Green Talents 2021 again on a virtual tour of Germany
7th October 2021 — The second edition of the virtual Science Forum for talented young researchers begins on the 7th October. The 25 winners of this year's Green Talents competition, who were selected by a jury of experts as talented young researchers in the field of sustainability science, will be among the participants. The winners from various scientific disciplines are working on a variety of topics that directly contribute to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Green Talents Science Forum will once again take place as a virtual science forum this year –conceived, prepared and implemented by DLR-PT on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The Science Forum takes the 25 Green Talents on an exciting virtual journey where they explore the German research landscape in the field of sustainability, network with German researchers and get to know the other award winners. In the coming days, the Green Talents will virtually visit German research institutions, universities and organisations involved in sustainability science and discuss their projects with local experts.
This year, the participating research institutions and companies include the German Aerospace Center (DLR), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Leuphana University Lüneburg as well as RITTEC Umwelttechnik GmbH, StadtFarm and Werner & Mertz GmbH. The research trip concludes with the virtual award ceremony by Dr Michael Meister MdB, Parliamentary State Secretary at the BMBF, on Friday the 15th October 2021.
Laying the foundation for sustainability networks
Through contacts with the German scientific community and the exchange of exciting ideas with key innovators, the award winners are laying the foundation for future collaborations. In addition, the Green Talents are invited to come to Germany in 2022 for a fully funded research stay at an institution of their choice.
With the Green Talents competition, the BMBF has been promoting the exchange of innovative green ideas and the emergence of international collaborations since 2009, when DLR-PT assumed responsibility for organising the competition. The project team is in charge of designing the annual programme, guiding researchers through the application phase and organising the research trip for the selected Green Talents. In addition, DLR-PT supports the BMBF in the pre-selection of applications, designs and organises the jury meeting and accompanies the participants on the research trip and to the award ceremony in Berlin.
The topic of sustainability at DLR-PT
In line with the "European Green Deal", DLR-PT contributes to more sustainability in many other places, taking into account the "Sustainable Development Goals" (SDGs) of the United Nations. Examples include the BMBF's framework announcement on green hydrogen and the funding initiative "Research on resilience strengthening and structural development in African cities and urban areas". The research programme "Social-ecological Research (SÖF)", which DLR-PT has been managing for the BMBF for more than a decade, is also considered one of the pioneer programmes for researching and testing sustainable transformation.