Developing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree on Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Long-run Economic Development Erasmus Project

Project Title

Developing an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree on Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Long-run Economic Development

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Energy and resources

Project Summary

The Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership for the Development of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree on Sustainable Natural Resource Management and Long-run Economic Development (EMERALD) joins forces of some of the European leading research groups on economic development and natural resources governance and management. This Erasmus+ strategic partnership, consisting of research groups within economics, business studies, economic history, human geography, innovation and entrepreneurship, located at universities in Finland, Germany, Norway, Romania, Spain, and Sweden, will establish an active and coherent Europe-wide network for the exchange of scientific and pedagogical insight and expertise. The EMERALD network will serve as an ongoing academic forum, providing existing research groups, clusters, and individual researchers with the ability to debate, develop, and disseminate their projects and findings within an inter-disciplinary environment with strong ties to both the public and private sector.

The EMERALD Strategic Partnership tackles skill gaps and mismatches in how European higher education trains young professionals in the governance and management of natural resources. Insufficient or disciplinary restricted understanding of the governance and management of natural resources hampers European economic and environmental cooperation, and impedes the European Union’s efforts at efficiently promoting its ambitious programmes on circular economy, security of supply of raw materials, and sustainable economic development. The establishment of a leading interdisciplinary forum for knowledge transfer and exchange will also have a direct impact on pedagogical methodology within the field of sustainable natural resource governance and management. The EMERALD partners will adopt innovative teaching methods, developing pedagogical guidelines and sets of teaching case studies. These teaching case studies will be based on real world scenarios, incorporate recent and ongoing research findings, as well as feedback and priorities from public and private sector representatives. The EMERALD strategic network aims to ensure that higher education within this field provides students with experience of engaging with real world scenarios in a practical, hands-on manner, preparing them for the challenges they and the wider European community will face now and in in the future. Case study methodology and the teaching materials created by the EMERALD strategic partnership will not only be used by the partner institutions themselves, but promoted and disseminated via open access and digital formats across the wider European higher education sector.

The EMERALD partnership will lay the groundwork for the future establishment of an innovative and international academic Joint Master’s Degree programme that educates European and international students in the management and governance of renewable and non-renewable natural resources. A core part of this foundational work is the development of high-quality, innovative, and inter-disciplinary teaching materials on natural resource management and economic development, drawing on the pedagogical expertise and experience of the EMERALD partner institutions. These teaching materials will be built around research findings and ongoing research projects provided run by the EMERALD partner institutions, and incorporate feedback from private and public sector bodies in order to maximise the relevance and ability of said teaching materials to prepare students for the challenges facing the European and international community in the future. These teaching materials will not only be incorporated in a proposed future EMERALD Joint Master’s Programme, but will also be published open access, making them available for use by higher educational institutions across the European and international community.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 147692 Eur

Project Coordinator

NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNU & Country: NO

Project Partners

• GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET
• UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID
• HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
• UNIVERSITATEA DIN BUCURESTI
• UNIVERSITAET BAYREUTH