Campus Meets Community Festival: Working Together for a Sustainable Society

1 October 2025

From 18 to 20 September 2025, the Campus Meets Community Festival—organised by the Research Office for Social Innovation (ROSI) of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo) in cooperation with Aktivoli Landesnetzwerk e.V. and the Co-Creation & Engagement team of the University of Hamburg’s Transfer Agency—brought together creative and innovative minds from higher education, civil society, and social entrepreneurship from across the German-speaking region. The festival included the annual conference of the Higher Education Network Bildung durch Verantwortung (Education through Responsibility, HBdV) and, under the motto “Response-Ability,” placed a strong focus on the responsibility of universities to actively contribute to addressing societal challenges.

With 280 participants over the three days and strong involvement from UHH lecturers, researchers, and students, topics such as campus–community partnerships as an overarching concept were discussed, and teaching approaches as well as examples of implemented practical collaborations were presented and reflected upon. In addition to traditional panel sessions, the programme featured a poster session, a wide range of workshops, thematic cafés, panel discussions, and three inspiring keynote addresses. A particular highlight was the presentation by London Metropolitan University of its strategy plan “Giving Back to the City” and the London Met Lab — an example of how universities can strategically embed social responsibility.

The campus itself became a lively part of the festival through Innocube and food trucks, providing space for informal exchange and networking. The Walk & Talk format also enabled participants to explore the surrounding neighbourhood. This neighbourhood walk guided small groups to seven stations on and around the Von-Melle-Park campus, each linked to a task and a discussion prompt focusing on the relationship between campus and community.

The matchmaking event on Saturday focused specifically on connecting society and academia—linking needs with expertise, and challenges with those seeking solutions. Through inspirational inputs, speed networking, and matchmaking formats, interested researchers and students, as well as representatives from associations, volunteer initiatives, and foundations, engaged in exchange across five moderated thematic areas that had been identified in advance and during the conference. Many contacts were exchanged and initial concrete collaborations were initiated. In the afternoon, workshops provided the opportunity to delve more deeply into questions of multi-stakeholder collaboration.

More information can be found on the festival's website.