Research focus on sustainable development

From the fossil-fuel age to bio-based: BMBF junior research group at the University of Passau explores societal change through the bioeconomy

What does society need to transition away from a fossil-fuel-driven economy to one that is bio-based? To study the societal impulse and impact of the global bioeconomy, ecological economist Dr Terese Venus is setting up the University’s largest junior research group to date.

BMBF project SynphOnie: New model for more sustainable transport networks

How to reduce emissions in the transport sector while maintaining our mobility? "SynphOnie", a research cluster funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) that includes a team of researchers from the University of Passau headed by Professor Tobias Harks, is developing a mathematical model of transport flows to help make transport planning both needs-based and sustainable.

BMBF research cluster on legal and ethical implications of somatic gene therapy

The CRISPR/Cas genome editing technique has sparked a revolution in medical procedures involving genetic modification. This poses a number of legal, ethical and biomedical challenges. To address these, a team of researchers headed by the legal scholar Professor Hans-Georg Dederer has launched a new, interdisciplinary BMBF cluster project at the University of Passau, which has been awarded a grant of 1.

DFG Research Unit 5254/1 "Lasting Learning": How learning becomes lasting knowledge

How must knowledge be conveyed so that it is retained over the long term and can be applied flexibly? This is the central question addressed by the DFG research unit "Lasting Learning". The spokesperson of the research unit is psychologist Professor Tobias Richter from Würzburg.

DFG Project "Experiencing Ethnoracial Exclusion": How Everyday Racism Feels

The Affective and Emotional Dimensions and Dynamics of (Non-) Belonging and Experiencing Ethnoracial Exclusion—A Comparison of Three Groups of Germans of Migrant Background

Cultural sociologists and scholars of migration have increasingly focused on immigrants’ experiences of ethnoracial exclusion such as stigmatization and (perceived) discrimination.

Female Empowerment against World Hunger

Strengthening the role of women could be a determining factor in the fight against malnutrition in the world's poorest regions. A team from the University of Passau will explore this link in an international research project – based, among other things, on field experiments in Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

BMDV project OMEI: Sustainable electromobility for Europe

Together with nine partners, Landshut University of Applied Sciences has set out to develop a data-based scheme for the expansion of e-mobility charging infrastructure. The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMDV) is backing the project with funds worth a total of nearly 4.

Project FutureCropFarming

Agriculture is facing major challenges. It is expected to produce quality food and raw materials while increasingly accounting for the need to protect soils, water, climate and biodiversity. What could future crop farming look like?

EU project LIFE Prognoses – Taking stock of Europe's natural heritage

Europe's old-growth forests are invaluable – scientists agree on that point. But there are no clear, scientific criteria to assess the state of these forests. This is where the EU project LIFE Prognoses takes action, and Professor Christine Schmitt from the University of Passau, who is a geographer by training, has joined in the endeavour.

BioCult project: Passau researcher studying biodiversity and biomass in the forests of Kenya and Ethiopia

Tropical forests are home to a remarkable diversity of species and often of major cultural significance to the people living there. However, many of these forests are being depleted and threatened by conversion into agricultural areas.