Between January 27-30, CHARM-EU successfully organised its very first Winter School ‘Social Innovation for a Sustainable Future’. Students had the opportunity to work with some of Europe’s leading academics, stakeholders from industry and civil society to develop solutions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  In this first edition, the winter school focused on four central themes: Water, Food, Life & Health, and Nexus (the intersection of the other themes, as they relate to climate change).  The aim of the programme was to enhance the participants’ skills in critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, and self-direction, whilst also strengthening their global and local connections, and their knowledge of contemporary technology tools.

<img alt="Chandni Shyam, Utrecht University. " data-align="left" data-caption="Chandni Shyam, winner of the virtual<br />
scavengerhunt during the CHARM-EU Winter School.” data-entity-type=”file” data-entity-uuid=”6b09181b-ca0d-4aac-a4b6-63c68b98d239″ height=”299″ src=”/sites/default/files/inline-images/Recurso%2027_0.png” width=”299″ />

The 13 participants of the programme took part in 20 hours of content and workshops over the four days of the winter school. During this experience students gained an interesting insight into the world of sustainability. Furthermore, they developed invaluable skills in using contemporary software tools whilst participating in activities such as one-to-one icebreakers, video conferencing, vlogging and content creating.

During the programme students worked in teams on specific challenges, this helped them expand on their collaboration and communication skills and utilise their creativity and critical thinking. Participants even got the chance to work alongside twelve extra-academic actors from the business and society sectors. On the final day of the winter school, all students presented their developed projects in a pitch session, where multiple stakeholders judged the presentations and provided their expert feedback, which was a fun and educational experience for everyone.

“The CHARM Winter School was a brilliant opportunity to meet other students from around the globe and work together towards solutions to real life problems.  It was great to see the hard work coming together and I had a brilliant time!”

Winter School Student, Niamh McCay, Trinity College Dublin

At the end of the winter school, all students received a certificate of participation issued by the CHARM-EU Office. Additionally, as a fun element of the programme, CHARM-EU organised a quiz and virtual scavenger hunt in Mozilla Hubs for the participating students. Congratulations to Chandni Shyam from Utrecht University for winning an exclusive CHARM-EU branding kit!