“Interdisciplinary Teaching: Meeting Global Challenges” is the motto of the LEONARDO Project that was launched at the RWTH in autumn 2008 and which is located at the Institute for Political Science. Each semester, different teaching modules are initiated and organized, which are jointly offered by lecturers from various specialties and are aimed at students of all faculties. The topics include social challenges such as climate change, migration or urbanization.

The Biotechnological Student Initiative (bts) e.V. is a nationwide network that is active at 26 university locations and organizes excursions, company contact fairs, lectures and workshops and more, delivered by students for students. In cooperation with representatives of the LEONARDO Project and Prof. Ulrich Schwaneberg (Chair of Biotechnology of the RWTH and BioSC CoreGroup Leader), bts Aachen developed the concept for an interdisciplinary lecture series on the bioeconomy. Various BioSC CoreGroup Leader are contributing to the lecture, including the Chair for sustainability in Building Trade of the RWTH and the University of Applied Sciences in Aachen. One of the lectures is given by Prof. Dr. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum, Henkel AG. Depending on performance, students can acquire different numbers of credit points.

During the introductory lecture on October 16^th, Prof. Schwaneberg discussed the social challenges of the 21^st century and explained how the bioeconomy is defined and how it can contribute to the solution of global problems. After an overview of national and international bioeconomy strategies and research networks, he introduced the Bioeconomy Science Center and presented a few select BioSC projects. This was followed by a lively discussion with many questions. A total of more than 200 students registered for the lecture.