PIONEER Winter School Cologne

PIONEER Banner (Image: UNIZA)

The PIONEER Winter School Cologne is an annual international academic program organized by the PIONEER Alliance at TH Köln. It focuses on current issues related to sustainable cities and communities in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11).

The event brings together, in particular, early career researchers from the ten PIONEER partner universities and offers them the opportunity to gain initial experience in international academic exchange.

The focus is on inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and their communities in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11).

The Winter School will focus on the following topics:

• sustainable urban development and urbanization
• environment and resource efficiency
• urban mobility and smart cities
• nature in the city and climate adaptation
• social participation and urban resilience

The aim is to bring together international perspectives, promote academic exchange, and initiate new collaborations.

The PIONEER Winter School Cologne is aimed in particular at early career researchers from the ten PIONEER partner universities — including master’s students, doctoral candidates, and early career postdocs. It is designed for young researchers working on sustainable cities and regions who wish to discuss their research in an international setting and gain initial experience in academic exchange.

Call for Applications Now Open

The next PIONEER Winter School Cologne will take place from March 1–5, 2027, at TH Köln and will be led by international experts.

The Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) consits of: 

Virtual Components
🗓️ 1 February 2027, 13:00–14:30 (CET)
🗓️ 15 February 2027, 13:00–14:30 (CET)
🗓️ 5 April 2027, 13:00–14:30 (CET)

Physical Component
🗓️ 1–5 March 2027 TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences, Cologne

The preliminary programme for the PIONEER Winter School 2027 is available here as a PDF (subject to change).

The programme provides participants with both structured learning and an international academic exchange setting, excursions (Planned: UN Campus Bonn and  Recultivation Research Center) and complemented by a social programme. The Winter School is organised as an Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), combining virtual and in-person participation formats. The virtual components will take place in February 2027 and after the Winter School in April.
The programme is designed to promote interdisciplinary exchange and collaborative learning on inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable cities and communities. This year we will pay particular attention to the constructive encounter between approaches from the technical sciences and from art and design. One of the key outcomes will be a joint open-access publication, edited by the organisers and based on participants’ contributions as well as the discussions and presentations during the Winter School.

Please complete the online application form by 25 October 2026. Applicants will subsequently be asked to submit:

• a short CV (maximum one page), and
• an extended abstract (maximum 1,000 words) describing the specific project you intend to present/work on during the PIONEER Winter School.

Please apply exclusively via the application form.