Third Mission School
Cities like Berlin face major challenges: climate change, public health pressures, social inequality, and rapid urban transformation. To meet these challenges effectively requires diverse knowledge, expertise, and innovation capacity.
The Third Mission School combines continuing education, project-related advisory support, and co-creative research. Researchers and institutions participate in workshops, training sessions, and iterative projects with civil society and practice partners. Methods include participatory design, stakeholder engagement, cross-university networking, and evaluation of engagement practices to inform institutional change.
- Researchers acquire skills, confidence, and methods for meaningful, two-way engagement with society.
- Universities embed new transfer formats and participatory practices as structural components of research.
- Berlin benefits from strengthened collaboration between universities, citizens, and practice partners, creating innovative solutions for climate, health, and urban resilience.
The project is a cross-university initiative that bundles the expertise and capacities of five universities of applied sciences to co-develop solutions for resilient urban development. The Berlin School coordinates the Third Mission School sub-project, integrating training, research, and advisory work with civil society and institutional partners to strengthen both individual competencies and systemic change.
Partners
The Third Mission School is part of the Berlin-wide initiative “Zukunft findet Stadt – University Network for a Resilient Berlin,” a collaboration between five universities of applied sciences: Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW), Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Recht Berlin (HWR), Berliner Hochschule für Technik (BHT), Evangelische Hochschule Berlin (EHB), and Katholische Hochschule für Sozialwesen Berlin (KHSB), and their practice partners, including the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin represented by the Berlin School of Public Engagement and Open Science, Johannisstift Diakonie Pflege und Wohnen, and Impact Hub Berlin.
The Third Mission School project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR).
The TheMuseumsLab CollabFund initiative is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Science, Health, Care, and Equality (ERDF funds).