Since spring 2005, the Wuppertal Institute has operated a systematic programme to promote doctoral thesis. Jointly with cooperating universities, currently in Aachen, Bamberg, Berlin, Bochum, Dortmund, Dresden, Duisburg-Essen, Flensburg, Kassel, Oldenburg, Osnabrück and Wuppertal, the Wuppertal Institute aims to reinforce its academic credentials by promoting young academics in dissertation projects and by strengthening the disciplinary basis of its transdisciplinary work. University teachers supervise the research work. The doctoral examination procedure is undertaken at cooperating universities.

Dissertation projects at the Wuppertal Institute address selected topics of application-oriented sustainability research in the context of scientific work by research groups and in cross-cutting subjects. PhD students receive one-on-one tutoring by experienced Institute staff and by the Institute's President. Wherever possible, dissertation projects are developed in connection with current Institute projects in receipt of third-party funding.

Furthermore, the Wuppertal Institute has set up dissertation discussion groups at which postgraduate students can discuss interim findings and problems they encounter in their work:

• Sustainable Energy Supplies, chaired by Dr Manfred Fischedick
• Ecology and Fairness in the World Trade Regime, chaired by Dr Wolfgang Sachs
• Methods of Application-Oriented Sustainability Research, chaired by Dr Oscar Reutter

Dissertations at the Wuppertal Institute are financed partly by PhD students themselves, partly by funds from the Institute’s own projects and partly from outside, third-party PhD scholarships. In this process the Wuppertal Institute cooperates with foundations that have set themselves the task of promoting young academics:

• the Vera und Georg Spahn Foundation
• the Stemmler Foundation
• the Heinrich Böll Foundation
• the Hans Böckler Foundation