Transforming Climate-Social Futures

On 3 December 2025, the research team and project partners met in Salzburg for a joint project launch workshop.

In addition to discussing project-related matters, the day provided an opportunity for participants to get to know one another and exchange ideas.

A central focus of the workshop was to establish a shared framework for collaboration, explore individual and collective visions, and define common aspirations for the future.

University Assistant / PhD Candidate, Wissenschaft & Kunst

Alexandra is a university assistant at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, a designer, and a doctoral candidate in the Wissenschaft & Kunst programme.
Her artistic and academic research explores collaborative design processes between human and non-human actors.

Her work focuses on speculative design practices and on developing methods that foster utopian competence – the ability to imagine and work towards desirable futures – while making relationships and interdependencies visible in design and educational contexts.

Within the project, she supports organisation, communication, web content and visual design. Together with Iris, Eva and Lea, she contributes to the ongoing development of arts-based and speculative methods and to research on the co-creation of desirable futures.

Coordinator and Principal Investigator

Iris Laner is Professor of Fine Art and Art Education at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Her research lies at the intersection of philosophical aesthetics, educational theory and art education. She explores how aesthetic experience, judgement and imagination can foster a sense of community and contribute to forms of education that emphasise shared responsibility and collective learning.

In her work, she combines phenomenological and deconstructive approaches with qualitative, participatory and arts-based research methods. She investigates how people in educational and community contexts engage collectively with images, materials and aesthetic processes, and how such encounters give rise to responsibility, critical reflection and shared spaces for learning.

As coordinator and principal investigator, she oversees the project's overall management. Her research within the project focuses on questions of aesthetic philosophy, ethics and art education, as well as on the application and further development of arts-based and participatory research methods.

Principal Investigator

Monika Mayer is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Meteorology and Climatology at BOKU University in Vienna. Her research focuses on the relationship between air pollution and climate. As a physicist, she primarily uses chemical transport models to investigate the interactions and feedback loops between various physical and chemical processes.

In this project, she is focusing on two key areas:

• Using the climate computer game ‘Hotspot Earth’ to spark interest in climate issues and teach the scientific fundamentals of climate change.
• Translating the climate futures developed by young people into qualitative climate scenarios.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Max is a sustainability researcher at the Institute of Development Studies at BOKU University, where he specialises in urban climate change and the social participation of marginalised groups. His research interests include transdisciplinary processes, as well as participatory and arts-based methods.

Together with Eva, he is responsible for designing and implementing the participatory action research process with the co-researchers. He also collaborates with Christina and Lisa on investigateing Salzburg’s climate and social policies.

Principal Investigator

Christina Plank is a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Development Studies at BOKU University in Vienna. Her work in political ecology takes an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach to socio-ecological transformation and governance.

Within the project, she focuses on the City of Salzburg’s climate and social policies and the opportunities for participation they create for young people. Her research also explores strategies for socio-ecological transformation within interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Eva is a researcher at Mozarteum University Salzburg and a visual artist. Her academic interests include collaborative aesthetic education, critical approaches to knowledge and power in educational contexts, and participatory and arts-based processes in transdisciplinary settings.

Within the project, she works with Max to design and implement the arts-based and participatory research process with the co-researchers. Together with Iris, Lea and Alexandra, she also explores questions of collective imagination and the further development of arts-based methods.

Doctoral Researcher

PhD student

Jan is a research assistant at the Institute of Meteorology and Climatology at BOKU University in Vienna and in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) research group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

Jan’s research focuses on the development and evaluation of innovative methods for sustainability communication and education, as well as citizen science, with a particular focus on video games.

Together with Monika, he uses the game Hotspot Earth to introduce young people to climate issues and examines the climate futures developed by the co-researchers.

Erde Brennt Salzburg is a partner organisation in the project. The organisation contributes its experience of youth-led climate activism, helping the research team better understand the motivations, perspectives and challenges associated with climate engagement. Stephanie Wolfgruber represents Erde Brennt Salzburg within the project.

Fridays for Future Salzburg supports the project as a practice partner, contributing its experience of climate activism – particularly activism by and with young people – as well as its expertise in facilitating workshops on the climate crisis. Anika Dafert represents Fridays for Future Salzburg within the project.

• fridaysforfuture.at/gruppen/salzburg

Sindbad Salzburg supports young people in recognising and developing their potential as they transition into apprenticeships, further education or employment. Through a mentoring programme, young people are matched with volunteer mentors who support them over a period of eight to twelve months. In regular one-to-one meetings, mentoring teams work on topics such as career orientation, applications and decision-making. The programme aims to empower young people and support them in shaping their own educational pathways.

Within the project, Sindbad Salzburg contributes practical expertise and advises on the development of the participatory research process.

Anna is a dramaturg and director. From 2015 to 2019, she worked as a dramaturg at the Schauspielhaus Wien. Since 2019, she has been working freelance in collaboration with Elke Auer, Eva Jantschitsch, Thomas Köck and Matthias Köhler, and for theatres including the Schauspiel Stuttgart and the Landestheater Marburg. From 2020 to 2024, she co-curated the season programme at the Kosmos Theater Wien. She has taught at the Institute for Language Arts at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, among others. Since 2024, she has been part of the dramaturgy team at the Münchner Kammerspiele.  

Through her artistic work, she encourages young people to imagine and actively shape sustainable futures.