Award ceremony for the Youth Creative Award Sustainability 2025: "System Change, not Climate Change? - What does the future advise today?"

Organised by [tra:ce], the research centre for just and sustainable transformation, the Youth Creative Award was all about unleashing creative forces through a creative and critical examination of the present and future. The task of the competition was to imagine oneself in the year 2070 and to formulate a piece of advice to a person from the present from this perspective. The competition was made possible and initiated through the collaboration between the International Center for Sustainable and Just Transformation [tra:ce] of UW/H, the University of Witten/Herdecke and the Witten University Society (WUG).

We were delighted and impressed by the creativity and diversity of the entries submitted - from collages to staged telephone calls.

We cordially invite you to the digital award ceremony on 11 February 2026 from 5 to 7 pm. In addition to the presentation of the award-winning entries, you can look forward to two exciting lectures by professors and researchers from the university, which will tie in with the content of the submissions and expand on them:

• Prof Dr Jan Heilinger: "The climate crisis and me: am I responsible even though the system is unfair?"
• Prof Dr Jan Ehlers & Julia Nitsche: "Family member or topping? Dilemmas of the animal-human relationship"

Afterwards, you will also have the opportunity to talk to UW/H students and ask questions about the university and the degree programmes on offer.

The award ceremony is open to all pupils, teachers and students, even if they have not submitted their own contribution. The prize money for the competition was donated by the Witten University Society.

It is not necessary to register in advance. Participation takes place via Zoom. If there are any problems setting up the Zoom meeting, instructions are available.