Saturday 28 March 2020 at Conference Centre Wallenberg, Medicinaregatan 20A, Gothenburg

Workshops

During the conference on the 28 March we have planned nine workshops under three themes as follows:

1.Tools, resources and concrete measures
The workshops will address concrete measures for integrating the SDG concepts in the curriculum, how a multidisciplinary degree programme can be organized, and tools for assessing how an activity, organisation or innovation affects the SDGs.

2. Future workforce
The workshops will address how students can choose employers that are committed to environmental issues, how different employers work with sustainability issues, and how the universities can best train the students to have the competence needed when entering the workforce.

3. Partnerships
The workshops will address how the many different networks working with SDGs have achieved concrete measures and activities contributing to reaching the goals, practical cooperation guides, and pitfalls and opportunities when collaborating within and between universities.

If you can’t make it to Gothenburg, there will be possibilities to attend satellite-workshops at Blekinge Institute of TechnologyDalarna University or Umeå University.
If you plan to attend one of the satellite meetings at your home-town (and university), please register locally. Check the links to the universities for more information and registration.

* See program-page for which sessions that are being filmed. Only Introduction, welcome and keynote-speakers are being filmed and introduction to workshops are being filmed, not the actual workshops. See below.

Theme 1: Tools, resources and concrete measures

1:1 How to organize multidisciplinary degree programmes

Multidisciplinary Program Leaders share their insights: A Panel Discussion

Collaborative work that is multidisciplinary in nature is touted as a means for tackling the wicked problems we face, such as achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. A panel of individuals with experience working with multidisciplinary, collaborative programs will take part in a moderated discussion. The panel members will be asked to share their practical experiences, discuss challenges, and how to make collaborations work. We welcome audience participation in this engaging workshop.

The session will be moderated by Monica Hunsberger, from the University of Gothenburg.
Urban Strandberg, University of Gothenburg, will open the session with 10 minutes of remarks based on nearly 10 years of experience working with such programs.
Per Moksnes: Coordinator of the Master’s in Sea and Society
Kristina (Snuttan) Sundell: Sustainable Production and Utilization of Marine Bioresources (MARBIO).
Sven Hassler: Program Director for the Master’s in Global Health
Erik Sterner, Global Systems Science (GSS) Chalmer’s
Urban Strandberg, Senior lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
Rodrigo Lozano, Organisational Sustainability at University of Gävle.

1:2 The SDG Impact Assessment Tool The SDG Impact Assessment Tool – a free online learning tool for assessing impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals
The SDG Impact Assessment Tool visualizes the results from a self-assessment of how an activity, organization or innovation affects the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It aims to stimulate better understanding of the complexity of sustainable development and the different aspects of the SDGs, as well as enabling users to assess impacts on the SDGs. The tool is an excellent resource for teaching sustainable development. In addition to an introduction to the tool and a brief presentation of how the tool has been used for teaching purposes thus far, the workshop is an opportunity to try the tool in a guided hands-on exercise.
WS-leaders: Martin Eriksson and Anders Ahlbäck, project leaders, at SDSN Nothern Europe.

1:3 Miljöbron more tbd

Theme 2: Future workforce

2:1 How does a municipality work with the SDGs and what competences are needed to meet future challenges?
We explain how the municipals mission meets the Agenda 2030 and the global goals, as well as what the main sustainability challenges The City of Gothenburg expects for the future. Together we will explore how higher education can be adapted to better provide relevant competence that can contribute to solutions to these large, important and complex challenges.
WS-leader: Sara Pettersson, Urban Development Officer, The City of Gothenburg

2:2 How do companies work with sustainability, what is trending? And what to think about when it comes to sustainable employment!
Which trends seems to affect the labor market? How are different companies working with their sustainability? What can you do to become employable form a sustainability perspective?
WS-leader: Pietro Mattei, Recruitment consultant, Randstad

2:3 Toolkit for evaluating an employer´s commitment to taking responsibility for ecological sustainability

The aim of this workshop is for participants to explore a toolkit that can evaluate how much responsibility for ecological sustainability that a workplace is taking.
Participants will use the tools provided by the platform ecological-awakening.org, launched one year after the “Wake up call on the environment: A student manifesto”. The platform takes the manifesto one step further and aims to help young professionals to integrate ecological issues into their studies and work life.
During the workshop participants will explore questions that would be relevant to ask a future workplace. Representatives from companies and academia will discuss how they would answer the questions and together we will create an honest dialogue between students and employees.
Learn more on the website and on the Swedish facebook and LinkedIn.
Workshop leader: Sandra Swartling, student and representative for the Student Manifesto in Sweden.

Theme 3: University partnerships and collaboration

3:1 “The role of research and education for implementation of the SDGs: SDG 8 as a collaborative pilot”
Universities can play an important role in implementing the SDGs.
University of Gothenburg has committed to the International Association of Universities to lead the work on SDG 8 together with “satellite universities” in the Global South. In this workshop we will break into two groups discussing “inclusive, sustainable economic growth” and “full and productive employment and decent work for all”. Each group will discuss how the universities can promote these goals by including relevant research and interaction with society in teaching and to do this collaboratively in partnership with other universities and actors. The approach is of course applicable to other SDGs.
WS-leader: Gunnar Köhlin, University of Gothenburg

3:2 The SDGs as direction providers: Cooperation for improved quality in higher education
As we are left, now, with less than ten years to achieve the 2030 agenda, the endeavor to reorient higher education towards sustainable development is ever more pressing and urgent. Unless education becomes truly world transforming, the future may be unrecognizable. How do we as participants respond to this call? In this workshop, participants are invited to reflect upon, and jointly examine, to what extent courses/programmes in Swedish higher education are oriented towards the SDGs. Introductory examples are given from Södertörn University where the SDGs are linked to generic quality aspects, and from Gothenburg Center for Sustainable Development, where sustainability integration has been discussed in a series of forums.
WS-leaders: Peter Dobers, Södertörn University and Kassahun Weldemariam, GMV, University of Gothenburg.

3:3 A Practical cooperation guide to transdisciplinary cooperation formats
In the Erasmus+ CASE project 9 cooperative formats based on 21 university courses were tested and evaluated with the aim to foster competencies for sustainability-driven entrepreneurship. The practical cooperation guide with concrete benefits, success factors and challenges for users will be presented and discussed in the workshop. The Sustainability performance and competencies tools can be tested.
WS-leaders: Gabriela Schaad, Mikael Olsson, Johan Boman, University of Gothenburg.

Please note that all details on all workshops are at the moment not presented. There is more to come. If you would like to have updated information about the workshops, please check this page later or contact us at info@sdgsinhighered.se