The Certificate in Sustainable Development and Social Innovation at the University of Luxembourg brings together motivated individuals from all professional backgrounds who collaborate in peer-group projects, focusing on their shared interests. This enables direct experience of collaboration and co-creation within a highly diverse social learning group. Peer groups serve as a field of experimentation, bridging the gap between the academic literature and theory taught in the course, and practical issues faced in Luxembourg.
The certificate's courses provide an overview of the latest insights from academics and practitioners related to global change and transformative learning for sustainability. High-level experts share scientific insights, as well as practical experience from the working world, and discuss with course participants problems such as climate anxiety, the transfer of environmental data to the public, and practical hurdles in implementing ideas, along with solutions to these challenges.
Students can apply this experience-based knowledge in their peer groups. The study programme equips participants with tools for social learning to harness the collective intelligence of stakeholders and experts. The programme covers resource-related topics such as energy, water, food production, waste, and recycling, as well as lifestyle-oriented areas such as sustainable housing, social transport, and environmental education. The annual projects are introduced at the start of the certificate in September. Participants can choose between various projects and approaches. Some projects, such as NaturED and Waterlinx, have been running for years and are enriched by annual cohorts, while others are completed within one year.
Peer groups thus provide a field of experimentation to bridge the gap between the academic literature and theory taught in the course and the practical problems relevant to Luxembourg (which may be uncertain, unique, situated, and, in some areas, contested or contradictory). Group members can utilise their interdisciplinary knowledge to apply what they have learned, develop it further, and identify gaps.
Peer groups also offer the opportunity to practise a social learning process within small and diverse groups, similar to initiating a citizens' project on a sustainability challenge in which you are personally involved. The work is self-organised, planned during peer group meetings scheduled by participants at times convenient for them. Each peer group is assigned a mentor who provides advice and attends meetings when necessary. These peer group projects also promote soft skills such as networking, team spirit, time management, and event organisation, preparing participants in the best possible way for their future transformative efforts.
#Placeholder for the programme from https://certificate.sustainabilityscience-uni.lu/
