The US Fulbright Scholar Program offers outstanding US scholars the opportunity to conduct research and to teach at more than twenty participating Austrian universities and universities of applied sciences, research centres and museums. At their orientation day on February 27, the new cohort of US Fulbright Scholars were introduced to Austria’s history, politics, culture – and current issues affecting society. At a time of increasing environmental pressures, one such topical issue is environmental education. LawGov’s Birgit Hollaus shared her views on the role of Austrian universities in this regard alongside Willi Haas (Boku) and Gerhard Piringer (FH Burgenland). She spoke about the need – and challenge – to find broad acceptance for solutions to environmental pressures in a pluralistic society, and how universities can foster the necessary skills. All panellists emphasised the crucial role of scientific knowledge in addressing environmental pressures and agreed that, particularly in the face of growing public mistrust of science, universities must find different, new, and perhaps unconventional ways of communicating scientific knowledge.