Digitalisation has a transformative societal impact, providing solutions and creating new challenges. Against the background of the Sustainable Development Goals it is imperative to analyse this impact in further detail.

The workshop “Digital Transformation: Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development” that took place between 8-9 November 2018 in the DAAD headquarters in Bonn, Germany, was organised by the German Academic Exchange Service (as part of the DIES programme) and the German Development Institute (DIE) to address this issue and deal with the following resulting questions within the triangle of education, research and development:

• Where are the opportunities of  digitalisation for sustainable  development?
• Which fundamental new questions  arise due to digitalisation?
• What are the implications for higher  education, a corner stone for  sustainable development?
• What impact does digitalisation have  on international research networks  and science cooperation?

To elaborate on these topics the workshop was structured around four regional round tables. Each round table had an input paper as a basis for further discussion between the experts and representatives from civil society, government, higher education and research institutions.

During the evening of 8 November, a public lecture and discussion held by Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner ensured the engagement of the participating experts with a broader audience of higher education and development professionals.

The workshop aimed to agree on an experts' position paper on the implications of digitalisation for higher education and sustainable development which is available below.