Dr. Felix Beyers
Research Associate
Phone
Dr Felix Beyers is a sustainability scientist at the Research Institute for Sustainability at GFZ (RIFS). He examines how relational infrastructures, process knowledge and social learning enable collective agency and societal impact in sustainability transformations. His work connects transdisciplinary and transformative research, collaborative governance and real-world laboratories. A growing focus is on coastal regions and port cities and on learning across different transformation contexts. At RIFS, he develops transformative accompanying research on the societal impact of scientific initiatives and co-edits the Handbook on Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research. He completed his doctorate at Leuphana University Lüneburg on collaborative governance in the transformation of the textile sector and studied environmental and sustainability sciences in Lüneburg and Lund.
Groups
Blog Posts
- Weaving new narratives for transdisciplinary sustainability research
- Relational Leadership as a Leverage Point: a Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Climate-Related Transformation in Business
- COP28 in Dubai: Greenwashing or Genuine Ambitions?
- Organizational Transformation in the European Commission
- Transformative Partnerships: Reflections on the 2023 Transformations Conference Hub in Prague
- A Journey of Collective Scientific Learning
- Fear and trust in UN climate policy at UNFCCC COP27
- Confronting fears - Strengthening trust
- Since 2021 Research Associate at the Research Institute for Sustainability - Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, first in the research group Theory, Evaluation and Culture of Transdisciplinary Research, and now in the research group Transformative Spaces and Mindsets
- Since 2019 teaching at Leuphana University on scientific methods, especially network analysis and sustainability governance for an economic transformation towards sustainability
- 2019-2022 Doctoral Fellow of the Robert Bosch Stiftung at Leuphana University Lüneburg on Political Challenges of a Textile Transformation
- 2015-2017 Master of Environmental Science and Sustainability Studies at Lund University, Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS)
- 2014-2015 Project associate at youthinkgreen e.V. in the youth education project "konsumwandeln"
- 2010-2014 Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Digital Media/Cultural Informatics at Leuphana University Lüneburg
- Sustainability transformations and governance in coastal regions
- Transdisciplinary and transformative sustainability research
- Relational infrastructures, collective agency and relational leverage points
- Process knowledge, facilitation and the design of real-world laboratories
- Social learning and collaborative governance
- Societal impact, evaluation and cross-case learning in transformative research
- International climate and environmental governance
Publications at the RIFS
Selected Publications prior to joining the RIFS
Beyers, F., & Leventon, J. (2021). Learning spaces in multi-stakeholder initiatives: The German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles as a platform for dialogue and learning? Earth System Governance, 9, 100113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2021.100113 Beyers, F., & Heinrichs, H. (2020). Global partnerships for a textile transformation? A systematic literature review on inter- and transnational collaborative governance of the textile and clothing industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 261, 121131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121131 Woroniecki, S., Krüger, R., Rau, A.-L., Preuss, M. S., Baumgartner, N., Raggers, S., Niessen, L., Holländer, L., Beyers, F., Rathgens, J., Wagner, K. C., Habigt, L., Krause, T., Wamsler, C., von Wehrden, H., & Abson, D. (2019). The framing of power in climate change adaptation research. WIREs Climate Change, 10(6), e617. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.617
- 4 December 2025: “Weaving New Narratives – A Generative Space for Reflecting and Practicing Transdisciplinary Sustainability Research” – Co-convening and facilitation of an interactive session at the RIFS Conference 2025 “Tough Conversations in Tough Times”, Berlin
- 27 February 2025: “Transdisciplinary Interface Management in Sustainability Science Projects: Good Practices, Institutionalization, and Training” – Presentation at the DKN Sustainability Science Summit 2025
- 4 November 2024: “Purpose-driven process design: A practice-oriented framework for transdisciplinary events” – Presentation at the ITD Conference 2024, Utrecht
- 4 June 2024: “Process Knowledge for Sustainability Transitions within Policy and Innovation Research” – Presentation at the EU-SPRI Annual Conference 2024, University of Twente
- 12 July 2023: “Making the Transformative Potential of Street Experiments Visible” – Presentation at the Transformations
2019–2022: Doctoral Fellow funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation in the graduate programme “Processes of Sustainability Transformation”, Leuphana University Lüneburg