region.

Accordingly, the project is based on a ‘Whole Institution Approach’, i.e. the function of higher education institutions is not limited solely to teaching, nor is it confined to research-based teaching, but involves all staff categories and relevant stakeholders within the institutions. The focus is on the sustainably operated university. One university at a time takes the lead on the key work packages: sustainable operations, climate protection and adaptation, sufficient usage concepts, and the empirical analysis of sustainability impacts. This enables the universities to learn from one another. Real-world experiments are being carried out in a participatory and innovative manner to test the sustainability transformation of higher education institutions. The transdisciplinary project team, comprising experts from the social sciences, natural sciences, engineering and non-academic practice, brings together a broad range of expertise.

The sub-project ‘Campus: Sufficient Usage Concepts’, which is being carried out at the Institute for Sustainability and Real Estate Management (INIM), focuses on the topics of raising user awareness, the activation of green spaces, sufficient usage concepts, and energy data collection and monitoring. In all four thematic areas, exemplary measures for sustainable transformation are being implemented within a framework – for example, in the form of real-world laboratories – whilst implementation processes and sustainability impacts are being examined. The aim is to develop transferable concepts that can also be implemented at other universities.

Research team

The project team takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together knowledge and expertise from the fields of sustainable construction and operation, sustainable facility management, technical building management and sociology.

Project Lead
: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anika Möcker – Chair of Sustainable Construction and Operation

Scientific supervision
: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg Mehlis – Chair of Facility Management

Project staff member
Marie-Luise Baldin, M.A. – Research Associate at the Institute for Sustainability and Property Management

The research project runs from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2025 and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).