Wrap Up / Joint Closing Session

28 September 2017

How the time flies! Three days of presentations, of workshops, networking and exchanging ideas are already over – so fast that at the day three Wrap Up, the participants seemed almost dazzled to realise their time together is almost up.

As usual, the Wrap Up consisted of presentations of today’s workshop results and comparison of the posters. Dr. Florian Lottermoser presented the first results from the survey “Sustainability at Higher Education Institutions 2017” with answers from the sustainability community, for example on questions like whether external societal actors should have their say in research or whether this would be incompatible with scientific freedom. The full results of the survey will be presented in the next few days on this page, so stay tuned!

And after that (too soon, as many would say) it was already time for the last official event of the HSDS: The Joint Closing Session.

Time to say thank you

But even though this was the last joint meeting with all participants, it is by no means the final farewell: The HSDS team has planned a day full of excursions on sustainability in Hamburg for tomorrow: “I am so relieved that now that the official program is over, we still have one day left together!”, said initiator Dr. Claudia Schmitt, Center for a Sustainable University (KNU), to the great applause from the audience, thanking her team in warm words for all their hard work. Many participants said they especially enjoyed the positive, familiar atmosphere of the conference, and after the discussions of the last days, some even formed groups with concrete plans to take action and continue working together.

All three networks hosting the conference appeared thrilled with the success of the first HSDS. Dr. Clemens Mader, COPERNICUS Alliance, presented his colleagues with flowers and chocolate to celebrate the planning of the event: “You brought the organisation of conferences to the next level!”.

Until we meet again

Both Dr. Claudia Schmitt and Dr. Clemens Mader expressed their hope to meet again with as many participants as possible in the future. Even though there is (so far) no concrete plan on repeating the HSDS in 2018, there are other events on sustainability to look forward to: the HOCH^N network day (very likely in Bremen) in autumn 2018 and the annual conference of the COPERNICUS Alliance in Brussels from October 17th – 19th, 2018, called “Future Forward. Summit on Sustainable Higher Education“.

We hope that all participants take home inspiring ideas, new-found enthusiasm and a lot of contacts. Hopefully see you again next year!

Text: Michaela Haase
Photos: Christine Stecker

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