Heidelberg University is the oldest university in Germany. In 2019, its status as an elite university was officially confirmed once again. Building on the concept of Comprehensive Research University – a university with outstanding research strength – and the basis of a cross-disciplinary dialogue, Heidelberg University uses its special strengths to continue innovation in research, teaching and transfer and help with solving complex societal challenges. The Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE) helps to combine existing competences at Heidelberg University in the area of environmental sciences. Going beyond the traditional boundaries of a specific subject or discipline, the HCE aims at providing academic solutions to existential challenges and ecological effects of natural, technological and societal changes on humans.
The HCE was founded in 2011. It is part of the institutional strategy of the University Heidelberg and has set up six interdisciplinary research groups as well as many central activities and projects. The complexity and cultural dependence of modern environmental problems goes beyond the analytical framework of any one single method or discipline. For this reason, the HCE employs a model of inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation. Heidelberg University is renowned, also at the international level, as a place where this overall view of the environment is developed and integrated into teaching methods and public discourse on the issue.
