Research at the HNEE is firmly connected with the principles of sustainability. The research is focused in the three research areas of the university:

Priority 1: Sustainable rural development

Priority 2: Sustainable production und use of natural products

Priority 3: Sustainable management of limited resources

The focal points of research at the university are:

• Application-oriented, forest-related research in the sense of a holistic ecosystem management
• Anaylses of biomass potentials and the production of renewable energy from forestry and agriculture
• Nature conservation, climate change and climate protection
• Sustainable Education, Environmental Education
• Organic Farming and Marketing
• Sustainable Tourism
• Sustainable economy and enterprise development
• Deployment, customization and optimization of the raw material volume from agriculture and forestry
• Basic research and development of wood materials and wood analogs
• Technical-oriented product and process development along company value chains
• Applied technical adjustments of production processes, with particular respect to computer-based systems

Here, a living and applied science is the foundation for successful teaching.

Research and development at the university is demand oriented – the impulses for science come from practice. Research is performed only where it is really needed.

University instructors remain up to date thanks to their active involvement in research. Within the framework of their studies, students can actively participate in the research taking place at the University of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde. As a teaching assistant, or in student projects, or in the framework of their university thesis, they can treat aspects of these various projects independently. In doing so, they can enhance the knowledge they have acquired and learn to take on responsibility.

The goal of the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development is to acquire a large share of applied research.

The research projects are oriented to practical needs and are largely privately financed.

Especially when dealing with complex research methods and problems, the high level of cooperation between the Faculties of the university and their partners pays off. The current focus here lies in the field of organic raw materials.

The University is looking for answers to the following pressing questions:

In what areas can which type of agriculture flourish profitably? How can windmills be incorporated into the landscape? And how can the problems of biomass facilities be solved logistically?

Experts in the fields of forestry and the environment, landscape usage and environmental protection, wood technologies and economics come up with the best ideas when they interact with each other.

In total, research at the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development is supported by an annual sum of about one million Euros from private sources.

Graduates often find an opening for their careers in the research projects of the university.

Increasingly, the graduates also avail themselves of the opportunity to write a doctoral thesis based upon the results of their research work.