Universities across the CHARM-EU alliance are continuously adapting to new challenges in higher education, from the integration of emerging technologies to growing expectations around flexible learning and societal impact. To support this transformation, professionals working in teacher development and educational innovation play a crucial role in helping academic staff strengthen their teaching practices.
The networking event will bring together representatives from centers for teaching and learning and similar units across the alliance.
Hosted at Hochschule Ruhr West on 18–19 March 2026, the event will create space for exchange, collaboration, and joint exploration of new approaches to professional development.
Through a design-thinking approach, participants will share best practices, explore possibilities for joint training offers, and discuss common challenges. The event aims to strengthen inter-institutional partnerships and contribute to a more connected, alliance-wide community supporting educational innovation.
A Design Thinking approach will structure our networking event. Design thinking is a human-centered, creative approach that helps participants actively explore challenges, generate ideas, and identify concrete opportunities for collaboration during the event. For participants, it means actively engaging in hands-on discussions, sharing perspectives, co-creating ideas, and leaving with concrete connections and potential collaboration opportunities.
Agenda
March 4 Online preparatory sessiohn
Before the in-person event, we schedule an online introduction meeting with two objectives:
- Participants introduce themselves and their local approach for professional development, all using a similar template for presentations.
- Exploring challenges/topics/ideas that will be discussed during the in-person event. These should be focused on opportunities for collaboration within the alliance.
March 17 – Arrival Day
17:00 – Cultural activity (Optional, but exceedingly fun): A cultural and historical tour through Mülheim with the CHARM-EU Peek App. The tour starts at the entrance to HRW on its Parkstadt Campus, the venue for the next days’ workshop: Wissollstraße 19, 45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr (refer to the travel information document for a more detailed description). The Peek App tour terminates in the Old Town, where you can join a self-funded, pre-event dinner around 19:00 (the restaurant will be communicated closer to the event). Or you can directly join us there.
19:00 – Dinner (Optional and self-funded, but gemütlich) joint dinner
March 18 – Day 1
Location: Campus Parkstadt, Wissollstraße 19, 45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr
08:30 – Arrival and coffee [Plenary session – Room R4-0.213]
Once you’ve walked through the automatic HRW entrance doors, do not go up the blue stairs, but keep a right and pass the illuminated HRW logo to enter into the corridor. Follow the signs to the plenary workshop room.
09:00 – Welcome session & introductions
- Welcome to HRW.
- Welcome by CHARM-EU: Annet van der Riet, Nataliia Lazebna:
Explanation of meeting aims from the CHARM-EU Professional Development team. - Icebreaking.
10:30 – Coffee break & gallery walk
10:45 – Design Thinking 1.0
Deciding on event collaboration topics (voting).
11:15 – Design Thinking 1.0 [Breakout sessions]
Exploring challenges and stakeholder perspectives
12:30 – Networking lunch
14:00 – Design Thinking in practice [Breakout sessions]
Brainstorming collaboration opportunities.
15:45 – Coffee break & gallery walk [Plenary session – Room R4-0.213]
16:00 – Design Thinking in practice [Breakout sessions]
Translating collaboration opportunities into concrete solutions
17:00 – 30-minute wrap-up [Plenary session – Room R4-0.213]
Recap of the day and reflections.
19:00 – Joint dinner in the city center. Location will be communicated closer to the event.
March 19 - Day 2
Location: Campus Parkstadt, Wissollstraße 19, 45478 Mülheim an der Ruhr.
08:30 – Arrival and coffee [Plenary session – Room R4-0.213]
09:00 – Welcoming visiting CHARM-EU educationalists and introductions
09.30 – Collaborative design exercise:
Concept prototyping and testing of concrete solutions, building on the previous day’s efforts.
11:45 – Coffee break & gallery walk
12:00 – Presentations of prototypes & gallery walk
13:00 – Closing remarks
13:15 – Lunch & goodbye
Online follow-up meeting (Day to be confirmed)
During the event, we will schedule two online follow-up meetings. One for the smaller collaborative groups, per topic, and one for all of the participants.