The Mercator Research Center Ruhr (MERCUR) sponsors a joint initiative by the TU Dortmund University of Technology, the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) on sustainability with up to 30,000 euros and a term of one year. The project of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr) is the first to be supported by the MERCUR.Admin program.

With this initiative, the topic of sustainability should receive more attention and the development at the participating universities should be promoted and sustainably anchored. Through an open network, information and experiences around the topic are to be exchanged. First, it will be analyzed to what extent the three universities are already active in the area of ​​sustainability. In this way it can be determined in which fields there is a need for action. The results of this review will be published in a joint sustainability report of the RUB partners - more precisely the group "Sustainability Process" of the UDE, the "Working Group Sustainability" of the TU Dortmund and the department "Strategic Campus Development" of the RUB. Measures and programs are to be developed in perspective for the identified fields of action.
Against this background, various events - from action days to an autumn school - are planned to make aspects of sustainability within the UA Ruhr more present and to sensitize them to the subject.