About us

Mission statement

To become more effective, policy-oriented research needs a clear understanding of the epistemological challenges that result from the complexity of the science-policy nexus, and it also needs an elaborated understanding of the ethical issues related to sustainable development. With teaching, research and collaborations, our group contributes to systematizing and strengthening integrated and policy-oriented research in the department.

On a strong philosophical basis, we closely collaborate with empirical projects in the fields of agriculture and forestry and of climate change. The focus of our research is

• on the epistemology and methodology of integrated policy-oriented research;
  
• on methods for dealing with the complexity of the concept of sustainable development in policy assessment and in empirical research; and
  
• on the analysis of conceptions and arguments regarding anthropogenic climate change.
  

Our teaching enhances student’s analytical competence and basic understanding of philosophical and ethical aspects of environmental science and research. Furthermore we teach students how to work in a structured and reflected manner with complex issues like sustainable development or environmental assessments.