Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy
The Wuppertal Institute
Sustainable development requires an integrated approach to policy and science because many of the issues it raises cannot be addressed within a single department or using the tools of individual scientific disciplines. This is where the Wuppertal Institute's research programme begins - by taking an interdisciplinary approach and working towards systems understanding. Applied sustainability research is the Wuppertal Institute's stated mission:Mission - Driving Sustainable Development
"The Wuppertal Institute explores and develops models, strategies and instruments to support sustainable development at local, national and international level. Sustainability research at the Wuppertal Institute focuses on ecology and its relation to economy and society. Special emphasis is put on analysing and supporting technological and social innovations that decouple prosperity and economic growth from the use of natural resources."This is how the Wuppertal Institute's mission statement describes the Institute's activities. Based on the classic scientific disciplines, the research conducted towards this end combines their approaches to generate practical and actor-oriented solutions. Problems, solutions and networks are equally focused on global, national and regional/local levels.
The Wuppertal Institute understand sustainability research as
- oriented on applicability in real life
- integrative and cross-sectional
- interdisciplinary and based on systems analysis
- oriented on long-term ecological developments
- based on teamwork across the classic scientific disciplines
- relying on a network of partners in science, business and policy
- independent and committed
The Team
The Institute was founded in 1991 under the direction of Professor Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker. Professor Peter Hennicke heads the Institute as its President and Chief Research Executive. The Wuppertal Institute's staff numbers approximately 140. Two-thirds are research staff and come from a wide variety of background disciplines: natural and environmental sciences, geography, systems sciences, engineering, planning, law, economics, political and social science.The Wuppertal Institute cooperates with universities in guiding PhD, diploma and master's candidates in their work. Our research activities are supported by a global network of cooperation partners and individual scientists.