In Switzerland there are currently no comprehensive interdisciplinary oriented sustainability courses for PhD-students. The project strives to develop and implement such sustainability oriented PhD courses against this backdrop.

Two courses (each 3 ECTS-points) running in spring semester 2014 and in fall semester 2014/15, repeated in fall semester 2015/16 and spring semester 2016 are planned. The interdisciplinary courses will be open to PhD-students from all national and international universities writing their PhD in different sustainability related disciplines. The first course is on sustainability conceptions and their impacts on the students’ empirical research. The main aim of this course is to enhance the participants’ knowledge of different theoretical options on the sustainability science market and to critically reflect their understanding of sustainability. The second course considers interdisciplinary interfaces within PhD-projects. It enhances the participants’ awareness of challenges regarding the relation between disciplinary scrutiny and interdisciplinary interfaces.