Author: Michael Ambros

The yearly Summer Forum of the CASE partner Terra Institute gathered consultants and high-level business representatives to discover, experience, reflect and discuss the topic Mindful Organization. More than 50 participants – from individual enterprises to multinationals with 100.000 employees – had the chance to exchange in an informal setting on their good practices and challenges in the context of sustainable development.

In the naturally rich environment of South Tyrol, the perfect setting included workshops, presentations and discussions as well as hiking. Sharing experiences was thus possible in the plenary and smaller groups or bilateral conversations.

For the two CASE participants this was the occasion to spread the results of the project and encourage consultants to act as multipliers in their field of activity. Once more, the need for support in the process of accompanying organizations in their change towards sustainability was strengthened. Potential partners for university-business cooperation in teaching and learning were identified and invited to participate at the final event of CASE.

More information on Terra Institute: www.terra-institute.eu

For the first time, the Sustainability Day and the Day of Teaching and Learning were merged at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). A perfect environment to present and discuss the learnings and results of CASE with students, teachers, cooperating partners and interested people from in- and outside university.

A variety of sessions, workshops, lectures, discussions, networking activities, games, info-points and market places invited the participants to get in touch with or deepen the topic. Interaction was fostered using appropriate methods and thanks to mostly small group sizes. All members of the rectorate (general management) actively participated throughout the day.

This Day is not only an occasion for visibility of good practices but also a moment of appreciation and gratitude for strongly committed university members.

CASE was not only present with a stand but also indirectly as many student teams out of different CASE pilots showed their projects and start-up ideas. The marketplace encouraged a fruitful and vital exchange among the students and other visitors.

More than 400 representatives from business, higher education institutions and the European Union gathered in central Brussels in early April to share their experiences regarding University-Business cooperation in Europe. The Forum is a platform for the so far 40 Knowledge Alliance projects financed by the European Union under the Erasmus+ program, aiming to strengthen Europe’s innovation capacity and foster innovation in higher education, business and the broader socio-economic environment.

CASE was invited to participate in the exposition and disseminate the latest project results. With more than twenty exhibitors displaying exciting and innovative projects, there was high competition for the visitors’ attention. However, with a stand located directly at the entrance of the conference center, no visitor could overlook our exhibition and Michael and Gabriela were given ample opportunity to present CASE.

Apart from the exhibition, the topic how university-business cooperation can be intensified was intensely debated in workshops, panel discussions and key note addresses. As one of the speakers highlighted, you need not only bridges, but also places to meet and exchange ideas. It is key to understand and accept the differences between the players, build trust and be patient. As the various best practice examples showed, trusted relationships are the building blocks of successful collaborations. The conference participants were given the opportunity to build bridges at the networking dinner at the Belgian Comic Strip Center located in a beautiful Art Nouveau building, witnessing of Brussels rich history in both architecture and comic art.

25 Experts and representatives of business, higher education institutions and non-governmental organisations met at the Impact Hub Vienna for an intensive dialogue on sustainable entrepreneurship.

This conference was part of a series of four events of the Alliance of Sustainable Universities in Austria. The initiators – the Federal Minister of Science, Research and Economy and the management bodies of the universities – aimed at a dialogue between economy, education and society. Sustainable Entrepreneurship was chosen as one of the four subject areas, besides energy, mobility and distributive justice.

The focus of this dialogue series is on the global challenges, such as climate change, scarcity of resources or social polarisation. In this context, exchange, mutual learning and cooperation shall enable the participants to jointly tackle these challenges and multiply the effect through their networks.

CASE was presented as one of the key inputs, highlighting competence and personal development as well as cooperation of universities with business and society. As one outcome of the conference, the transfer of know-how in both directions within cooperations represented a central element. This refers particularly well to the context of teaching and learning.

Another outcome of the dialogue was the necessity of integrating the social partnerships – a specific regional aspect in Austria as they play a key role in political processes. Furthermore all agreed to orientate sustainability activities according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Façade greening, apple cider, CO2-reduction – the students of the 7th Sustainability Challenge presented their concepts at the public Stop-Over event on June 29^th. Impressive short videos of the projects and start-ups were succeeded by a market place with vivid discussions.

Within this interdisciplinary course, students tackle challenges in cooperation with partners or as start-up teams. The first task was to develop a concept for the service learning projects respectively a business model for the start-up ideas.

 

The intermediary Stop-Over event facilitated exchange, feedback and learning from each other. During the second term the teams will focus on implementation of the projects, prototyping their business concepts and writing business plans.

To support a holistic approach for developing sustainable solutions, theoretic input was provided by lecturers from the participating four universities.

 

 

For the first time, the course integrates start-ups and is extended to two semesters. The testing of these enhancements and their implication constitute the core of piloting the Sustainability Challenge in the context of CASE.

 

 

Read more about the Stop-Over event (in German).

More information about the Sustainability Challenge.