The current economic system is socially and environmentally unsustainable. In the past decades, more and more voices have been raised to express the necessity of rethinking the way we, as citizens, organisations and policymakers, interact, consume, create and live. To do so, we have to develop alternatives for the current system that are less resource-intensive, generate less inequalities, and, to put it simply, are sustainable for both people and the planet. Circular economic models offer this opportunity. One issue is that these models are not sufficiently taught to students, both in higher education and secondary schools.

The project aims at creating open source tools that help to teach and learn about circular economic models. The project gathers three partners: Université Libre de Bruxelles, the second largest French-speaking university in Belgium and the leading institution on this project, Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, Berlin's largest university of applied sciences, and the Stars Are Circular foundation, whose mission is to facilitate the learning of circular economic models by children.

This project will result in the development of four complementary digital tools that will together constitute a ready-to-be-implemented module that could fit in higher education courses related to circular economy, social entrepreneurship or sustainable development.

1. The first tool will consist of videos that retrace the path of several social entrepreneurs. These videos will confront the students with real-life situations of social entrepreneurs, and will explain their motivations as well as the obstacles faced. The videos can be used as a case study, either as an exercise or as the basis for a class discussion.
2. The second tool will also take the form of videos, but will this time more theoretical ones. These content videos will present in a playful way the different alternative economic models that are sometimes regrouped under the term “circular economy”. These videos will be accompanied by pedagogical content to facilitate their implementation in courses.

• Prof. Dr. Dimitrios Zikos (Projektleitung)

AEF Belgium - Erasmus+

Université libre de Bruxelles (BE)

Stars are Circular foundation (NL)

Strategic Partnerships - Digital Education

http://di-to.eu/