The main objective of the project was to design, test and implement an innovative and practice-oriented learning framework that enhances sustainability and circular economy education in higher education. The project aimed to equip university students with relevant skills and competences, enabling them to actively contribute to the green transition. A key objective was to develop high-quality, transferable educational resources that support the integration of sustainability across different academic disciplines. This included the creation of a Sustainable Learning Experience Toolkit for students, as well as practical guidance and capacity-building resources for higher education educators. In addition, the project sought to strengthen educators’ pedagogical competences by introducing experiential, learner-centred methodologies based on living labs and digital learning tools. Another important objective was to foster cooperation between HEIs and other stakeholders, ensuring that learning activities are grounded in real-world challenges and aligned with labour market needs. It also aimed to support long-term institutional change towards a more student-centered, practice-oriented and sustainability-focused higher education.
The application for the project was motivated by the growing need to strengthen the role of higher education in responding to sustainability and circular economy challenges. Although these topics are increasingly emphasized at policy level, their integration into higher education curricula remains fragmented, largely theoretical and insufficiently linked to real-life practice and labour market expectations. Higher education institutions are under increasing pressure to equip students with relevant green skills and problem-solving competences that support the green transition and the achievement of the SDGs. At the same time, many educators lack innovative, structured and transferable pedagogical tools that would enable them to embed sustainability effectively across different disciplines. The project was designed to address these needs by developing an integrated, practice-oriented learning approach combining living lab methodologies with digital tools such as WebQuests. The project responds to the demand for learner-centered, interdisciplinary educational models that connect academic knowledge with real-world sustainability challenges, while strengthening cooperation between HEIs, businenesses and the civil society.