Thuringian Water Innovation Cluster

22 March is World Water Day. World Water Day, instituted by the United Nations, highlights the importance of drinkable water and the necessity of handling water sustainably. For this reason, this was a very special date for our ThWIC community. 

In the week from 18 March to 22 March 2024, in a collaboration between the Fraunhofer IKTS institute and ThWIC, we organized a programme de to demonstrate different approaches to a sustainable way of dealing with water in our projects.

Water is not only an elemental force and a vital matter for all living beings but it is also a deeply poetic and symbolic substance with an enduring history in the human imagination. This lecture series de will examine how water serves as both a physical backdrop and a symbolic motif in North American literature. Ranging from water’s pivotal role in struggles for environmental justice, the imagination of water futures to aesthetic and symbolic dimensions of water in poetic works this lecture series explores the many ways in which water shapes North American literature.

With the rise of sustainability to one of the most influential terms of the present, sustainability research has changed likewise. The restriction to primarily ecological lines of questioning has long since made way to the understanding that in the current sustainability crisis, questions of ecological, economical, social and cultural nature are interlaced.

This lecture series de offers insights into current discussions, central topics and controversies of sustainability research and introduces various disciplinary approaches to sustainability issues. The lectures are open for interested students of all subjects and study programmes.

The lecture series is part of the ThWIC project IntraLEAD. Find more information about the project IntraLEAD here de.

Water issues can only be solved collectively. Through working together across borders between subjects and disciplines. Through close partnerships between science and business. Through cooperating with stakeholders in politics, administration, and civil society. With the ThWIC Lecture Series, we want to open up a room to find new perspectives on water issues, discover complementary skills, and establish new partnerships. Short impulses from academia and practice grant insights into current topics around our cluster and provide a space to exchange ideas. Bring your ideas, suggestions, and questions surrounding the topic water and become part of the ThWIC community!

The HANNOVER MESSEExternal link takes place from 22 to 26 April 2024. At the joint booth Forschung für die Zukunft ("Research for the Future") of Thuringia's universities in hall 2, stand C24, we are presenting the Thuringian Water Innovation Cluster (ThWIC). Using various exhibits from our projects as examples, we want to illustrate ThWIC's range and give our ThWIC community the chance to present their work towards a sustainable approach to water to a broad audience. 

The Woche der UmweltExternal link ("Week of the Environment") presents innovative environmental protection topics and projects: The Federal President and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU) cordially invite you to Berlin on 4 and 5 June 2024 in pursuit of a greener future. Around 190 exhibitors will present their innovative solutions for responsibly shaping change in the park of Schloss Bellevue. We are excited to be one of them!

In order to foster exchange and networking within and outside of the cluster, ThWIC plans another two-day ThWIC Retreat this year on 7 and 8 October 2024.

Besides the presentation of the cluster's current results, this year's important items on the agenda include the strategy process and a think tank for future cooperations and joint research projects.

Find more information and sign up here de.