NEB Stewardship Lab — enhancing the role of higher education in New European Bauhaus

As Europe and the world are facing existential threats of climate change where social and ecological systems are disrupted - urgent actions are needed. Answering these challenges requires swift and decisive action on multiple levels from local to global. The New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative provides an enabling context for this transition by calling people to imagine and build together a future based on values of sustainability, inclusion and aesthetics.

In this context the new community led NEB Lab project, NEB Stewardship Lab, seeks to enhance and clarify the role of higher education to support the needed societal transition. The project will further co-develop the model of NEB Stewardship, which combines the NEB values to three stewardship dimensions: knowledge, agency and care. This combination draws the attention to capacities needed for effective individual and collective actions pursuing sustainability. At the same time, the NEB values describe the aspired characteristics of both the development process and its outcomes.

The NEB Stewardship Lab is a joint effort of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University of Turin (Italy), IADE - Universidade Europeia (Portugal), NABA - Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti (Italy), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands), Cyprus Institute (Cyprus) and Green Growth Generation (Italy). The group of coordinators stands behind the common goal of nurturing the transition from climate anxiety to NEB stewardship and thus, motivating for actions that contribute to positive change.

“The NEB values of sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion are rooted deep in our strategy, thinking and ways of working, which makes it clear for us that this is the European community we want to be working with towards a better future”, says Riitta Konkola, CEO, President of Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

Join our activities

Everyone working with or otherwise interested in higher education and the New European Bauhaus are warmly invited to participate in the activities and events of the NEB Stewardship Lab.

• For higher education institutes, this offers an opportunity to work together in devising responses to the growing demand from the students to act on the triple crisis (climate, biodiversity and pollution).
• The developed model facilitates engagement and human capacity building in the NEB initiative, thus helping to shape the role of higher education in the initiative.
• NEB Stewardship Lab also provides an opportunity to link research concepts to the practice and explore their practical applications.
• For other participants, the NEB Lab actions provide a way to consciously act on the climate and biodiversity crisis in collaboration with higher education partners, and, in addition, reflect on how they can apply the model to their other activities.

Next steps

The project launches today with an online event, organised by the coordinators of the NEB Stewardship Lab together with the European Commission Joint Research Centre New European Bauhaus Unit. Simultaneously, the lab is kicking off a broad ‘Call to action’ inventory study where the coordinators are collecting and discovering the ideas, existing examples and potential identified on the NEB Stewardship in the participating HEIs. This will be followed with workshops to co-define the model further and to identify the actions needed. Towards the end of the year there will be practical local actions where the co-defined model will be tested in practice.

Team of coordinators

Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
Päivi Keränen, Project Manager / Theme Coordinator of Sustainable Urban Development, paivi.keranen [at] metropolia.fi (paivi[dot]keranen[at]metropolia[dot]fi)
Jenna Ylimaunu, RDI Specialist (EU) jenna.ylimaunu [at] metropolia.fi (jenna[dot]ylimaunu[at]metropolia[dot]fi)

IADE - Universidade Europeia (Portugal)
Maria Cadarso, maria.cadarso [at] universidadeeuropeia.pt (maria[dot]cadarso[at]universidadeeuropeia[dot]pt)

Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, NABA (Italy)
Maria Jaber,International Partnerships and Strategic Business Head, maria.jaber [at] naba.it (maria[dot]jaber[at]naba[dot]it)

Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Mareile Zuber, Project Manager for the Centre of Expertise for Creative Innovation, m.a.zuber [at] hva.nl (m[dot]a[dot]zuber[at]hva[dot]nl)
Marleen Henny, Policy Advisor Internationalisation, c.r.m.henny [at] hva.nl (c[dot]r[dot]m[dot]henny[at]hva[dot]nl)

University of Turin (Italy)
Paola De Bernardi, paola.debernardi [at] unito.it (paola[dot]debernardi[at]unito[dot]it)
Canio Forliano, canio.forliano [at] unito.it (canio[dot]forliano[at]unito[dot]it)

The Cyprus Institute (Cyprus)
Fabio Maria Montagnino, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Directorate, f.montagnino [at] cyi.ac.cy (f[dot]montagnino[at]cyi[dot]ac[dot]cy)

Green Growth Generation (Italy)
Gabriella Esposito, Founder CEO, Strategic Partnership and Other Opportunities gabriella [at] greengrowthgeneration.com (gabriella[at]greengrowthgeneration[dot]com)

More information:

Päivi Keränen
Project Manager, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
paivi.keranen [at] metropolia.fi (paivi[dot]keranen[at]metropolia[dot]fi)

Jenna Ylimaunu
RDI Specialist (EU), Metropolia University of Applied Sciences
jenna.ylimaunu [at] metropolia.fi (jenna[dot]ylimaunu[at]metropolia[dot]fi)