‘The Transformative Futures of Cities’:  From scientific research to societal outreach

The international community has been engaged with the dual challenges of combatting climate change and seeking sustainable development in society.  While much focus has been placed on international agreements and national action plans, here we focus on the implementation efforts by cities in climate adaptation and local citizen engagement. We are now ready to share the results of our scientific engagement with the broader public, here in the Netherlands, across the Asia Pacific, and this spring in Japan.

The Wubbo Ockels School for Energy and Climate, in the House of Connections at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands during its annual event on March 21, 2025 launched a series of short videos on climate and sustainable development. These videos, produced by creative agency Sensu Green, are based on scientific research conducted by an international group of scholars from Europe and Southeast Asia for the new book ‘Transformative Futures of Cities’ (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming 2025).

The School is underscoring the importance of the societal impact of scientific research, by sharing the ‘Transformative Futures of Cities’ videos during events open to the public and online globally through its YouTube channel. The School also announced winners from student produced short videos from a competition organised by the School ‘The Netherlands - Asia Pacific Short Video Competition for Climate and Sustainable Development’. The winners come from universities in Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia.

Prof. Holzhacker in Japan

The presentation of the ‘Transformative Futures’ and student videos continues now in Asia, beginning with various universities in Japan. On April 18 in Tokyo, Professor Ronald Holzhacker presented the videos at the University of Tokyo Hydrosphere research lecture series. On May 12, he delivered a lecture on climate and sustainable development and screened the videos at the Tokyo International University, to a group of very engaged scholars and students at the Department of International Relations. 

Finally, the Wubbo Ockels School is proud to present a lecture by Prof. Holzhacker at the University of Osaka, Euroculture programme. This programme is part of a special European Union sponsored master programme connecting a series of universities across Europe and around the globe, including the University of Osaka. This special lecture and video presentation was held on Monday, May 19, in the context of a special week in the Netherlands – Japanese relationship.

Royal visit Osaka Kansei Expo

His Majesty the King of Netherlands Willem-Alexander will be officially visiting the Netherlands Pavilion at the Osaka Kansei Expo 2025 on Dutch national day on May 21. The theme of the 36th World Expo is ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives.’ The next day, the King will also be visiting the Tekijuku school, a forerunner of the University of Osaka as part of a programme on the cooperation between the Netherlands and Japan in science and education.

Engagement in the Netherlands

The Wubbo Ockels School is pleased that during this special week in Osaka, to further underscore the Netherlands – Japanese relationship, we will be screening the ‘Transformative Futures’ and the ‘NL – Asia Pacific student climate competition’ winners. In addition, debuting for the first time, two more videos concerning climate adaptation in the Netherlands will be shown. The first of these videos focuses on the future of the Wadden coast, in the north of the Netherlands, on how we can adapt the Wadden Sea coastal area to become a future-proof, resilient, and biodiverse rich landscape. . The second video focuses on the floating future , and the potential opportunities to construct floating housing and neighborhoods in the future.