Nature-Based Solutions Education Network

Project Information

NBS EduWORLD

Grant agreement ID: 101060525

DOI

10.3030/101060525

Project closed

EC signature date 8 June 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2025

Funded under

• Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment

Total cost

€ 4 997 583,09

EU contribution

€ 4 997 583,00

Coordinated by

EUN PARTNERSHIP AISBL
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NBS EduWORLD (Nature-Based Solutions Education Network)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

NBS EduWORLD aimed to contribute to a society that understands, values, and is able to apply Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in support of a fair transition towards sustainability. To this end, the project established a community bringing together NBS experts and education providers, while ensuring open and accessible availability of NBS knowledge and resources. The project mapped the state of play of NBS education in Europe, reviewed existing initiatives, and assessed the potential for scaling up and replicating successful approaches. This work provided the evidence base for the project’s activities and for subsequent guidance and policy recommendations. In parallel, NBS EduWORLD examined real-life demonstration sites (NBS EduSystems) across Europe in which ecosystems are protected, managed, or restored to address climate and broader societal challenges. These NBS EduSystems were organised within a three-tier structure reflecting their level of experience and degree of engagement with educational activities. While some sites had an established educational function (Tier 1), others had limited or no educational dimension (Tier 2). The project used this typology to strengthen learning approaches and to foster collaboration between NBS practitioners and educators, including through Tier 3, which addressed practitioners not yet engaged in education owing to limited knowledge or resources. The project also supported the wider objective of promoting NBS as a potential career pathway for learners and practitioners of all ages across Europe. Activities were designed to engage educators with varying levels of prior experience, from those new to NBS to those seeking to deepen their expertise. These activities were reinforced by targeted communication and dissemination efforts intended to maximise outreach and support long-term impact. Overall, NBS EduWORLD demonstrated the value of integrated cooperation among NBS experts, educators, civil society actors, and policy stakeholders.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project achieved its core objective of strengthening societal understanding of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and supporting a fair transition towards sustainability through education, capacity building, and stakeholder cooperation. It established a community linking NBS professionals with the education sector and delivered a broad portfolio of practical resources and activities. These outputs included a State-of-the-Art report on NBS in education, NBS Education Summits, and guidance materials for primary, secondary, and higher education, as well as for formal, non-formal, and informal learning contexts. The project developed support tools for stakeholders with different levels of prior knowledge, ranging from educators newly introduced to NBS to those seeking to implement more advanced approaches. It also produced reports addressing higher education, entrepreneurship, architecture, policy needs, and priorities for NBS in education. For policy makers and local and regional authorities, the project delivered dedicated resources, including a virtual flipping book, a youth inclusion and local authorities kit, and policy recommendations. Further outputs comprised NBS Learning Scenarios, booklets presenting examples and good practices, a booklet for non-formal education, two massive open online courses (MOOCs), and higher education learning units. With more than 2,000 registered educators, the MOOCs contributed to an indirect reach of over 16,000 students by equipping primary and secondary school educators with knowledge, resources, and practical strategies for integrating NBS into daily educational practice. The project also engaged with demonstration sites in rural, urban, and coastal areas through its Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 NBS EduSystems. This work applied exploratory and participatory methods and helped lay the foundations for broadening these learning environments to involve a wider community. In parallel, dissemination and communication activities, including participation in the annual Scientix® STEM Discovery Campaign, enabled the project to reach thousands of stakeholders and expand the NBS EduCommunity. The project further established a Task Force on NBS in education, which strengthened cooperation with other NBS and STEM initiatives across Europe and was subsequently continued through new NBS projects. This Task Force brought together a broad range of EU-funded initiatives working on NBS and environmental sustainability in order to exchange resources and practices, build on shared experience, and extend collective outreach. In addition, the project launched the NBS School Expertise in collaboration with the Scientix STEM School Label, the NBS EduWORLD Academy, the NBS Explorer app, and the NBS EduHUB to support community building, knowledge exchange, and capacity development. Through these activities, the project trained hundreds of teachers and provided practical support for the integration of NBS in education, including at whole-school level.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Beyond its direct outputs, the project generated wider impact through the expansion of the NBS EduWORLD network, both in terms of stakeholder participation and geographical coverage across countries and regions. It contributed to the dissemination of knowledge, experience, and good practices in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) education through its own activities and through cooperation with educators, policy makers, local and regional authorities, researchers, students, young people, and the wider public across Europe. The project also identified key conditions required to support future uptake and long-term success. These included further strengthening the knowledge base, scaling up the activities and resources already developed, broadening the stakeholder network, establishing new partnerships while maintaining existing cooperation, and ensuring that policy makers are informed of the needs of the NBS education community through targeted recommendations. During the project lifetime, concrete actions were undertaken to address these conditions. In addition, measures were put in place to ensure that the project’s principal outputs remain publicly available and continue to support uptake, transferability, and sustained use beyond the end of the project.