European students and academics are addressing sustainable innovation and bioeconomy during the Blended Intensive Programme “Circular Bioeconomy and Sustainable Innovation”, taking place this week at the Cracow University of Technology (Poland) within the framework of the STARS EU Alliance. The training initiative enables international teams of students to work together on projects tackling real-life sustainability and circular economy challenges, while developing innovative and practice-oriented solutions.

The initiative has brought together 28 students and 12 lecturers from seven STARS EU partner universities: Cracow University of Technology (Poland); University West (Sweden); Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands); Hochschule Bremen-City University of Applied Sciences (Germany); Polytechnic University of Bragança (Portugal); Silesian University in Opava (Czech Republic); and Aleksandër Moisiu University of Durrës (Albania).

The programme, who’s in-person phase is taking place in Krakow from 18 to 22 May, includes interdisciplinary collaborative work sessions, mentoring activities, expert lectures and a study visit to the company KLGS, located near the city. In parallel with these activities, participants also have opportunities for intercultural exchange, networking and collaboration among students and academic staff from across the STARS EU alliance.

Over the past weeks, participants have attended international lectures and workshops focused on circular economy, sustainable business models, life cycle analysis, biomaterials, biotechnology, renewable resources and sustainable innovation strategies. Following the mobility week in Krakow, teams will continue working online until the end of June, when the final presentations of the projects and reports prepared by each group will bring the activity to a close.

“Circular Bioeconomy and Sustainable Innovation” is coordinated by Katarzyna Matras-Postołek, Associate Professor at CUT, together with academics and experts from STARS EU partner universities, including Annabella Loconsolo (University West), Pavel Adamek (Silesian University in Opava), Daniela Hendrikse (Hanze University of Applied Sciences), Anja Noke (Hochschule Bremen), as well as representatives from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança and other partner institutions.

This BIP is yet another example of how the STARS EU Alliance connects students, researchers and universities around shared European values, innovation and sustainable development.

Around 60 students, doctoral candidates and lecturers from nine European universities recently took part in the Ou[te]r Campus BIP project, the STARS EU initiative aimed at developing a collaborative, interdisciplinary and transnational European campus model. During the event, hosted by the Bremen University of Applied Sciences, six concepts were developed focusing on new forms of interaction between physical spaces and the digital opportunities offered by STARS EU.

The aim of this workshop, which became a blended intensive programme, was to build on the momentum generated by the collaborative “Interspace” project — also held at HSB in 2025 — in order to further develop these ideas and translate them into long-term structures with a “solid institutional foundation”. This represents a clear step towards a “co-creation campus that transcends disciplinary and geographical boundaries”, according to Janina Ebner, member of the Co-creation Campus at STARS EU.

Alongside her, Professor Maria Clarke, also involved in the initiative, highlighted that the workshop helped strengthen the project for the future. “Bringing together more than 60 interdisciplinary participants — students, doctoral candidates and members of academic staff — from the nine partner institutions was no easy task.” “During the workshop, there was a clear willingness to collaborate, build networks and work together to address the complex question ‘What is a European campus?’ and to find answers to it.”

The focus has been placed on strengthening STARS EU, and therefore the groups created continue to work on the six concepts developed, which explore proposals for physical spaces and digital possibilities. The outcomes of the Ou[te]r Campus teaching and knowledge-transfer project will be exhibited from 1 to 9 July 2026 in an exhibition at the Transferlabor (formerly AB Galerie) at Hochschule Bremen.

Interspace 2025

Ou[te]r Campus BIP stems from the collaborative project carried out in 2025 under the name “Interspace”, which explored ways of creating shared and connected campus spaces within STARS EU. The initiative brought together an international group of students from the HSB School of Architecture and the Integrated Design programme at the University of the Arts Bremen (HfK), who developed the first ideas. Among them was the STARS EU intercultural pavilion, conceived as a meeting place, which is currently on display at the Higher School of Engineering of the University of La Laguna.

The universities participating in this second phase are: Aleksander Moisiu University (Albania); Krakow University of Technology (Poland); Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Groningen, the Netherlands); Hochschule Bremen (Germany); Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal); Silesian University in Opava (Czech Republic); University of La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain); Université Marie et Louis Pasteur (France); and University West (Trollhättan, Sweden).

*The Ou[te]r Campus BIP programme is funded by STARS EU and Erasmus+ grants.