Higher education plays a big role in making Europe more resilient and sustainable. The UNI-ECO project over its life time has actively contributed to the goal of promoting collaboration between internal stakeholders of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) for more sustainable practices within universities.
In this context, the online conference “Higher Education Institutions for sustainability: what universities do and can do to lead the sustainability in their territory” was held on July 6, 2022, from 3 pm to 5 pm. UNIMED brought all project partners as well as other stakeholders together to underline and discuss the strategic role of universities in promoting sustainable practices in their national, regional and local context.
The event was structured into two panel discussions where local, international and Euro-Mediterranean stakeholders shared their visions for the future, their experiences and feedback of pilot project. A special focus was on student engagement and making sustainability processes more participatory, thus making all university stakeholders protagonists in the changes to foster sustainable behaviour.
The first panel discussion “Multi-stakeholder engagement in developing the sustainability and resilience of Euro-Mediterranean territories” featured different interventions of international organisations and networks, among them the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), MedCities, Eurocities, CPMR – Intermediterranean Commission and UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union discussing such an approach as well as pointing out the challenges they are facing engaging all relevant stakeholders.
The second one “Higher Education Institutions responsibilities and engagement in sustainable development” was dedicated to gather feedback from practical initiatives where universities promote a wider engagement in the context of a transition to more sustainability at local and international level. Speakers came from many partner institutions as well as the European Universities Association (EUA), the Italian University Network for Sustainable Development (RUS) and An-Najah University (Palestine).
In addition to the online conference, the UNI-ECO team held the final meeting for the project in Rome in the days following the conference. They used the time together to review project mile stones and deliverables, such as the e-learning modules and e-learning platform as well as to plan the last steps for the successful conclusion of the project. Finally, the impact indicators were finalised showing that an overall 36 living labs based on the chosen Green Challenge projects have been created in the platform, which by this point in time had a total of 375 registered users from all partner countries between the e-learning modules and the created living labs.
About the project
UNI-ECO – Practical & collaborative tools for sustainability innovation in the university is co-funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme, KA2 – Strategic partnership in higher education.
Partners
- UNIVERSITE DE MONTPELLIER (France, coordinator)
- UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA (Spain)
- THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FPUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN (Ireland)
- UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT (the Netherlands)
- EOTVOS LORAND TUDOMANYEGYETEM (Hungary)
- UNIMED – UNIONE DELLE UNIVERSITA DEL MEDITERRANEO (Italy)
- CESIE (Italy)
For further information
Read more about UNI-ECO and see the project website.
Contact Paula Luise Goltzsche: paula.goltzsche@cesie.org.
