Foresights working group

Since September 2018 there has been a foresight working group at the gW/N under the coordination of Mathias Kirchner, which deals in detail with research topics on the most important global challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. The aim of the working group is to coordinate and network existing research skills at the BOKU, to cooperate with relevant research groups and to submit joint project ideas, as well as to independently develop new skills in the field of foresight. In addition, the foresight working group supports the implementation of the third mission of the BOKU, through lectures, holding workshops and text contributions for e.g. climate academies, schools, the youth climate conference, civil society initiatives and much more.

The foresight working group coordinated the creation of the reference national energy and climate plan (Ref-NEKP) in 2019 (the foresight group was actively supported by the student assistant Andrea Gutsohn). The REF-NEKP shows scientifically sound ways of implementing the Paris climate goals in Austria and was awarded the Sustainability Award in 2020 in the "Communication & Decision-Making" category.

The Foresight working group is currently supporting the projects

  • UniNEtZ, especially with reference to SDG-13 (climate protection; option of an eco-social tax reform), as well as the evaluation of methods for evaluating SDG interactions.
  • APCC Special Report Landnutzung, Landmanagement und Klimawandel, especially with reference to drivers of agricultural land use (Lead Author), as well as climate protection measures in agriculture (Contributing Author).
  • Recently there also startet the ACRP project FARECarbon, that tries to identify an effective and at the same time socially fair pricing of CO2 (Head: Joanneum Research)

Contact: mathias.kirchner(at)boku.ac.at