A result of global warming, rising sea levels are making coastal cities uninhabitable, while the loss of biodiversity and the climate-induced immigration of species are changing agriculture. These developments not only pose massive economic burdens, they also result in migration movements. What is the connection between the two, and to what degree are we humans, our economic practices, and our social structure responsible for these changes to our planet?

How can we overcome planetary polycrises? Computer models can not only help to understand the complex interrelationships at the interfaces between geophysics, ecosystems and society, but also critically examine potential solutions.

In his opening remarks at the "Planetary Hopes" event, the University’s president, Prof. Dr. Enrico Schleiff, commented, "The pace of social change is accelerating, and our actions as humans are having an increasingly drastic impact on our planet's stability. I began my term as president of this university with the idea of founding a future research institute that addresses the increasingly urgent challenges of our age - in which change plays such an important role - in a special, interdisciplinary manner.
"Digitality is not only a driver of social and economic transformation, it is also a tool that can help us better understand the world and shape our future, always keeping the wellbeing of people, society and nature in mind. To understand and better influence the so-called polycrises takes knowledge and the joint approaches of different disciplines. But it also takes highly developed models as well as calculation methods and techniques, and necessarily always involves questions of justification and justice. I am proud that we at Goethe University have embarked on this path - both in terms of the research we conduct and the facilities we will offer with the planned renovation of the former botany and zoology buildings in Siesmayerstrasse."

Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard, C3S founding spokesperson and Chair of German, European, and International Criminal Law, Comparative Law and Legal Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt, explained further, "These 'Critical Computational Studies' build bridges between academic disciplines as well as between academia and society," explains "Critical not only means we develop and apply computational and data-supported methods in a scrutinizing manner. It also means we pay particular attention to significant, i.e. critical, events, such as manmade global warming or AI's effects on democracy. This is the only way we can help shape our digital futures and at the same time investigate that which we can no longer fully control. At C3S, we are tackling the essential, and therefore critical, tasks of our time, in which the relationships between humans, technology and nature are becoming increasingly frayed."

There is also a teaching, learning, and educational component to C3S that aims to teach critical computational literacy, i.e. the skills and attitudes required to use and further develop computational and databased technologies in a knowledgeable and responsible manner.

Among others, Prof. Dr. Hendrik Drachsler, one of C3S's principal investigators, also serves as head of Goethe University's studiumdigitale central eLearning facility and thus connects both units. Two examples of digital teaching methods from the "Future Learning Spaces" project (abbreviated as "fuels" and headed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Tillmann) were on display at the "Planetary Hopes" event.

Funded by the German State of Hesse’s Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science, and the Arts, "fuels" is a joint project of the Goethe University Frankfurt, Technical University of Darmstadt, and Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences to develop innovative teaching and learning scenarios. Its GeoVR virtual reality (VR) application allows users to immerse themselves in the development of the Edersee/Kellerwald region's landscape and environment. Another simulation game, "Artificial Intelligence Act - Europe", uses VR to enable learners to slip into the role of EU parliamentarians in the plenary chamber.

Closing the event was C3S founding director Prof. Franziska Matthäus, who thanked the audience and the participants for the lively debate and provided an outlook of the steps to follow.

C3S was launched in April 2023 as a central academic institution at Goethe University Frankfurt. Its founding members are

• Prof. Dr. Christoph Burchard, founding spokesperson, who is Chair of German, European, and International Criminal Law and Procedure, Comparative Law and Legal Theory at Goethe University Frankfurt and head of the Normative Orders research network.
• Prof. Dr. Franziska Matthäus, founding director teaching, who holds Goethe University Frankfurt's Giersch Professorship for Cellular Bioinformatics, which is linked to both the faculties of Computer Science and Mathematics, and of Biological Sciences.
• Prof. Dr. Juliane Engel, founding director transfer, who is Professor of Educational Sciences with a focus on schools and cultural change. Her research focuses on educational processes and learning in the context of social transformation dynamics.
• Prof. Dr. Ulrich Meyer, founding director research, who holds the Chair of Algorithm Engineering at Goethe University Frankfurt and researches both theoretical and experimental aspects of processing large data sets using advanced computational models.

Together with other internal and external researchers, at least twelve new professorships are to be set up at C3S to develop Critical Computational Studies into an independent research profile that also extends to teaching and training.

A new and innovative feature of the appointment process is that in preparation, Goethe University will hold workshops to sound out outstanding potential colleagues and exciting ideas. The process is both open rank and open discipline, meaning there are no specifically predetermined disciplines for researchers interested in joining, and the final salary classification will depend entirely on the candidates' qualifications and experience. Selection committees will oversee the appointment procedures.

C3S seeks to establish research teams in a variety of fields, including

• interfaces between classical network science and deep learning
• calculations of tipping elements and their interactions as global warming progresses
• modeling of the social and/or socio-economic drivers and impacts of ongoing climate change, as well as those of ecosystems and/or biodiversity and their interrelationship with it
• critique of computing
• critical data science
• ethics of data processing
• science and technology studies
• science, philosophy, and history of computer technology
• predictions in complex systems
• advanced simulation in the life sciences and social sciences