Focus on sustainable development: conference on environmental sciences, energy and sustainable development deepens cooperation between Bavaria and Ukraine
From 19 to 21 May 2025, a multi-day conference on environmental sciences and the practical application of research in municipal contexts took place in Regensburg. The aim of the event was to deepen the exchange between Bavarian and Ukrainian stakeholders and to provide new impetus for cooperation in research, EU funding and sustainable development.
The conference was organized together with the Bavarian Research Alliance (BayFOR), the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) and the SCIENCE AT RISK Emergency Office project. New partners this year were the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) with the "Ukrainian Climate Office" project and the EU initiative Covenant of Mayors East (CoM East).
The event followed on from the successful Ukrainian-Bavarian conference in November 2023, which was organized by BayFOR, LfU, BAYHOST, Science at Risk and the Leibniz Institute for East and South East European Studies (IOS) in cooperation with the City of Regensburg.
On the first day of the conference, Julia Jesson from GIZ, Christophe Fréring from CoM East, Thomas Ammerl from BayFOR and Prof Marton Grambow from the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment welcomed the guests with keynote speeches on climate resilience, municipal development and funding instruments. The venue was once again the "Haus der Begegnung" in the heart of Regensburg's historic city center, which was provided by the University of Regensburg. The first evening ended with an official reception hosted by the city of Regensburg and a group dinner.
The second day was characterised by three parallel excursions to innovative Bavarian practical examples:
- The water group went on an excursion to the Bavarian Forest and first visited the Waldwasser water supply association at the Moos and Flanitz sites. The group then travelled on to the Frauenau dam and visited the Rädlinger company (Primus Line®) in Cham.
- The waste group first visited the Max Bögl Wind AG company in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz. This was followed by a tour of the Schwandorf waste recycling plant. Last part on the intinerary was a visit to an innovative pilot project for biogas production from wastewater at a small municipal sewage treatment plant in Bad Abbach.
- The energy group started with a visit to a large-scale battery storage system in Pettendorf. In Ingolstadt, the group visited the "inCampus" research center and the "InES" institute. In Neuburg, a local community energy project provided information about its experiences with ground-mounted photovoltaic systems and cooperation models. The Munich urban development project "Harthof" formed the last stop of the excursion.
On the third day, the results of the working groups were presented and translated into concrete steps for project planning and partner search in a workshop with BayFOR. Follow-up projects in the areas of energy management, biodiversity and wastewater treatment are being planned for the future. BAYHOST will work together with its partners to strengthen and further develop the networks that have been created - as a contribution to sustainable, partnership-based support for Ukraine on its European path.
Impressions of the three-day conference
