About the project

ESSENCE is an Erasmus+ project, funded for three years from December 2014, working alongside the CARPE partners; Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, Turku University of Applied Sciences, and the Universitat Polytècnica de València. This exciting project will encourage the development of smart sustainable cities through the creation of an international course focusing on innovative education. Particular attention will be given to blended learning, the use of creative tools in lessons, interdisciplinarity and entrepreneurship. MMU will host a five day ‘start up bootcamp, bringing together students from across the various European partners to develop their skills in enterprise and entrepreneurship against the background of a smart sustainable city.

Background

In the coming decades important geographical, demographical and environmental changes will take place in the urban environment. It is important to remain in front of these ever-increasing environmental pressures.

Through the ESSENCE project, our intention is to develop integrated sustainable solutions for economic, social and environment problems in urban areas. In short the development of smart sustainable cities.

To achieve this, a combination of co-operation between HEIs (Higher Education Institutions) and local authorities is needed, along with the need for a reinforcement of academic programmes that educate professionals in viable solutions for creating smart sustainable cities

The Essence project has been developed to facilitate such cooperation, and develop an interdisciplinary teaching programme in the process. The Centre for Enterprise is excited to be included in this partnership, bringing together its successful history in developing entrepreneurship and enterprise in students, with our strength in achieving successful European projects.

Project Partners

The HEIs are partners in CARPE (Consortium on Applied Research and Professional Education), the first partnership of its kind in the field of Applied Sciences in Europe, started in 2011. CARPE aims at connecting education and research with their regions to increase social and economic value of the knowledge that they create. The partners are:

• Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany (HAW), www.haw-hamburg.de
• HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, The Netherlands (HU), www.hu.nl
• Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland (TUAS), www.turkuamk.fi
• Universitat Polytècnica de València, Spain (UPV), www.upv.es
• Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom (MMU), www.mmu.ac.uk

The project brings together these HEIs with city regions that share the goal of realising the smart, sustainable city:

• City of Utrecht, Netherlands, www.utrecht.nl
• City of Alcoi, Spain, www.alcoi.org
• City of Turku, Finland, www.turku.fi

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