Partnerships in education are essential in order to achieve certain educational goals, especially, when it comes to linking the two aspects of education and practice. The UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (UN, 2015) emphasise the central importance of partnerships in achieving the global sustainability goals. After all, the current challenges globally, regionally and locally require the joint efforts of all. It is important that partnerships take place on an equal level, as this gives everyone involved the opportunity to learn from each other.

UNESCO biosphere reserves are one setting in which these partnerships between education and practice are realised and further developed. As model and future regions for sustainable development, UNESCO biosphere reserves also strive to work in partnerships to make the region more sustainable.

Education plays an important role as the context of a more complex and globalised world places new demands on educational theory and practice. An understanding of education that goes beyond the mere transfer of knowledge should therefore be established. An essential task of education is to enable people to develop an awareness of global, regional and local interrelations. Critical reflection on these interrelations plays a central role as well. In this context, it is essential to interpret economic, social, political and cultural processes as developments that can be shaped in order to enable individuals to recognise the opportunities for social participation, co-creation and co-responsibility in society (Wintersteiner et al., 2014). This paper focuses on a biosphere reserve that not only imparts knowledge, but also fulfils an educational and research mission (Zollner et al., 2015). The Carinthian part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Salzburger Lungau & Carinthian Nockberge launched the research co-operation SCiENCE_LINK^nockberge in 2013. As part of this co-operation, the Nockberge Biosphere Reserve puts its research and educational mission into practice by working together with the University of Klagenfurt and the Carinthian University of Applied Sciences. The private Institute of Ecology (E.C.O.) co-ordinates the partnership SCiENCE_LINK^Nockberge. As part of the research cooperation, students from the two educational institutions mentioned are given the opportunity to carry out applied research in the context of a scientific thesis on Bachelor- Master- and Doctoral levels. In this way, science is realised cooperatively in a region of experimentation, learning and research. Through these learning processes, the students involved investigate issues in the biosphere reserve region in diverse areas like nature conservation, tourism, education, law, technical innovations, regional and economical development. The participating universities can offer students current and applied topics for qualification theses. In the international landscape, SCiENCE_LINK^nockberge is one of the very few structured and contractually organised partnerships between a biosphere reserve and universities in the sense of co-operative research work and partnership-based knowledge transfer (Falkner & Rauch, 2020).

Over the past ten years, the results of the research collaboration are evaluated continuously. This includes documenting the student work completed to date (Gruber et al., 2022) and conducting guided interviews with stakeholders. Actors involved in the SCiENCE_LINKnockberge research collaboration are interviewed. Guided interviews targeted members of the management team of the Nockberge Biosphere Reserve, including the manager and managing director, along with the head of the Institute E.C.O. Additionally, three participating students were interviewed to capture diverse perspectives. The interview guidelines played a crucial role in structuring the interviews, ensuring a focus on research-relevant questions and incorporating the valuable knowledge of the interviewees (Helfferich, 2009). The introductory question aimed to elicit descriptions of the Nockberge Biosphere Reserve as a model region for sustainable development from the respondents. Overarching key questions delved into milestones, obstacles, and personal experiences. The interviews were transcribed and subjected to content analysis using the approach outlined by Mayring (2022). Throughout the research process, a commitment to maintaining openness to phenomena found in the research field was upheld. This approach ensured a nuanced understanding of the collaborative efforts within the biosphere reserve and highlighted both achievements and challenges encountered in the pursuit of sustainable development goals.

Main outcomes of the development and research process are as follows. While biosphere reserve management applies practice-orientated concepts, the culture at universities are more theory-led (Egner et al., 2017). Strong regional anchoring, practicality, usefulness, implementation and action-orientation are the central development parameters in the Biosphere Reserve. The culture at a university, on contrast, is based on academic research and teaching. Additionally, the institutions involved have a different time rhythm, i.e. annual operation and seasonal reference at the biosphere reserve versus semester operation at the universities. The predominant motivation for participating in the SCiENCE_LINKnockberge collaboration among the students interviewed was the intention to be able to reflect and apply the knowledge they got at the university programs into practice. When asked about learning and knowledge gained participation in SCiENCE_LINKnockberge the students mention learning through experience, a creative, open atmosphere, the relevance of informal exchange opportunities and the joint search for solutions. The interviewees see well-founded research experience at an international level as well as multidisciplinary research approaches and perspectives as a strength of the universities. Curiosity, mutual respect and appreciation as well as the courage to try out new things were seen as supporting factors for the collaboration by all partners involved. The research cooperation produced some helpful tools, like a catalogue of research questions and an online database (NockoThek), in which scientific literature relating to biosphere reserves and completed theses are collected. Since the start of SCiENCE_LINKnockberge, a total of 26 student theses have been successfully completed, published in the newsletter of the Biosphere Region and many of them are incorporated into the practice of the Nockberge Biosphere Reserve. Plans for more in-depth research and evaluation projects are underway to explore current developments, including the integration of digital technology into biosphere reserve management.

Egner, H., Falkner, J., Jungmeier, M., & Zollner, D. (2017). Institutionalizing cooperation between biosphere reserves and universities – the example of Science_Linknockberge. eco.mont, 9(2), 77–80. Falkner, J. & Rauch, F. (2020). SCIENCE_LINKnockberge – kooperativ Forschen, Lehren und Lernen. In A. Borsdorf, M. Jungmeier, V. Braun & K. Heinrich (Hrsg.), Biosphäre 4.0 - UNESCO Biosphere Reserves als Modellregionen einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung (S.161-170). Dortrecht: Springer. Gruber, V., Macheiner, G., Schaflechner, M., Mayer, H., Rossmann, D., Wolf, L., Schäfer, I., Köstl, T., Piiroja, R., & Huber, M. (2022). Evaluierungsbericht 2012-2022 UNESCO Biosphärenpark Salzburger Lungau und Kärntner Nockberge. Biosphärenpark Salzburger Lungau und Biosphärenparkverwaltung Nockberge, Mauterndorf und Ebene Reichenau. Helfferich, C. (2009). Die Qualität qualitativer Daten: Manual für die Durchführung qualitativer Interviews (3., überarbeitete Auflage). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Mayring, P. (2022). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken. (13. Aufl.). Beltz. United Nations. 2015. Transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sdgs.un.org/goals Wintersteiner, W., Grobbauer, H., Diendorfer, G., & Reitmair-Juarez, S. (2014). Global Citizenship Education: Politische Bildung für die Weltgesellschaft. Österreichische UNESCO-Kommission: Wien. Zollner, D., Huber, M., Jungmeier, M., Rossmann, D., & Mayer, H. (2015). Managementplan 2015–2025. Biosphärenpark Salzburger Lungau & Kärntner Nockberge – Teil Kärntner Nockberge. 61 p.