NewHorizons: An inter-university, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary simulation and role-playing game for the University of Bonn Projekt NewHorizons

Strategy Fund for future-oriented development of studying and teaching
Program line: Future-oriented teaching project line: diverse.sustainable.digital – 2025-2028
Project title: NewHorizons: Ein universitätsübergreifendes, inter- und transdisziplinäres Simulations- und Rollenspiel für die Universität Bonn
(Group) Project management: Prof. Dr. Adrian Hermann

Brief description of the project:
What could the diverse students from the numerous disciplines at the University of Bonn contribute to the creation of a completely new world? How can future-oriented, sustainable thinking and a playful approach to university teaching be combined? What synergies can be developed by combining an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary digital teaching and learning architecture that persists throughout the project period with analog teaching offerings offered on a semester basis in person? The interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, cross-faculty NewHorizons project, which is conceptually based at the new IMPULSE – House for Intellectual Innovation and Creativity at the University of Bonn, brings students and teachers together over a period of three years in the form of an online and offline simulation and role-playing game in the spirit of research-based teaching in order to develop the natural and social foundations of a fictional shared (game) world and to further develop it over several phases. Primarily through the integration of shorter teaching sequences into existing courses at the seven faculties, students from all disciplines can contribute to the design of the new world (education system, biosphere, legal foundations, economic system, religions, media landscape, etc.). They take on roles, make decisions, and in doing so train critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Participants can apply their theoretical knowledge in practical, imaginative scenarios and develop innovative and creative solutions in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner. At the same time, soft skills such as empathy, cooperation, and communication are promoted (cf. Bowman et al. 2025). The project is also aimed in particular at students in the Honors Program at the University of Bonn, for whom a one-off Honors seminar will be offered during the project period in cooperation with each of the six TRAs. The Bonn Lab for Analog Games and Imaginative Play provides an integrative framework as the ‘game master’.