Within the past few years, our awareness of the environment and the way we have treated it up to now has grown greatly. We must no longer live at the expense of future generations and are obliged to do more for the preservation of our nature. This idea regularly drives thousands of young people to the streets under the "Fridays for Future" movement for a future worth living. We also share these concerns and as bioscience students, we are asking ourselves what role science can and should play in this problem and what responsibility it must take. Therefore, we would like to give space to this topic in this summer symposium to be discussed with other students as well as with other scientists. During our symposium, we want to shine light on three major aspects of substainability. Therefore we distinguish three different sessions:

Session I – Research as key for sustainability

The pandemic has shown how irreplaceable research is for the well-being of mankind. Scientists were able to save countless lives through the development of vaccines. We therefore believe that through further research, solutions can be developed to preserve nature and our standard of living. In this block we want to listen to scientists and their research for a more sustainable life.

Session II – Sustainability in the lab

We are firmly convinced that science must play a pioneering role in social change. At the same time, however, we see that plastic and various pollutants are used in the laboratory every day. Is there another way? Green Lab initiatives have already developed strategies for sustainable research, for example to reduce plastic. Likewise, there are also companies and bio-tech startups with sustainable ideas. We would like to offer them a platform in this part of our symposium.

Session III – sustainable working conditions for scientists

In addition to the points on sustainability presented so far, we are also concerned with another aspect: the sustainable treatment of researchers in science. Despite their great responsibility, scientists rarely seem to be properly appreciated. The current law on temporary contracts for scientists puts a lot of pressure on many researchers and affects their own life and well-being. Just how precarious working conditions are in science has become apparent in recent years under the hashtag #ichbinhanna. In a panel discussion we will also address this important topic and discuss possible solutions.