Liveable Planet looks at German university as inspiration for a ‘Liveable Planet Academy’
The Leiden University interdisciplinary program Liveable Planet is working on a ‘Liveable Planet Academy’ as a follow-up to its activities. The coordinating team visited the transdisciplinary Leuphana University (Germany) to get inspiration for the setup of the academy.
Liveable Planet (LP) is one of the nine interfaculty initiatives (stimuleringsprogramma’s). It is dedicated to advancing sustainable transitions through strategic events and projects. As a follow-up to this project, the LP coordination team has formulated a plan for a Liveable Planet Academy, focusing on building transdisciplinary science, research, and education. To inspire this initiative, the LP representatives conducted a benchmarking visit to Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany, in March 2025.
Leuphana is Europe's only university structured specifically to advance sustainability education and development, emphasising interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. The visit of LPs’ representatives concluded a four-year period of collaboration. It also provided an opportunity to explore new initiatives, including creating living labs and seeking innovative transdisciplinary research and education forms. ‘The Liveable Planet Team believes Leiden University can become a frontrunner if it further develops its transdisciplinary activities and facilities, as inspired by this visit’, says coordinator Gerard Breeman.
Leuphana’s vision
Leuphana's key strength lies in housing social and natural sciences within a single Sustainability faculty, which significantly facilitates interdisciplinary research and education. Leuphana puts students at the centre of its philosophy and operations. They trust students' ability to identify what knowledge they want to contribute to society.
The transdisciplinary vision of Leuphana becomes tangible as students and staff learn to leverage knowledge from laypeople and practitioners, develop communication skills beyond interviewing, incorporate research ethics, and are enabled to develop personal narratives. With those skills, students ultimately can produce knowledge and innovations for external partners and scientific output. An essential mechanism for achieving this is offering all BA students the “Leuphana semester”. All bachelor students (approximately 1,400) follow identical courses during their first semester, establishing a standard foundation, shared vision, and academic approach. The unified "Leuphana Semester" includes a methods module, a data and AI module, modules on "transforming knowledge" and "producing knowledge," ethics, and an annual elective subject.
Essential physical place
Transdisciplinary projects, in particular, require a lot of coordination and effort for programs to run smoothly. To do so, the university has a Centre for Transdisciplinary Teaching and a Case Study Office. Furthermore, project metadata is centrally stored and accessible, also to societal partners, as are overviews of the research methodologies for transdisciplinary projects. The university's physical place is essential. Its campus design fosters interaction, featuring numerous intensively used meeting spaces encouraging collaboration, creativity, deliberation, and discussion. Currently, Leuphana is enhancing its vision through a Transformation Lab. The goal is to strengthen existing academic relationships and develop new projects and activities. The lab will focus on developing transformation knowledge, combining shareholder dialogue with companies, citizen science initiatives, and artistic elements.
Leiden can become a 'transdisciplinary frontrunner'
‘The Liveable Planet Academy could bundle our university's various existing transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary experiences and provide support for developing new interdisciplinary courses and methods, as seen in Leuphana’s Centre for Transdisciplinary Teaching and its Case Study Office,’ says Breeman. Additionally, such an academy could provide practical support by setting up living labs, developing citizen science projects or developing co-teaching formats. It may facilitate inspiring meeting spaces where the public meets the knowledge brokers, whether these are a student or a staff member. Where a Liveable Planet Academy can serve as the operational hub, the engine of such an academy could be a transformation lab, such as the one at Leuphana, where new ideas and forms of academia are thought through, discussed, and tested.
Such a transformation Lab would fit well with our seven faculties, creating a unique position in the region and the Netherlands, says Breeman. ‘The LP team believes it would be beneficial to start by teaching all new Bachelor students what we in Leiden consider essential in sustainability ethics, norms, and values, as well as some general aspects of teaching and education. Finally, it believes that better facilitating students' development in an environment of overwhelming choices would be beneficial.’
Next steps
The LP program will be taking numerous next steps, says Breeman. ‘We plan to create a Transformation Lab to propel the Liveable Planet Academy, promoting transdisciplinary education and research modules. Also, we'll explore the possibility of creating a general introductory course on sustainable well-being that may fit in different education programs; are developing new knowledge sessions and other events with the Hague municipality, organising the interdisciplinary Una Europa Student Congress in Leiden next year, and, via the Buurtlab 070, going on a road tour to collect new sustainability questions that are living among the Hague citizens. Finally, we would love a physical space in our academic buildings!’
Banner photo: the main building of Leuphana University