This year the annual Think Tank of the BEST Education Network was hosted at MODUL University Vienna. The BEST EN is an international consortium of educators committed to furthering the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of sustainable tourism. At a BEST EN Think Tank, research is presented, sustainable tourism topics are addressed, and research and educational materials for use in undergraduate education are developed. 

The Climate Change Collaboratory (Triple-C) is a two-year research project funded within the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP). The introductory expert workshop and public symposium entitled “Climate Change Communication and Collaboration: Translating Awareness into Collective Action” took place on June 16th, 2010 at MODUL University Vienna. Photos of the event as well as the slides of the keynote speakers (see short biographies below) are now available for download:

• David D. Herring, Communications Program Director, U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Climate Program Office
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• Prof. Dr. Helga Kromp-Kolb, Head of the Institute of Meteorology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences
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• Prof. DDr. Arno Scharl, Vice President and Head of Department, MODUL University Vienna, Department of New Media Technology
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• Dr. David Stainforth, Senior Research Fellow, London School of Economics, Grantham Research Institute
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• Moderator: Thomas E. Bowman, MA, President of the Bowman Design Group and Founder of the Climate Solutions Project
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Prof. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher of MODUL University served as chair of the jury when this year's EDEN award was given to the Seelentium recreation area, a region located south-east of the Inn river. EDEN stands for European Destinations of Excellence, and is a project promoting sustainable tourism development models across the European Union.

MODUL University was awarded 2nd place in the category 'structural foundations' encouraging sustainable development at the 2010 Sustainability Award presented by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research for its Sustainability Committee.

Vienna, 06 May 2010 – As of now Fujitsu and MODUL University Vienna will be working alongside each other towards sustainability and effective environmental protection. The goal of this collaboration is to combine management and IT knowledge with research insights to incorporate Green IT into state-of-the-art university education. This information will not only be conveyed in the MBA in New Media Technology and Management program that is currently offered, but also in a forthcoming environmental Master of Science" (MSc) program already under accreditation.

From December 7 to 15, the world's attention will be focused on the United Nation's Climate Change Conference (COP15) to be held in Copenhagen, Denkmark. The global importance of the event has sparked the interest of news media, blog authors, environmental organizations and the corporate sector alike.

On 27 November 2009, Ben Sherman, member of the Oglala Lakota Indian Nation and a national leader in the development of American Indian tourism efforts in the United States gave a guest presentation on “Universal Tourism Values from a Native Perspective” at MODUL University within the guest lecture series Latest Trends and Innovations in Tourism.

Stefan Gössling, Professor at the Department of Service Management at Lund University, Sweden, and research coordinator at the Western Norway Research Institute’s Research Centre for Sustainable Tourism gave a presentation on the 23rd of October 2009 at MODUL University entitled: “The Future of Tourism out of a Climate Mitigation Perspective: the Post-Kyoto Emissions Challenge".

The travel industry must transform itself in order to adapt to the wide spreading impact of climate change. According to Stefan Gössling, it is still early enough for the industry to respond to climate change.

MODUL University Vienna (MU) has recently become a new member of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES).

TIES promotes ecotourism, which is defined as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people,"

Ms. Wei Shi, student of the MU Vienna MBA in Tourism Management program, was selected as the winner of the Scholarship of Hope 2009. She has been selected at the discretion by the Committee for the Scholarship of Hope which acts as a reviewing body of students' project proposals.