Higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly confronted with societal needs beyond research and teaching. These include sustainable development and technology transfer as well as the practical application of knowledge and ideas. Several HEIs already put sustainable development and transfer into practice. These practitioner-university partnerships comprise a broad range of actors, disciplines, topics, and formats. However, transfer activities that contribute to sustainable development in society still make up only a very small part of HEIs' activities. In response to calls from society as a whole, HEIs could combine transfer and sustainable development more systematically. In this article, we suggest a concept of transfer for sustainable development. The focus is on sustainability transfer in teaching. We used mixed methods for this conceptual work: exploratory workshops, expert interviews, and a case study of transfer in teaching. One of the results presented in this article is a working definition of sustainability transfer at HEIs. In addition, six characteristics for describing sustainability transfer in its various forms are formulated. This conceptualization makes it possible to analyze the diversity of HEIs' sustainability transfer activities, it helps to identify and encourage potential transfer actors at HEIs as well as practitioners, and, thus, tap the full potential of sustainability transfer.
Sustainability research often recommends the application of integrated and system‐based management approaches for overcoming complex problems of land and natural resource use. This paper poses four major governance challenges for sustainable land management as its point of departure: (i) fragmented knowledge and expertise, (ii) heterogeneous actors, (iii) institutional diversity and (iv) inadequate processes for coordination, adaptation and learning. Taking these challenges for conceptual orientation, we analyze a process for designing a governance strategy for treated wastewater uses. Drawing on a transdisciplinary research project that empirically explored the potential of water reuse in two case study regions in north‐east Germany, the paper reflects upon the project's experiences to arrive at practicable governance solutions. Our conclusions are intended to provide insights regarding challenges facing transdisciplinary research, acting on the science–policy–practice interface for dealing with such complex land and water management problems, and the coproduction of accepted governance solutions.
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