The central themes of DENVI are environmental change and sustainable development as well as climate change, land use, and the Baltic Sea and its catchment area. The programme gathers together the essential fields of natural and social sciences, law and humanities that are needed to study the complexity of environmental change and pathways to sustainable development.  DENVI aims to study environmental change from biological processes to environmental governance – seeking solutions for a more sustainable future. DENVI considers the environment broadly from natural habitats to built-up environments.

On DENVI’s interdisciplinary courses the students’ own research is put into a wider perspective. The doctoral programme aims to provide its members with skills for interdisciplinary research and interaction, which are needed to solve complex environmental problems. These are taught on interdisciplinary workshops that take place twice a year. The themes of the workshops are planned so that each DENVI student may participate in at least two workshops during his/her PhD studies. Additionally, DENVI organises an interdisciplinary student symposium which offers students an opportunity to improve their presentation skills, to get feedback from colleagues, and to share academic questions within an interdisciplinary framework to further strengthen the DENVI community.