Associated Member

Bettina König is Professor of Sustainability Management in the International Food Industry at Kassel University since 2023. She is a horticultural socio-economist by training, focussing on systemic innovation and transition studies in the broader field of sustainable land management and regional development.

Between 2014 and 2019, she was a Research Group Leader „Innovative sustainable land management“ at IRI THESys, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Among other research projects and networks in her research group at IRI THESys, she has shaped the BMBF project ginkoo (Management of integrative innovation processes focusing on new institutional and regional coordination forms for sustainable land management), a new funding format of transdisciplinary innovation groups. The consortium co-developed a toolbox for sustainability innovation management throughout a multi-faceted transdisciplinary research process. She also co-developed and was engaged in the Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership and the Humboldt Scholarship program ‘Sustainabilty and Global Justice‘.

From 2020 to 2023, Bettina was project leader at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development at the Research Center [sustainability – transformation – transfer]. She co-lead the citizen science project ‚Logbook of Change‘, a longitudional diary study on changing practices during the pandemic and a project around land use conflicts around agricultural plastics.

Her research interests are in innovative approaches towards sustainable land use and food systems, especially in spatial contexts and at the intersection to other sectors. She is also interested in innovative forms of transdisciplinary research and science communication and continues to be engaged in trainings for managing transdisciplinary research processes.

Bettina is a member of IRI THESys since 2014, serving as member of the board from 2018 until 2022. She is appointed member of ARL (Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association) since 2025.

Research Interests

  • Knowledge and innovation systems for sustainable land management
  • Integrative sustainability and innovation management
  • Interorganization and intersectoral value networks and management
  • Regional development
  • Inter- and transdisciplinary research process management

Projects

ginkoo – Management of integrative innovation processes: new coordinating forms for a sustainable land management

Postdoc Academy for transformational leadership

Logbuch der Veränderungen

TransSEC – Innovating Strategies to safeguard Food Security using Technology and Knowledge Transfer: A people-centred Approach

EU Aquaponics Hub: Realising Integrated Fish and Vegetable Production for the EU

Photo by Janet Voß

Email: