YAS: Career launchpad and incubator for sustainability research

Living Academic Freedom

Founded in 2021 at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies and funded by the Eva Mayr-Stihl Foundation, YAS is aimed at both national and international postdoctoral researchers who wish to conduct interdisciplinary research in the field of sustainability. The YAS Fellows are self-governing, deciding on which projects to pursue and distributing the group’s budget themselves. Several times a year, all involved come together under the FRIAS roof while continuing to work independently between these meetings.

The success of this vibrant project based on autonomy and academic freedom is evidenced by the impressive output of the first funding period (2021–2024). In addition to the 16 projects mentioned above, the first YAS cohort published joint articles and special issues in scientific journals, organized five international workshops—including one in Nagoya, Japan—held an art exhibition, created a podcast, and produced a graphic novel.

When asked why he applied to YAS, FRIAS Fellow Dr. Philip Höfele said: “With YAS I associate the ability to think differently about sustainability – not just in the sense of preservation. As a philosopher, I work at the intersection of sustainability and artificial intelligence, and I am interested in how technologies can contribute to new societal forms and help us emerge stronger from current crises.”

The YAS Model Supports Careers…

“With YAS, FRIAS – and thus the University of Freiburg – not only fosters academic discourse but also supports the careers of scientists in their early stages,” emphasizes FRIAS Director Prof. Dr. Ralf von den Hoff. Is YAS a launchpad for academic careers? Dr. Rita Sousa-Silva, whose focus is on urban ecology and forestry science, is a good example for this. As a former FRIAS Fellow and member of YAS 2021-2024, she states, “I applied to the Academy with the goal of becoming a professor. It worked. Today, I am an Assistant Professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands.”

Dr. Benjamin Schütze also significantly advanced his career after his time at YAS, becoming an Emmy Noether junior research group leader at the Freiburg Arnold Bergstraesser Institute. Schütze, who worked with Dr. Hussam Hussein from Oxford University, England, on topics such as geopolitics and the energy transition using Jordan as an example, shared other valuable experiences: “YAS enabled Hussam Hussein and me to participate in the UN Climate Conference in Dubai. This gave us the opportunity to interview members of various Arab delegations on-site. We were able to extract important insights from the interviews, which significantly advanced our project – a major success.”

…and serves as a role model

Paths to Sustainability, Cultures and Societies in Space and Time, Signals of Life: these pillars form the foundation of both the University of Freiburg’s research profile and its Freiburg Postdoctoral Academy (FPA), set to launch in 2025. This international and interdisciplinary funding program for postdoctoral researchers from around the world is also affiliated with FRIAS and is conceptually based on the YAS structure. “That the University of Freiburg is transferring our approach to other strategically important formats is a positive signal and reinforces our actions,” says FRIAS Director von den Hoff.