Nov 26, 2025
Four packages of measures for Spremberg: TUD's "Lusatia 2050 Future Workshop" develops ideas for local energy transition and urban development
Participants in the Lausitz 2050 Future Workshop
Following successful participation formats in Dresden and Spremberg, the final event of the "Zukunftswerkstatt Lausitz 2050 - Energie im Fokus" took place on November 25, 2025. Participants from science, business, politics and civil society presented their jointly developed visions for the future and measures for the energy transition and urban development. The results were officially handed over to the Spremberg city administration and discussed with local stakeholders. The future workshop was initiated and scientifically supported by researchers from the TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD).
Link between research and society
Workshop as part of the Lausitz 2050 Future Workshop
The "Zukunftswerkstatt Lausitz 2050 - Energie im Fokus" is an example of how participatory formats can become a link between research and society and create trust: away from one-sided knowledge transfer and towards mutual learning and shared visions.
"The energy transition is not just a question of technology, but of cooperation," says project manager Katharina Hunger, who is also researching the exchange between scientific and non-scientific stakeholders in the structural change in Lusatia. "Our visions show Spremberg in 2050 as a city worth living in, which focuses on cohesion, education and participation."
The creative exchange at the future workshop took place in three phases and resulted in a shared understanding of the problems of the energy transition, visualized visions of the future for 2050 and implementation-oriented measures for the four areas of "Social cohesion and culture of dialogue", "Climate-neutral Spremberg 2050", "Future prospects for young people" and "Securing skilled workers".
For example, the workshop participants proposed moderated spaces for debate and drew up a concrete timetable for implementation. The participants discussed how the Paris climate targets could be implemented in Spremberg through a local energy and heat transition, and the future prospects for young people in the region were also addressed in the workshops. The latter could be improved, for example, by strengthening the youth parliament or founding youth limited companies. Skilled workers should be kept in the region through cooperation with scientific institutions.
Exchange at eye level - and the importance of listening
Participants in the Lausitz 2050 Future Workshop
The workshops with eight to ten participants showed that an exchange at eye level between science and practice leads to more than just technological negotiations. In a protected space that offers room for individual expertise, it is all about listening: Insights emerge particularly when practical knowledge is included.
The jointly developed approaches from different roles and responsibilities are intended to strengthen acceptance and innovation in the Lusatia region in the long term. One key finding: the visions for the future and the measures put the community at the heart of the energy transition.
Shaping the future through dialog
The contrasts between the perspectives of the Dresden group, which focused on technical solutions, and the experiences of the Spremberg participants, who are directly experiencing social change in Lusatia, were particularly influential. The digital networking of both groups resulted in a continuous dialog that made regional differences visible and strengthened joint approaches to solutions.
Background
Researchers, citizens and entrepreneurs discussed challenges in the Lusatia region undergoing structural change at the "Zukunftswerkstatt Lausitz 2050 - Energie im Fokus". Katharina Hunger, Research Associate at the CIMTT Center of Production Engineering and Management at TU Dresden, initiated and led the project. It was funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and Wissenschaft im Dialog (WiD) with 10,000 euros as part of the university competition for the Science Year 2025 - Future Energy.
The results report of the project is available here: https: //datashare.tu-dresden.de/s/bBL3N7X3spyFq9P
Contact person:
Katharina Hunger
CIMTT Center of Production Engineering and Management
TUD Dresden University of Technology
+49 351 463-33597