The Centre for Structural Change and Regional Development (ZeStuR) aims to gain a comprehensive understanding of Lusatia’s structural transition from a coal-mining region to new futures, and to support this transition through both academic research and practical action. In doing so, it combines interdisciplinary research with transdisciplinary collaboration to develop, together with regional stakeholders, new pathways towards a sustainable, democratic and liveable Lusatia. 

The Centre comprises five thematic areas, as well as a cross-cutting project and a transfer platform that links the participating academic disciplines from Faculties 4, 5 and 6. The themes are geared towards the challenges that regions undergoing structural change must overcome, organised into five thematic clusters:

1. Revitalising regional innovation systems in peripheral regions: How can an economic structure more open to innovation be funded?
2. Labour market transformation arena: What are the socio-structural impacts of changes in the labour market, and how can issues such as skilled workforce development be resolved constructively?
3. Social cohesion and participation: How can social cohesion, participation in social life and the vitality of places be strengthened, with the aim of maintaining and improving regional quality of life?
4. Shaped living environments: What contributions can spatial planning and Urban Planning, with its tools, make to the constructive management of collective identities in transformation regions, including in the context of scepticism towards transformation?
5. Conflicts over democracy and migration: What are the prerequisites and opportunities for shaping a democratic everyday culture, for designing inclusive education, and for the participation of immigrants in Lusatia?

ZeStuR is funded by the Ministry of Research, Technology and Space from November 2025 to October 2030.