CrossCircular

Companies in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine region are struggling to find people with expertise in circularity, especially when it comes to cross-border value chains. Existing training programmes do not yet adequately address this need. That is why universities and companies are joining forces to develop a new educational framework. This will help students learn more about circularity, both in their own country and across borders. 

Students will take classes at various universities in the region and do internships at companies. This will give them a lot of practical experience and teach them to work with people from other countries. The project will also ensure that classes taken at another university are recognized, ensuring that young professionals' skills are recognized across borders.

Euregional companies benefit because they can find well-trained people more easily. The project also supports European sustainability goals. A total of €2.36 million has been made available for this project. 

Let’s have a closer look at the content of the project

The work packages are led by the respective EMR universities: Maastricht University, Open Universiteit, RWTH Aachen University, Université de Liège, Universiteit Hasselt. The different work packages are interconnected and cannot be seen separately from one another.

What we want to achieve with CrossCircular:

WP1 Online platform on circularity curriculum amongst project partners

After an inventory and analysis of the universities’ study programs and course guides, a complete description of the current educational offer on circularity at the different universities will be made available for students in an online program platform. This will include courses that focus on circularity but also courses on different subjects that can be linked to circularity. With the platform students will have easy access to the total offer of courses of the EMR universities on circularity.

Through the project the universities will also gain insight on the circularity-related knowledge and skills that companies consider to be relevant. Special attention will be paid to the cross-border character of circularity. These insights will be matched with the current offer to identify overlap, complementarity and gaps in the available offer.

Due to the multi-disciplinary and cross-sectoral characteristic of circularity, curriculum on the topic is often hidden in various study programs across different institutions. The online platform will bring together the demand and supply of the circularity curriculum by referencing to specific courses and study programs.

WP2 Cross-Border Accreditation Framework for Circularity Education

In an important first step, legal and administrative barriers to a cross-border framework for circularity education will be mapped. Through the analysis of legal frameworks and administrative procedures inconsistencies and opportunities in accreditation, credit transfer and certification regulations will be identified.

The findings from this analysis will then be valuable input for the design of a cross-border framework that will overcome legal and administrative barriers and enable credit transfer and joint certification whilst providing clear guidelines and standardized templates. In other words, the 5 partner universities, with input from companies, develop a course mobility scheme allowing students to take courses at partner institutions from a pre-approved course catalogue, with automatic credit transfer and recognition.

A selection of courses and students will participate in the pilot implementation of the draft framework to test operational feasibility.

WP3 Transnational Industry-University Partnerships for Curriculum Innovation

By setting up a sounding board of 25 key stakeholders from SMEs, enterprises and clusters in the first year of the project and a steering committee as of year 2, the collaboration between companies, stakeholders and universities will be institutionalised. This governance structure will ensure the continuity and effectiveness of the collaboration also after the project as well as the alignment of the educational offer with industry needs.

SMEs, enterprises, and cluster organizations will be included in the development of a joint training scheme that will provide circularity challenges for students in the form of cross-border hackathons, traineeships and case studies. Students will be selected through the different partner university training programs. The training scheme will be evaluated and improved for the future to establish long-term frameworks for continuous cross-border traineeships and case studies as part of regular academic and industry collaboration.

WP4 New extra-curricular activities

The goal is the development and implementation of structured extracurricular activities to enhance students' competences by providing skill-building opportunities, industry exposure, and practical learning experiences, to reach out to the students and make them aware of the possibilities to strengthen their specialisms.

Building on the insights from the other work packages and the input from the sounding board and steering committee, the identified priorities and skill requirements will be effectively translated into academic competencies. The most appropriate formats for extra-curricular activities will be determined. These may include a summer school, monthly webinar workshops, sessions with guest speakers, moderators, and subject-matter experts or other similar initiatives.

An extra-Curricular “up-skilling” scheme will introduce new skills, tools, and methods that complement the existing offer with new content. An “expanding” scheme will connect students with companies in the Meuse-Rhine area in a didactic context, expanding their perspectives and providing concrete examples of best practices. Serving as a bridge between the skills developed and the potential internship opportunities, they will help students apply their knowledge in real-world contexts.

A strategy will be designed to ensure the sustainable implementation of extracurricular activities beyond the project's funding period, enabling their long-term integration and accessibility, and moving from a public funded system to a company-sponsored funding system for the extra-curricular activities.

WP5 Focus on the future – A sustainable approach based on complementary expertise

The fifth and final work package aims to underline the consortium’s commitment to perpetuate and enhance its collaboration beyond the project to bring added value and high-quality training for students as future professionals but also for organisations working in the field of the Meuse-Rhine region. CrossCircular and its blueprint for circularity represent a starting point for innovative cross-border educational cooperation. All previous work packages converge and are incorporated in the last one.

One of the subgoals is to identify two additional strategic areas of excellence, alongside circularity, for sustainable trinational cooperation among the five universities. The selection of these areas will be guided by several key criteria : the expertise available within the partner universities, the complementarity between them, and the existing needs of the Meuse-Rhine region.

Furthermore, a roadmap will be developed to outline potential pathways for intensifying cooperation among the five universities in the future, according to a realistic timeline. It will start from the initial form of collaboration established through the CrossCircular project and assess how this cooperation could be further expanded and institutionalised in the future.

Finally, an agreement will be drawn up regarding the recognition of a trinational training program in circularity representing the springboard for future collaboration in other strategic areas of excellence.