How do we design a sustainable administration? What are the management challenges in terms of human resources, organisational development, digitalisation and orientation towards Europe? These topics were the focus of the 27th European Public Administration Congress, which has taken place in Bremen from 29 February to 1 March 2024 under the title „Path to the future: Design sustainably - or fail!". The event was organised by the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration with the Centre for Public Management at Hochschule Bremen (HSB) – City University of Applied Sciences and the Senator for Finance in cooperation with the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Association for Municipal Management (KGSt). With up to 250 participants from all over Germany, the European Public Administration Congress has been the network meeting place for decision-makers from the public sector for 27 years.
The opening keynote was held by Prof. Dr. Uwe Schneidewind, Lord Mayor of the City of Wuppertal. HSB President Prof. Dr. Konrad Wolf welcomed the participants of the congress. In the end there was a closing plenary session with reports from the forums and discussion
There were a total of four forums on the topics of human resources, digitalisation, strategy and Europe. Here, 50 speakers offered a varied programme of keynote speeches and workshops. The hosts were the Bremen Parliament, the House of Science and the Chamber of Labour.
The European Forum of the congress opened with the example of the European alliance STARS EU, to which the HSB belongs with eight European universities. The topic was sustainable science administration at European level. In discussion: Moderator Prof. Dr. Christiane Trüe (HSB) with Dr. Heike Tauerschmidt, Head of the International Office and Dr. Gabriele Witter, Head of the Rector's Office for Special Tasks and long-standing Head of Strategy and University Planning at HSB.
The EU-funded network is made up of nine European universities working together to create a European University. HSB is also involved in the Erasmus+ research project INNLocal via STARS EU. The three STARS EU partner universities HSB, IPB (Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Portugal) and SUO (Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic) are investigating innovation in local government and the innovative design of study programmes at European level.
