The COPERNICUS Alliance is a European network of universities and colleges committed to transformational learning and change for sustainable development. It aims to enable European higher education institutions and their partners to jointly identify challenges in higher education for sustainable development and spearhead development of processes, tools, and knowledge to address these challenges from a whole-institution perspective.
The Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (saguf) is a professional society that has been promoting environmental and sustainability research in Switzerland for more than 40 years. Saguf is committed to inter- and transdisciplinary, practice and solution-oriented research. Saguf is a member of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT) and the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) and is co-editor of the international scientific journal GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society.
With the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net), the Swiss academies play a key role in advancing transdisciplinary research in all thematic fields. As a Swiss hub, the academies are also highly connected with networks and initiatives worldwide, covering the fields of research, capacity building, and funding.
Sustainability is one of the University of Bern’s strategic pillars. UniBE is the home of excellent disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research and teaching with an international focus on topics such as the climate and climate change, responding to challenges of global change (North-South relations), and the regulation of world trade. Further key sustainability-related foci are biodiversity and water and energy resources. In addition, the University of Bern has been supporting the integration of sustainable development into teaching in numerous ways and is continuously adapting its operations with the SDGs in mind.
Sustainability is anchored at the heart of the University of Lausanne’s core missions (education, research, and outreach) and its campus operations. The campus itself is a laboratory for exploring and learning about sustainability where UniL aims to be a pioneer in five areas of engagement: reducing the impact of the campus on the biosphere, becoming a crossroads for reflection on sustainable development, promoting a culture of sustainability, stimulating interdisciplinarity, and enabling students to acquire basic values, knowledge, and skills in sustainability.
