The Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development in the greater area Hamburg, Lüneburg and Lübeck bay is officially chaired and since 2014 also coordinated by the Research and Transfer Centre “Application of Life Sciences” of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Since 2015, the RCE Hamburg and Region network activities address explicitly higher education institutions who have committed themselves to education for sustainable development through their activities.

The vision of the RCE Hamburg and region is to work interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary and cross-institutional with a special focus on incorporating education for sustainable development into the context and learning environment of higher education institutions (HEIs). HEIs are playing a major role regarding support and capacity building on topics related to sustainability and sustainable development. They act as facilitator for societal innovation and do have the power to lay ground for important discussions about changes towards a more sustainable way of living.

Although focusing on higher education institutions, the RCE Hamburg and Region will include local and regional actors (formal and informal educational institutions, research institutions, higher education institutions, communities, authorities, companies, NGO´s etc.) involved in education for sustainable development in its activities and especially during the events organized and undertaken in frame of the RCE. RCE Hamburg sees its role in fostering synergies and in serving as platform for exchanging knowledge, experiences and best practices and to facilitate networking among actors active in the field of sustainability.