About
aim & vision
NBS Academy is an Erasmus+, Teacher Academies (TA) project with a duration of 36 months, consisting of 9 full partners and 13 associated partners from Greece, Belgium, Austria, Cyprus, Sweden, Germany & Bulgaria.
The main aim and vision of NBS Academy is to create a European Community of Practice by engaging and training teachers, training providers, policymakers and NBS experts to mainstream Nature-based Solutions (NBS) in school education. Through the creation of a new NBS Education Framework, NBS Academy will acknowledge the innovative aspect of NBS Education.
NBS ACADEMY focuses
on the following four target groups
Teacher trainers
Pre-service teachers
In-service teachers
Policy makers and education leaders
Concept & Methodology
What is NBS?
According to the European Commission, NBS are defined as ‘Solutions that are inspired and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, social and economic benefits and help build resilience’. Definition here
NBS examples include: green roofs, green walls to cool down cities in the summer, urban parks to combat pollution, forest regeneration, green corridors connecting natural areas, urban food and/or rain gardens etc.
Why NBS in education?
NBS Academy will fill a gap in sustainability education, by equipping teachers, teacher trainers and school leaders with new competences and training opportunities through experiential pedagogies to incorporate NBS into their school curricula. Innovative Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programmes will be also developed and pilot implemented in six different countries.
Two methodological approaches will be utilised for developing innovative teacher training programmes on NBS education: the Community of Practice (CoP) approach and the Design-Based Research (DBR) methodology to bring together stakeholders (i.e., teacher trainers, teachers, policy makers, education experts, NBS experts) and engage them in networking, co-creation, testing and piloting activities. These methodological approaches will unfold in the following five distinct and interlinked phases.
NBS objectives
- Build the first Network and Academy for promoting and mainstreaming NBS in teacher education,
- Develop a comprehensive “Train the Trainer” (TTT) programme for guiding teacher trainers to design and deliver effective NBS teacher training programmes
- Co-create joint training courses for ITE and CPD to pave the way for integrating NBS in teacher education across Europe
- Develop innovative mobility schemes to foster the European dimension of the produced ITE and CPD programmes
- Test NBS Academy’s teacher training courses and mobility schemes and validate them to showcase their contribution to foster NBS teacher education in Europe
- Develop appropriate tools, motivation, and measures to foster NBS Academy’s scalability, transferability and long-term sustainability
- Develop and promote evidence-based policy recommendations for supporting EU and national policy makers to foster the integration of NBS in teacher education
The project is co-funded by the European Union and has a duration of 36 months (01/06/2023 – 31/05/2026). Grant Agreement Project number: 101104412, Call: ERASMUS-EDU-2022-PEX-TEACH-ACA.
