4EU+ joint educational project Collegio futuro  Collegio futuro 2026

Land use lies at the heart of today’s environmental challenges. It both shapes and is shaped by the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. As both a major driver and a consequence of these crises, land use plays a central role in shaping environmental sustainability and social equity. The upcoming edition of Collegio futuro invites participants to explore these complex interrelations from multiple disciplinary perspectives. It aims to deepen understanding of how land use practices contribute to and are affected by global environmental change, while fostering discussion on how competing demands for terrestrial and maritime spaces can be reconciled to promote sustainable futures.

The triple planetary crises (biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution) substantially interact with land use. On the hand, land use practices including land use change are a major driver of these crises, while the climate change, contamination of water bodies and soils, and the extinction or reduction of species themselves have negative repercussions on land use. For example, deforestation for agriculture contributes to climate change and biodiversity loss, and these, in turn, can lead to further land degradation and conflict over resources. Further, land use conflicts emerge overlapping demands for land: renewable energy infrastructure and a bioeconomy that is based on biomass need a lot of land; so does the goal to drastically increase spaces for biodiversity protection and to provide terrestrial and maritime areas for climate change adaptation and production of organic and sustainable food. Additionally, land use is inextricably bound to social relations, and conflicts around land uses reflect and reproduce existing tensions and asymmetries within and across societies, from the local to the global level. At the same time, different land use requirements and needs can also lead to synergies and create innovative prospects for a sustainable future, such as agrivoltaics.

The winter school “Fighting climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution: Conflicts and synergies of different land use options” sheds light on the topic of competing and contested land use change from different disciplinary perspectives. During the school, participants will both gain in-depth knowledge about the relations between crises dynamics and land use change and discuss possible synergies between different and competing demands for terrestrial and maritime spaces in a heating world. 

The winter school will open with a joint keynote lecture by the supervisors, followed by an open discussion involving all participants. This session will set the stage for the program and highlight the main challenges to be addressed.

Subsequent sessions will take place as four parallel workshops, each guided by a specific question. These workshops will enable participants to explore specific challenges in depth, engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, connect insights from their respective fields, and collaboratively develop a concept for a policy brief. A preparatory online session held prior to the winter school will introduce participants to the policy brief format.

On the final day, each group will deliver a 15-minute presentation on the policy brief concept, followed by a brief discussion on the topic, allowing participants to identify potential pitfalls and gather additional feedback. The winter school will close with an open discussion with all participants to explore connections and synergies among the challenges discussed within the single workshops.

The most important thing is your mind-set. The success of this winter school is largely in YOUR hands. Let your curiosity and initiative drive you, be open to new questions and topics, and engage actively in the many opportunities for interdisciplinary discussion.

Collegio futuro counts for 3 ECTS at Heidelberg University, but please note that this may differ for other partner universities. Participants are asked to contact their graduate schools and home universities regarding the recognition of ECTS. A Letter of Attendance is issued for regular participation and outcome.

Conceptualizing the process of socio-economic transformation for sustainable development demands an integration of perspectives from different research disciplines and needs creative and open-minded experts who do not hesitate to step out of their comfort zone and collaborate in an interdisciplinary manner, striving for the best solutions. Collegio futuro seeks to foster these skills essential for tackling our urgent environmental, economic, and societal challenges.

Objectives:

• strengthening competencies in interdisciplinary communication and project elaboration,
• empowering students and young researchers to transfer their knowledge and expertise to different contexts,
• promoting critical and system thinking,
• raising awareness for the challenges of socio-economic transformation,
• encouraging communication of scientific findings to civil society.