Autumn school-hackathon “Collaboration for smart and sustainable territorial development”

By participating in the school-hackathon, students will acquire theoretical and practical knowledge about smart and sustainable development at the territorial level, and the role of cooperation in the development and implementation of sustainable innovation. The school will also offer students the opportunity to develop their own ideas for new solutions on topics of sustainable development, such as sustainable food systems, circular economy, digitalisation, and other.

Learning outcomes: In theoretical and practical classes, students will learn to develop new solutions for smart and sustainable territorial development: (i) identify challenges and opportunities, (ii) identify resources and the necessary actions, (iii) model the cooperation between citizens, government, entrepreneurs and scientists needed for the solutions (see the figure below).

Participants: The autumn school-hackathon invites master and doctoral students from the Latvian higher education institutions, in particular the students of ERASMUS exchange programme currently studying in Latvia, the Sociology Master programme students of the University of Latvia, master and doctoral students of Banku Augstskolas School of Business and Finance, as well as students from Liepaja University.

Training staff: Training will be provided by researchers and lecturers from different Latvian scientific institutions, as well as foreign guest lecturers with international and local project experience. Virtual study tours and demonstrations of good practice examples will be provided by experienced practice partners.

Working language: English.

Place: Online on the Zoom platform.

Time: The school will be organised as a series of four on-line classes taking place on Monday evenings in November and December 2021: 22.11, 29.11, 6.12 and 13.12 from 18:00 to 21:00.

Structure: Each class will include three parts: introductory lecture, good practice examples, and practical work. Interactive and collaborative forms of learning will be used such as short introductory lectures, panel discussions, virtual tours, good practice analysis, student group work, etc. In practice sections the students will work in groups on specific solutions. Mentors will be available to the groups, who will provide advice and feedback. Solutions developed by students with the authors’ permission will be included in a digital manual.

Registration: Until November 16 here.

Programme

November 22. Challenges and solutions for smart and sustainable development: challenges and trends of smart and sustainable territorial development, the role of interactive innovation, collaboration in rural and urban settings.

November 29. Values and models of Circular Economy: circular economics, theoretical framework, tendencies, values of circular economy, levels of circularity, and case studies of circular businesses in Latvia.

December 6. User-oriented solutions: collaboration between scientists and practitioners, benefits and potential risks, involving end-users in decision-making and development of solutions, practice case of development of user-oriented solutions.

December 13. Practical implementation: business models/elements for sustainability based on examples from businesses in Baltics.

Detailed programme here.