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How can the world's population be fed safely, fairly and sustainably in the future? This question will be addressed at a Food Systems Summit announced by the UN Secretary General for 2021. The IOER is providing scientific support on the way to the summit. The objective is to derive possible paths and dynamics of change from the perspectives of different groups of actors and from the negotiation processes.

In the EU project SPOT, the IOER is conducting research on new forms of cultural tourism in Lusatia, a region in the south of the federal state of Brandenburg. The research also includes investigations in the case study areas. In October 2020, a team from the IOER surveyed the population in the Lieberose/Oberspreewald district. Initial results are now available.

A new cohort of the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School (DLGS) started at the beginning of March. The fellows of the DLGS 2021 will spend three years researching challenges of spatial sustainability transformations. DLGS 2021 focuses on "heat and drought in urban contexts". The application period for cohort number 12 starts in June.

The editorial board of the journal "GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society", published by oekom-Verlag, gave an honorable mention to the article "From niche to mainstream: the dilemmas of scaling up sustainable alternatives". One of the authors is Markus Egermann from the IOER.

Since autumn 2017, an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practice partners has been investigating how urban districts and buildings can be better adapted to summer heat in the project "HeatResilientCity". The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is now funding the project for another two years. Phase II will focus on the practical implementation of adaptation measures. The project also focuses on the issue of health.

Görlitz and similar small and medium-sized towns far from large metropolises have the potential to offer creative people, freelancers and young families a new home. The special characteristics of these municipalities play a central role in this. The Corona pandemic and the associated trend towards working from home also offer opportunities for small and medium-sized cities. However, some framework conditions also stand in the way of an influx from the big city. These are some of the scientific results of the accompanying research in the project "Testing the City - Living and Working in…

The editors of the journal "International Journal of Coal Science & Technology", published by Springer, have honoured three scientists of the Leibniz-Institut of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) with the "Certificate of Best Papers 2020". Peter Wirth, Ralf-Uwe Syrbe and Wolfgang Wende received the award for their paper "Green infrastructure: a planning concept for the urban transformation of former coal-mining cities". They had published the paper in 2018 together with Chinese colleagues Jiang Chang und Tinghao Hu from Chinese University of Mining and Technology in Xuzhou.

Under the heading "Space & Transformation", the IOER Annual Conference from 22 to 24 September 2021 will focus on societal change. For the first time, interested participants have the opportunity to submit their own contributions. An autumn school on 22 September will also offer early-stage researchers space to discuss their work. The submission of contributions to the IOER Annual Conference is possible until 31 March.

From February 3 to March 11, the Center for Building Culture Saxony (ZfBK) in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) is showing the window exhibition "REVIVAL! - Historical Towns in Lower Silesia and Saxony". The exhibition was conceived in the German-Polish cooperation project of the same name. It informs about the history and architectural heritage of the ten cities involved in the project and how both can be used to revitalize the historical centers.

Many great potentials are lying dormant in historical towns and small cities along the Saxon-Polish border. Their cultural heritage could be exploited to raise the attractiveness of these locations and their quality of life of. How to achieve this was the objective of the EU project "REVIVAL! – Revitalization of historic towns in Lower Silesia and Saxony", led by the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER). Strategy recommendations are now on hand for the region as well as the four Saxon and six Polish towns involved in the project.