Danube:Future White Paper on Integrated Sustainable Development of the Danube River Basin
Completed in July 2015, the White Paper on Integrated Sustainable Development of the Danube River Basin is the outcome of a cooperation between Danube Rectors’ Conference (DRC) and Alps-Adriatic Rectors’ Conference (AARC) and it was initiated by a team from the Core universities of the Danube:Future project, a Flagship project of the Priority Area 7 of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region. The document was discussed and completed at the first Danube:Future Workshop in Klagenfurt, Austria, on 8-10 April 2015. Subsequently, other representatives of the academic community contributed to the final version of the paper. Therefore, the Danube:Future White Paper was prepared in a bottom-up process that involved more than 50 researchers in Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities from the majority of Danube countries. The Centre for Regional Geography was represented in this process by Lelia Papp, Lecturer at the Faculty of Geography and member of the Centre for Regional Geography, and Ana-Maria Papp, Research fellow at the same Centre. The paper aims to support the more than 90 member universities of DRC and AARC in their efforts to promote a sustainable knowledge society, taking into account the research and capacity building needs, and challenges and opportunities for the development of the sustainability-oriented knowledge society of the Danube River Basin. The document also includes a series of recommendations for future research that take into account inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and are based on principles of precautionary action, public participation, social learning and responsible research.
