Goals, Funding, Advisory Council & Results of the Research Program “City of the Future – Healthy, Sustainable Metropolises“

Goals

In 2010, the Fritz and Hildegard Berg-Foundation decided to aim for combining the two key concepts of sustainable health promotion and sustainable development, using urban spaces as an example, and to encourage interdisciplinary dialogues as signifying a new scientific culture. The junior research groups funded for this purpose , at the interface of science and society, are expected to develop outstanding strategies and concepts for the sustainable development of urban areas.

This mandate should be realized by the use of interdisciplinary and practice-orientated research. Simultaneously, the junior research groups contribute to strengthen approaches to inter- and transdisciplinary research in the field of urban environment and health as well as to establish the internationally highly topical research area Urban Health in Germany.

Research Areas:
Exemplary research topics related to the overall theme “City of the Future – Healthy, Sustainable Metropolises” are:

  • Environmental resources: Water, air, soil, biodiversity
  • Overall models of urban development: Sustainable city, urbanity brought about by density, city of short distances
  • Changing City: Migration, climate, demography
  • Governance: Actors, processes, structures
  • Nature and landscape in the urban context: Impact, functionality, performance


Funding

The entire program was initiated in 2011 and has since then been funded by the Fritz and Hildegard Berg-Foundation.

Contact:
Fritz und Hildegard Berg-Stiftung im Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft
Dr. Marilen Macher
Barkhovenallee 1
D-45239 Essen

Phone: 0049 201 | 8401-171
Fax: 0049 201 | 8401-255
E-Mail: m.macher@stifterverband.de

 

Advisory council

The research program is being supervised by an interdisciplinary program advisory council:

Professor Dr. med. Rainer Fehr, MPH, Ph.D, University of Bielefeld
E-Mail: rainer.fehr@uni-bielefeld.de

Professor Dr. Claudia Hornberg, University of Bielefeld
E-Mail: claudia.hornberg@uni-bielefeld.de

Professor Dr. med Thomas Kistemann, Institute for Hygiene and Public Health, Bonn
E-Mail: Thomas.Kistemann@ukbonn.de

Professor Dr. Jörg Knieling, HafenCity University of Hamburg
E-Mail: joerg.knieling@hcu-hamburg.de

Professorin Dr.in habil. Heike Köckler, University of Applied Sciences, Bochum
E-Mail: heike.koeckler@hs-gesundheit.de

Professor Dr. Stefan Zerbe, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
E-Mail: stefan.zerbe@unibz.it

 

Selected results

… that have been produced so far within the framework of the funding programme can be found here.