Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NBS EduWORLD (Nature-Based Solutions Education Network)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
The overall objective of NBS EduWORLD is to nurture an NBS-literate society, supporting a just transition to a sustainable future by creating NBS EduWORLD an NBS community facilitating synergies between NBS professionals and education providers and ensuring free and easy access to NBS knowledge and resources for all. To achieve this goal, NBS EduWORLD summarises the state of play of NBS education in Europe and evaluates the initiatives already in place, determining how to expand and replicate them and to establish a basis and framework for the project itself and future initiatives, resulting in guidance and (policy) recommendations. In parallel, the project analyses NBS demonstrators with an educational dimension (Tier-1), across Europe (NBS EduSystems), to support the testing and improvement of approaches and resources with NBS demonstrators with no or a limited educational dimension (Tier-2), and create the means and opportunities for all NBS practitioners to engage with educators, inter alia via Tier-3 NBS EduSystems. This is being done whilst supporting the overarching goal of promoting NBS as a viable career prospect for European citizens of all ages. To adequately engage educators at different points on their NBS journey, the project provides specific activities for those not yet familiar with the concept and benefits of NBS, and those already aware but in need of support to progress to the next stage. These activities will be scaled up/out by extensive dissemination and communication activities to maximise the project’s outreach and ensure its long-term success. Only by joining with NBS experts + Education Experts + Civil Society + supportive policies can we create an NBS EduWORLD - a community that makes a difference.
In the first 18 months of its work, the project has been moving on track to achieve its objectives, the main one being to nurture an NBS literate society, supporting a just transition to a sustainable future. In the process of establishing an NBS community uniting NBS professionals and the education sector, the project has developed several key outputs aimed at: 1) providing a basis for its work, potentially serving as inspiration for other projects (D2.1 State of the Art report, D2.2 Assessment and Guidance for the project, D1.1 Data Management Plan, D7.1 Dissemination and exploitation plan including communication activities); 2) providing guidance for the education sector at various levels (primary, secondary, tertiary) and forms of education (formal, non-formal, informal), and levels of understanding of NBS (D3.1 NBS Education Virtual Flipping book, D5.1 NBS Knowledge Stream Guidelines, D6.1 Scenarios of Plausible Futures for NBS in Education, MS5 Initial Report on principles, NBS content, pedagogy, gaps, and priorities for NBS in higher education/entrepreneurship architecture). Other educational outputs created by the project include NBS Learning Scenarios and the MOOC “Exploring Nature-Based Solutions in Your Classroom”. Work of the project with demonstrators in the rural, urban, and coastal areas through the Tier-1 and Tier-2 NBS EduSystems has been developed through exploratory and participatory approaches, laying the basis for the further expansion of the NBS EduSystems to inspire and include a wider community (Tier-3).
Potential impacts that could be observed at this stage include the expansion of NBS EduWORLD’s network (both in terms of stakeholders and geographic reach), as well as the dissemination of knowledge, experience and good practices related to (NBS) education approaches, activities and initiatives by the project but also by other key stakeholders in the European region (educators, policy makers, local/regional authorities, researchers, students, youth, general public, etc). Initial estimation of the key needs for further uptake and success includes the need for deepening the knowledge and scaling up of activities already organised, widening the stakeholder network and developing further synergies while maintaining existing ones, and informing policy makers of key project observations and the needs of the NBS education community through a set of policy recommendations.