Upcoming General Assemblies
The next general assembly will be announced soon.
Past General Assemblies
General Assembly July 2026
The General Assembly of the TRA Sustainable Future took place at the Poppelsdorf Campus on July 23, 2026. Following a review of the past year and an outlook on the year ahead, Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings and Prof. Dr. Thomas Heckelei were elected as the TRA’s speakers for the next three years. Prof. Dr. Jan Börner stepped down as spokesperson of the TRA, receiving great thanks for his commitment over the past years. The members of the Steering Committee were also elected.
Following the General Assembly, Prof. Dr. Matthias Garschagen presented his research and ideas for potential collaborations in Bonn in his talk “Reducing Risk in Times of the Climate and Poly Crisis: Current Research and Plans for a Collaborative Project.” The lively discussions following the presentation continued over drinks and a light lunch.
General Assembly November 2025
On November 25, 2025, the TRA Sustainable Futures general meeting took place at IMPULSE – House for Intellectual Innovation and Creativity.
The spokespersons for TRA Sustainable Futures, Prof. Dr. Jan Börner and Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings, gave an overview of TRA's activities since the last meeting and presented an outlook for the coming year. The members voted on both the 2026 budget plan and the postponement of the elections.
An important item on the agenda was the presentation and discussion of the current status of the TRA 2.0 concept by the Vice President for Research and Career Development, Prof. Dr. Ilona Grunwald. This was followed by small group discussions on various aspects of the TRA 2.0 concept and its significance for TRA Sustainable Futures.
General Assembly December 2024
On December 12, the General Assembly of the TRA Sustainable Futures took place digitally via Zoom. The speakers, Prof. Ute Nöthling and Prof. Jan Börner, provided an overview of the TRA's activities since the last assembly and guided the participants through the voting process.
One agenda item was the election of Prof. Nico Mutters as a new member of the Steering Committee. Additionally, the budget for the upcoming year was approved.
The meeting concluded with a presentation by JProf. Wolfram Barfuss titled “Formalizing Proxy Failure Across Disciplines”, which was followed by a lively discussion.
General Assembly June 2024
The TRA Sustainable Futures general assembly took place on 20 June, 2024. TRA spokesperson Prof. Jan Börner hosted the event, which began with a report on TRA's activities since the last general meeting and an outlook on upcoming events.
This was followed by a discussion of the TRA's strategic development. The planned changes are the result of a year-long process, which lead to the goals of achieving a new thematic focus and sharpening the TRA’s research profile. Going forward, the TRA is to be called “Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Futures”. Additionally, the TRA's key topics are to be adapted. Instead of the previous five, the focus will now be on four thematic areas. Two of these, “Agriculture, Climate, and Ecosystems” and “Sustainable Healthy Diets”, are fields of application, while “Transformative Technologies” and “Societal Change and Innovation” are cross-cutting topics. This realignment was unanimously approved by the general assembly along with other amendments to the statute.
Finally, Prof. Julian Klaus was also unanimously elected as a new member of the TRA Steering Committee. He succeeds Prof. Mariele Evers, who ended her membership of the steering committee at the end of the winter semester.
The official part of the meeting was followed by presentations by Prof. Walter Bruchhausen and Dr. Stefan Partelow on the role of transdisciplinarity in various scientific fields, which were discussed afterwards.
General Assembly June 2023
The semi-annual General Assembly of TRA Sustainable Futures took place on 11 July 2023. After the welcome by the spokespersons of TRA Sustainable Futures Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings and Prof. Dr. Jan Börner and a short report on the activities of TRA, the recently newly elected Argelander Professor Wolfram Barfuss was introduced.
In the interactive poster session that followed, members were able to gain an insight into some of the research projects funded by TRA Sustainable Futures and also take advantage of the opportunity for exchange and networking.
General Assembly June 2023
The semi-annual General Assembly of TRA Sustainable Futures took place on 11 July 2023. After the welcome by the spokespersons of TRA Sustainable Futures Prof. Dr. Ute Nöthlings and Prof. Dr. Jan Börner and a short report on the activities of TRA, the recently newly elected Argelander Professor Wolfram Barfuss was introduced.
In the interactive poster session that followed, members were able to gain an insight into some of the research projects funded by TRA Sustainable Futures and also take advantage of the opportunity for exchange and networking.
General Assembly December 2022
On December 15th 2022, the members of TRA Sustainable Futures met again to exchange ideas and to decide on important directions for 2023. With broad approval, changes in the administrative structure were voted for. We congratulate the new TRA speaker Prof. Ute Nöthlings and the re-elected TRA speaker Prof. Jan Börner. Our thanks go to the now former speaker Prof. Joachim von Braun and Prof. Gabriel Schaaf, who left the Steering Committee of TRA Sustainable Futures.
In the main plenary, overviews of TRA's development and reports on funded projects were presented. In addition, members were able to actively discuss with each other in three open barcamp groups. The diverse topics were suggested by members themselves. They were about possible applications of infrared sensors in measuring activity of animal live stock, which help to make decisions for more animal welfare. Another group addressed the rights of future generations and the ethical question of the duty not to leave irreversible damage to the environment with current decisions and actions, especially due to climate change and biodiversity loss. The third barcamp addressed the implications of COP27 (Climate Change Conference in Sharm El-Sheikh, November 2022) for the TRA Sustainable Futures research agenda, including centrally the question: what interdisciplinary research is currently essential to enable a sustainable future through innovation and technology?