The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a global agenda addressing social, economic, and environmental challenges in a holistic approach. Universities can contribute to the implementation of the SDGs by providing know-how and best-practice examples to support implementation and by integrating issues of sustainability into their operations, research, education, and science-society interactions. In most of the signatory countries of the Agenda 2030, an overview of the extent to which universities have already addressed the SDGs in research is not available. Using the example of universities in Austria, this study presents a tool to map research that addresses sustainability topics as defined by the SDGs. The results of an analysis of scientific projects and publications show current focus areas of SDG related research. Research on SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) and SDG 4 (Quality Education) is well represented by universities in Austria, while other SDGs, such as SDG 1 (No Poverty) or SDG 14 (Life Below Water), are under-represented research fields. We anticipate the results will support universities in identifying the thematic orientation of their research in the framework of the SDGs. This information can facilitate inter-university cooperation to address the challenge of implementing the SDGs.

Under the premise that the young generation of teenagers cannot be considered to be uniform, this study identified groups of teenagers based on their level of climate change awareness. Questionnaires answered by 760 teenagers (13-16 years old) from Germany and Austria were analyzed using a hierarchical cluster analysis. The teenagers were assigned to four groups that differed as to their cognitive, affective and conative aspects of climate change awareness. Based on the empirical results, the authors argue that there are different subgroups of young people in terms of climate change awareness, which climate change education should take into consideration.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Climate Change Education (CCE) aim at increasing (young) people’s competencies and critical engagement. Their impact depends on innovative learning settings. In this study, we deliver scientific evidence of the success of ESD/CCE in schools when pupils do their own research and co-operate with experts.The COP21 Agreement 2015 sets very high targets, which cannot be reached by political agreements or technological progress alone. Within this context, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and particularly Climate Change Education (CCE), play an ever increasing role regarding a holistic societal transformation towards a sustainable world. Creating ESD/CCE learning settings and delivering scientific evidence for their success has turned into a vital challenge in order to meet the high expectations. In this longitudinal study, based on the research project k.i.d.Z.21 ‐ Competent into the Future, we deliver scientific evidence of the success of CCE when based on transdisciplinary and/or moderate constructivist theories, and show that the impact is even higher when both approaches are combined. The data presented derive from scientific surveys and tests, involving 343 teenagers before and after intensive collaboration with a high number of experts, including renowned climate change scientists.

Strengthening their climate change literacy: A case study addressing the weaknesses in young people's climate change awareness,

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