The Potsdam Summer School 2023 - Responsibility & Ethics in Sustainability Science

In partnership with the City of Potsdam, the 2023 Potsdam Summer School will be conducted by the University of Potsdam, the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), and the Research Institute for Sustainability – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam (RIFS).

With its overarching theme - “Responsibility & Ethics in Sustainability Science” – the 9th Potsdam Summer School will continue the transdisciplinary and interactive series of events that has been held annually in Potsdam, Germany since 2014.

The Potsdam Summer School will deal with two major blocks of questions:

• What is the social responsibility of the scientific community? How do ethical standards and social responsibility of science relate to the idea of freedom of science? How to deal with the danger that science can be instrumentalised by third parties? Which values, interests and mindsets determine which research is conducted?
• How far does the responsibility of individual scientists go and to whom are they responsible? Should they strive to contribute to the transformation towards sustainability or should they concentrate on producing evidence-based knowledge and leave the conclusions to politics and society? Do scientists have to develop other patterns of communication in order to fulfil their role in society?

The Aim

The aim of the Potsdam Summer School is to bring together talented early-career scientists working in the field of sustainability. In addition, it is open to people from outside of academia interested to learn more about these questions. Our goal is to improve science awareness and to help develop informed opinions and enhance the transferable skills of current researchers and practitioners.

Participants of the Potsdam Summer School will be engaged in discussions and group works and will be provided with tools to develop effective strategies to solve the challenges they face in their daily work, while also gaining a comprehensive perspective and overview surrounding various aspects of responsibility in science towards a sustainable transformation. Experts, stakeholders, and guest lecturers from high level national and international institutes and organisations will contribute knowledge and insights to the Summer School programme.

Speakers

Experts, stakeholders, and guest lecturers from high level national and international institutes and organisations will contribute knowledge and insights to the Summer School programme. You may find an overview here.

Application Requirements

• A current resumé or curriculum vitae
• A letter of motivation
• The completely filled out application form