Coastal cities around the world are at risk of sinking as a result of rising sea levels in the wake of global warming. Urban researcher Hilke Marit Berger asks herself how this can be dealt with, not just technically, but above all socially and emotionally – and searches the past for answers for the future.

Trained as a mechanical engineer, the Kampala-based researcher Peter W. Olupot has spent the last decade finding ways to produce affordable water purification systems using rice husks, a common byproduct of rice production.

Human societies transform the natural environment around them. If this impact is negative, it can increase infectious disease risk. Epidemiologist Joacim Rocklöv believes changing human behavior is critical to preventing pandemics from happening in the future. 

Environmental scientist Susanne Benz wants to harvest the heat being emitted from large cities in huge quantities every day. This heat recycling could help to reduce energy consumption – an unusual idea that she will be researching in more detail in the coming years with the support of the Freigeist programme.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of latex mattresses end up in the bulky waste in Germany. They are incinerated because there is no recycling process for them. The REFOAM research project aims to change this.

Election victories for authoritarian parties, demonstrations against the right, Fridays for Future and increasing populism: democracies in Europe are coming under pressure. The "ProDem" project has analysed the impact of protest movements on the development of democracy in six European countries.