Dr. Martin Reiss und Dr. Jörn Schultheiss from the Center of Excellence, Cultivated Landscapes (KULT) met colleagues from the Viacheslav Chornovil Institute of Sustainable Development at Lviv's Polytechnic National University on February 11, 2020. Both institutions are not only united by the fact that they regard interdisciplinary strategies as the basis for sustainable landscape development, their subject areas are also very similar and mutually complementary, for instance in the fields of environmental protection and nature conservation, environmental teaching and digitalization. This could be taken as a basis for future cooperation and also facilitates extending already existing links to other universities in Ukraine.

The Geisenheim team subsequently joined their Ukrainian colleagues at the Second International Symposium on Sustainable Development, which took place in the winter sports resort Slavske (Lviv Oblast), where Dr. Jörn Schultheiss gave a presentation on KULT to an international audience, which focused on its inclusive approach. A significant number of new contacts in Eastern Europe were established during the lively discussions that followed.