Environment without Borders: Seeking Solutions for the Future

From 3 February to 3 March 2025, the EUTOPIA Connected Learning Community, ‘Global Connections: A Transdisciplinary Approach’ hosted an online learning opportunity (led by Dr Heather Meyer) for students interested in building working relationships across borders and engaging in intercultural discussions about environmental issues.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Warwick (UK), CY Cergy Paris (France), Pompeu Fabra University (Spain) and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) were placed in online, cross-institution, multidisciplinary, and intercultural research teams. Together, they critically explored perspectives on the future of the environment and the opportunities and challenges it presents.

Groups chose to focus on important topics such as air pollution, climate change, rising sea levels, coral bleaching, etc., and investigated the extent to which these ‘translate’ across borders and academic disciplines. They had four weeks to create a poster highlighting the threats posed by these issues and they also recorded a 10-min video to pitch their proposed solutions.

One participant said: “I enjoyed the opportunity to make connections with overseas European students and to apply some of the skills and knowledge I have learnt on my degree course to a different context”.