It all began 10 years ago when the "Centre for Society and Sustainability" (CeSSt) was founded as a scientific centre at Fulda University of Applied Sciences with the aim of reconstructing and analysing processes of shaping sustainability as a social challenge and to initiate and support transdisciplinary research. A lot has happened in 10 years of CeSSt. The centre has grown steadily and has firmly established itself as a research and transfer structure at HS Fulda and in the region.

CeSSt began its academic work with 25 predominantly professorial members, and today the centre has 60 members from the faculties of Social Work, Oecotrophology, Nursing and Health, Economics, and Social and Cultural Sciences, which increasingly include young academics.

The academics conduct research along the dimensions of social sustainability on questions of education and social balance, social and economic security, space and region, quality of life and health, intergenerational and gender justice and social participation (see also Videos of CeSSt members on projects and activities). CeSSt works closely with regional and civil society partners in practice (including cities, municipalities and districts, municipal job centres, social work organisations, citizens' aid associations, initiatives to help refugees and schools) and other universities.

As a research and transfer structure, CeSSt offers its members support for their research and practical projects as well as knowledge transfer to society. In the past 10 years, for example, 16 conferences, congresses and workshops on the topics of ageing society, corporate social responsibility, social engagement, work, gender and health have been organised - partly in cooperation with other academic centres at the university and external partners, e.g. the Hessian Ministry for Social Affairs and Integration or the Caritas CSR Competence Centre. With the awarding of the independent right to award doctorates for research-intensive subject areas in 2017, the promotion of young researchers was also intensified and two well-attended conferences have now been implemented in cooperation with the Social Work Doctoral Centre. Now 30 research colloquia (also partly in cooperation with the research network FoSS) offered space for interdisciplinary collegial exchange, and the 8 volumes of the CeSSt publication series "Society and Sustainability" so far document the research results and practical experiences of the centre (see hereTimeline of CeSSt activities).