Building Resilience through Education and Research in Nature-based Solutions

BUILD is a collaboration involving six universities in Norway, China, South Africa, Canada, and USA (University of Stavanger (UiS), Høgskolen i Østfold (HIOF), Univ. of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), North-West Univ. (NWU), Univ. of Toronto (UT), and Alabama A&M Univ. (AMMU)). The objective is to provide a common successful learning environment for researchers and students, to make sure that the students will have the skills and knowledge required to address the future urban problems due to climate-change mitigation and unsustainability. Nature-based solutions (NBS) is a fundamental part of the action for climate and biodiversity. NBS can provide over one-third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed between now and 2030 to stabilize warming to below 2 °C, achieving nature’s mitigation potential of 10-12 gigatons of CO2 per year.
HIOF and UiS have successfully made collaboration in education for bachelor level and they tend to expand their successful story beyond Norway and the master and doctoral study program. NWU, UT, AAMU, UNNC, and UiS have established a network platform on NBS (GREENET) in 2020 to strengthen the cross-nation partnership.
This project consists of three components: Education, Research, and Dissemination. Education activities include summer school, digital lecturing, mobility of students, summer exchange, joint courses, and discussion on new study programs (i.e. double-degree master). The consortium will share experience on innovative teaching methods, such as cross-over teaching, teaching through smart boards, teaching through flipped classrooms, teaching through collaboration (learn, study and work in groups), and research-based learning. Research activities include collaborative research on topics of common interest, research stay, and joint master thesis supervision. Dissemination activities include thematic seminars, workshops, and meeting forum. The project will participate in triple-helix forums involving non-academic players.