How about if we could make the world a little better?

That's the motto of Impact Hub Leipzig, a community and innovation ecosystem nestled in the heart of Leipzig. It's part of the global Impact Hub network with over 110 locations worldwide.

It is a diverse and dedicated community comprising entrepreneurs, creatives, SMEs, freelancers, investors, and NGOs. At Impact Hub, the regional creatives inspire, connect, and empower one another to develop and implement ideas for a more sustainable world. The goal is to foster the development of a collaborative impact economy for impact startups and their partners.

On April 18th from 15:00 to 17:00 in G5 - R117, Anja Hirschfelder will give a presentation about this work. She is the founder and managing director of ImpactHub Leipzig and will present how the global ImpactHub community is working to make the world a better place as part of the Impact Day organized by Work Package 4.

We look forward to many enthusiastic participants!

Further information about ImpactHub Leipzig can be found on their website.

Image by chaylekVecteezy

Starting 2024 full of fresh ideas and motivation at ATU, Ireland

The staff week of Work Package 8 ended on Thursday, January 18, 2024, after presentations and workshops at two of the Atlantic Technical University campuses in Letterkenny and Sligo, a visit to the renowned Organic Centre, and many generous invitations to experience the Irish culture.

The event included presentations from EU GREEN partners on the current situation within their universities, focusing on successful initiatives and the challenges they face. Participants had the opportunity to attend workshops, participate in fruitful discussions, and enjoy a dinner accompanied by live music at the Mount Errigal Hotel.

On the second day, parallel sessions were held, including workshops for students and staff, as well as joint presentations of workshop outcomes. The programme was then moved to Sligo, whilst making a quick yet eventful stop at the Organic Centre.

Day three focused on climate challenges and re-imagining the green and blue spaces of each respective university, part of the first steps of establishing climate-resilient campuses. Participants engaged in systems mapping, thematic analysis workshops, and discussions on action targets and next steps.

The programme concluded with parallel sessions for students and staff, including workshops and action plan activities. Nevertheless, student engagement, as well as the health and well-being of all university members were at the forefront of several of the workshops. The week culminated with joint presentations of workshop outcomes and conclusions.

After four days of meeting in person, in work and play, we have built a stronger team that will move forward with more clarity and speed.

The staff week might officially be over, but the journey has just begun. Stay tuned for more news on WP8 happenings!

EU GREEN contributors and supporters meet again on 14. December, 1 p.m., online.

EU GREEN thrives on participation and involvement. In order to achieve the goal of joint, innovative learning and teaching at European level, it is not necessary to set up fundamentally new structures at the universities - the focus is rather on building on existing ones, as well as networking and exchanging ideas with each other.

In this way, each participant can contribute their own expertise and share their own areas of excellence with colleagues or fellow students.

The subject areas are therefore logically subdivided into individual work packages, which are staffed accordingly within the university structure of each alliance partner.

Within the framework of the EU GREEN activity meeting, all those involved in EU GREEN at OVGU meet internally once a month (every 4th Thursday) to discuss progress, current tasks and upcoming challenges. Participants can not only be employees and students already involved in EU GREEN, but also those generally interested in the alliance.

A one-time registration is required, either via e-mail to  or via the following mailing list.

The first official EU GREEN event on OvGU's campus. 75 local students took part in the citizen science initiative Tree BioBlitz

On the 12^th of October 2023, 75 students from Werner-von-Siemens High School were working on a citizen science project to name the trees on OVGU’s main campus. The event took place between Walter-Rathenau-Street and Nordpark (North Park). PIC a TREE is part of an initiative launched by the European University Network EU GREEN called Tree BioBlitz, whose aim it is to involve children in citizen science.

OVGU is one of the nine universities within EU GREEN (The European University Alliance for Sustainability: responsible Growth, inclusive Education and Environment) which brings together peripheral regionally anchored but globally oriented mid-sized universities from across Europe, each focused on a particular set of sustainability-related practices.

Children from local schools mapped the trees across the alliance‘s European University campuses in France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Poland and Romania.

“In autumn, trees are at their most colourful, and ATU designed this citizen science event together with our alliance partners, to share our biodiversity knowledge with local communities”, stated Professor Frances Lucy, the EU GREEN lead for ATU – our partner in Ireland. ”One of the main aims of EU GREEN is to engage with our regions to promote sustainability and when children learn citizen science skills from event like this, they become environmental champions for life![VJ1] ” In a playful way and using digital technologies - the biodiversity app iNaturalist was used to carry out the event - students could learn something about their city’s biodiversity. The combined tree results were recorded in the app, and EU GREEN will produce an open source report which will be freely available.

Citizen science projects introduce citizens, in this case children and young people, to scientific practice and not only provide important insights into the way science ‘works’, but also represent a form of participation in knowledge production.