The Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) is the University of Bern’s centre for sustainable development research. Founded in 1988 as a part of the Institute of Geography, it became an interdisciplinary university centre in 2009, with the aim of fostering sustainable development-oriented research across various institutes and departments of the University of Bern.

The University of Bern already has a long tradition of sustainable development research in Switzerland and worldwide; together with its academic partners in the North and South, CDE coordinates the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South and the International Graduate School (IGS) North-South, a collaborative programme between the universities of Bern, Basel, and Zurich.