With its research, the IOER aims to initiate, accelerate and implement deep and comprehensive change. It contributes to bringing the development of landscapes and settlement areas into harmony with the natural foundations of life and to minimising environmental risks so that people can thrive within ecological boundaries.
To this end, researchers from the spatial, environmental, social, economic, legal and engineering sciences work together at the institute. Public, private and civil society actors are involved in the research process from the very beginning in order to jointly strengthen the capacity for adaptation and transformation in different spatial contexts. The IOER Research Data Centre supports this process with spatial analyses and modelling as well as data infrastructures. In addition, the IOER operates the Interdisciplinary Centre for Transformative Urban Regeneration (IZS), a permanent real world laboratory located in Görlitz. Furthermore, the institute is a member of the DRESDEN-concept network, an alliance of research institutions located in the Dresden region.
Based on its research, the IOER provides policy advice and supports society with a view to achieving overarching sustainability, environmental as well as spatial development goals, as defined in the territorial agendas of the United Nations and the EU, the Basque Declaration and the Leipzig Charter. Accordingly, the institute is involved in scientific networks and alliances worldwide as well as in the national context, especially in the Leibniz Association. In addition, the IOER promotes young researchers in spatial sustainability sciences, e. g. through the Dresden Leibniz Graduate School (DLGS) and in cooperation with the University of Excellence TU Dresden.
