It has been talked about for a long time, now at the end of June it came to the first "Come Together": Stakeholders from the City of Dresden and the TU Dresden met at the latter for the workshop "What's sustainable in Dresden?" as part of the TUD Sustainability Week. The meeting was organised by the Green Office of TU Dresden and Zukunftsstadt Dresden, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research since 2015 and has so far produced a number of sustainable citizens' projects and initiatives. During the moderated exchange over coffee and cake, a number of synergies between TU institutions and the municipal departments emerged with regard to the sustainable development of Dresden and the overall social transformation in the city. Although both institutions have already worked together on individual projects in the past, the need for stronger and more permanent cooperation was felt again and again. Topics that were addressed in this context and could play a role in the future between science and administration were:

• Climate-neutral and smart city 2030
• Consideration of climate protection in the renovation of buildings, e.g. vegetation and photovoltaics on roofs
• Sustainable equipment for events
• Knowledge transfer in the development of sustainability strategies and integrated climate protection concepts
• Inclusion and participation
• Regional and climate-adapted agriculture and food system
• Education for sustainable development 
• Protection of biodiversity and development of urban nature

OLGA was also present at the exchange. We made contacts to promote research and development on sustainable approaches to land management and food habits (regional, seasonal, climate-adapted!) in the region and to raise awareness for regional value creation in agriculture and food in general. At TU Dresden, there are already initiatives in this regard for more regional communal catering in the TU canteens and the stronger integration of educational offers for sustainable development in the area of agriculture and nutrition for students, e.g. directly on a campus-owned agricultural practice and experimentation area. All participating projects and initiatives were able to present themselves in the form of a project stand. We didn't need to be told twice and turned our OLGA info point into a tasting stand for mini-breads made from regional field bean flour with at least locally prepared field bean and lupine hummus with lots of information about the nutritional value and the climate balance of pulses for the stand visitors. 

The networking process between administration and science will already be continued beginning of September at a second "sustainability" meeting.

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Das Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL) beabsichtigt, Modell- und Demonstrationsvorhaben (MuD) im Rahmen eines Aufrufs zum Thema „Zukunftsfähige Landwirtschaft mit Agroforstsystemen“ zu fördern. Die Förderung erfolgt über das Förderprogramm „Nachwachsende Rohstoffe“ (FPNR) und untersetzt den Förderschwerpunkt „Entwicklung von Konzepten für eine nachhaltige Erzeugung und Verwertung nachwachsender Rohstoffe unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Ressource Wasser“.

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Food systems must ensure a balanced diet for all people. But how can we produce food in an environmentally and socially responsible way? What developments and innovations does the future hold? This is what the National Dialogue is about.

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In doing so, the partners will jointly explore new ways of local cooperation between science and practice. This is the aim of the cooperation agreement signed by Marc Wolfram, Director of the IOER, and Mayor Dirk Hilbert on Monday, 6 December 2021. 

The IOER and the City of Dresden are already working together in various projects on sustainable urban and regional development. Among other things, they are working on heat adaptation in densely built-up urban districts or the participatory design of processes of sustainable innovation. In the future, the partners want to orient themselves even more long-term and coordinate more strategically than before. 

The agreement aims at a new form and quality of local cooperation between science and practice. The aim is to take up and link different bodies of knowledge from politics, administration, business, science and civil society and make them equally useful for research and practice. The newly acquired knowledge should help to initiate, accelerate and perpetuate innovative processes and thus drive a profound change towards sustainability.

OLGA will actively contribute to the cooperation process with the strategies and implementation options for sustainable land use in Dresden and the surrounding area as well as a more regionalized agriculture and food economy in the region.

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