Over 230 participants from 35 countries gathered online for the Virtual Higher Education Summit 2020 (HES2020) from 31 August to 2 September 2020. Different formats enabled interactive sessions leading to concrete outputs as well as fruitful discussions guided by speakers such as: Rietje van Dam-Mieras, Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, Christoph Grolimund, Elizabeth Lange, Mandy Singer-Brodowksi, Arjen Wals, Hilligje van’t Land, Giorgio Zanetti and Marie-Claire Graf.
Since 2018, the working group “critical discourse on excellence” – consisting of members of intermediary and professorial staff originally at the University of Bern but now also at other Swiss HEIs – has been discussing the scientific practices we consider appropriate for achieving “academic excellence”. From this nucleus, an initiative emerged and is gaining momentum: the Better Science Initiative. COPERNICUS Alliance members are invited to sign the initiative and check on the programme of an upcoming online conference (20-21 November 2020).
The 16th IRDO International Science and Business Conference SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CURRENT CHALLENGES 2021 is organized by the University of Maribor and puts a focus on "Pitfalls and opportunities of digitalisation for a sustainable future". The main purpose of the conference is to explore the impact of digitalisation on the formation of relations and interactions between people, organizations, nature and society that enable the development of a common sustainable future. Submit your abstract by 10 November 2020 and participate in this forward-looking event that will take place from 10-11 June 2021 in a hybrid form in Maribor (Slovenia) and online.
Creating a space for exchange, reflection, new ideas, and community building for transdisciplinary research tdAcademy is a platform that seeks to assess the current state of transdisciplinary research and provide capacity-building opportunities for researchers in the field. At the same time, it aims to strengthen its global research community. These are the main ideas of the new tdAcademy project, launched in June 2020 by the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), the Leuphana University Lüneburg, the Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft from the TU Berlin, and the Oeko-Institut. After its initiation, tdAcademy is soon starting its guests and fellowship program.
Transforming learning to transform societies towards sustainability is the aim of the ESD for 2030 framework. This roadmap for ESD in 2020-2030 will be officially launched at the UNESCO World Conference on ESD taking place on 17-19 May 2021, in Berlin, Germany. In the lead-up to the World Conference, UNESCO hosts a series of ESD online workshops in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany, and with the German Commission for UNESCO as advisory partner. The discussions and results from the series of online workshops will be used to further develop the conference program and help shape the agenda in Berlin next year.
STEAM+ is an Erasmus+ project that aims at innovating Higher Education in the light of the 21st century challenges, while using Honours Programs as innovation labs. It is a "Forward Looking Cooperation Project", aiming at inspiring policy makers. The STEAM+ team invites you to join an interactive online event on 15 October 2020 themed "Transdisciplinarity in higher education: STEAM+ solutions" and asks for your help.
BIOPROFILES is an Erasmus+ project from the Autonomous University of Madrid seeking to develop environmental and sustainability competences of school children in four European countries: Slovakia, Italy, the United Kingdom and Spain. Through an active learning approach, the project is working with teachers in exciting learning projects and methodologies.
In our series "A conversation with..." we talk with our members. In this edition, we interviewed Jurgis Kazimieras Staniškis, a transdisciplinary scientist globally recognized for his innovative and transformative systems. Jurgis is an Emeritus Professor from Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania), full member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and co-author of the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR). Read about his insights into HESD, innovative financing of sustainability initiatives, and the GSDR.
University and sustainability, good practices and alliances for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda were the key themes of the summer course “University and sustainability: travelling companions for a great mission”, organized by the Directorate of Sustainability of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). The objective of this online course was to showcase the steps that universities are making to address the 2030 Agenda’s mandate. The CA participated at one of the sessions with other higher education networks such as GUNi, REDS (SDNS), and Euskampus, and presented its approach to transformative networking.
After joining a proposal for an Erasmus+ project at short notice, we have just received confirmation that the project will be launched on 1 September 2020. “OnTL: Pushing the boundaries of online transformative learning” was put together by Legacy17.org (Sweden), Visionautik (Germany) and Isoropia (Croatia), three partners who have also been involved in another project that has led to publication of a fantastic book co-created by TL practitioners: A Transformative Edge (more about this book soon!). The role of the CA in the project will be to establish a stronger link between TL practitioners and HESD research. A call for notices of interest will be issued after project start. Stay tuned, as this might be a unique opportunity to contribute to exploring how transformative learning/teaching can take place online!
Weaving together creative learning, place-based learning, education for sustainable development and futures education, the project will create a participatory, emancipatory and transformative learning experience in 20 classrooms. The project is led by the Society for Creativity in Education, Prague, and builds on the running applied research pilot project "Education for the Future", led by Laura Henderson and Jana Dlouhá at CUEC. Both projects aim to develop school pupils’ capacity to imagine and envision alternative futures, and their self-perception as agents of change in actively creating a just, regenerative society.
The 15th IRDO International Science and Business Conference entitled “Personal and Social Responsibility for a Sustainable Future” was celebrated on 4-5 June 2020 in Maribor, Slovenia. The conference was organized by IRDO (Institute for the Development of Social Responsibility) in cooperation with the University of Maribor and numerous supporting partners. The conference proceedings and conclusions are now available online.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led Spanish universities to draw roadmaps for the future that inevitably include the implementation of the Agenda 2030 and its 17 SDGs. Several key actions have been promoted within the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE) and implemented by its working groups in order to support the Spanish higher education system in addressing the COVID-19 crisis through sustainable development lenses.
Associate Professor Živilė Stankevičiūtė of Kaunas University of Technology, School of Economics and Business, Lithuania, benefitted from the voucher offered by Marilyn Mehlmann on the occasion of the COPERNICUS Alliance Online Conference in 2019: Živilė attended a five-day workshop in Croatia in February 2020, followed by three months of online interaction to improve her transformative learning skills. Read her report on the event!
Two research teams at the Vienna University of Economics and Business are teaming up to fight the Climate Crisis. Our latest research shows decisively: the cheapest way of reducing our carbon footprint by far is to put a fair price on CO2 emissions. Over 19,000 Europeans have already signed the petition. Learn more and add your signature!
The Environment Centre at Charles University in Prague was pleased to host a 3-day international workshop showcasing a range of innovative teaching methods with the aim to enrich the portfolio of course activities in the area of sustainable food systems.
You can register to the low-traffic COPERNICUS Alliance mailing list which is used for distribution of CA newsletters and other important information from the CA secretariat to both members and non-members of the COPERNICUS Alliance.
Are you or your institution interested in becoming a member of the COPERNICUS Alliance? Find out more about how you can benefit by being part of a vibrant network!
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