MODULE 1 | Sustainable development and the Africa challenge  

Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II

The introductory module focuses on the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs implementation in Africa. The analysis of the progress towards these SDGs on the Continent – with special attention to the management of natural resources and cultural heritage – will be carried out by adopting a retrospective and a prospective approach, investigating the causes of unsustainability in specific cases. With the support of relevant examples, the classes will cover the following topics: 

– Understanding the current status of SDGs in Africa, with a focus on East Africa; 

– Understanding the complexity behind sustainability by identifying its three dimensions (environmental, social, and economic) and how they are interconnected and represented in the SDGs; 

– Identifying the main characteristics of the local, regional, and global contexts and define possible actions for the achievements of the SDGs. 

MODULE 2 | Project Research Management – Innovative Teaching 

Università degli Studi di Padova

This module will cover the following topics: 

– EU and International funded calls – where to find data and opportunities (WB, EU, UN systems), Cooperation opportunities among Universities, research and public or private institutions 

– RESEARCH: Innovative and sustainable research project, Project Cycle Management, Research Query and Research database, Valorisation of research and incubators (TTO and incubators) 

– INNOVATIVE TEACHING AND MONITORING SYSTEMS: New teaching methods, E-learning platform and social network usage, Quality and monitoring systems for teaching 

– COOPERATION PROJECTS AND INTERNATIONALISATION MANAGEMENT: EU Calls for Cooperation in Higher Education, Erasmus+ programme (international credit mobility; capacity building projects, etc.), how to write a successful project proposal; managing partnerships. Internationalization strategies and management, sharing of Experience and Exposure (seminars with case study presentation) 

MODULE 3 | Sustainable Food 

Università degli Studi di Firenze

The overall objective of this module is to frame the issue of Sustainable Food into a more general framework of development economics. The classes will provide an introduction to agrifood systems and rural development in LDCs. The module will be organized in four parts, namely:   

1) Agriculture in economic development: technical and economic characteristics of agricultural production, why peasant agriculture is different from other types of agriculture and how the role of agriculture changes as the economy grows; 

2) Production factors and peasant farm organization: the operational environment of peasant farming – access to land, access to credit, risk management, labor market – and farm organization, emphasizing both the economic analysis of these issues and policy implications; 

3) The development of peasants: food and nutrition security, rural-urban migration, human capital, small-holder access to market and value chain participation, investment evaluation;  

4) The sustainability of food systems: the relationship between agrifood system and the environment, climate change impact (mitigation and adaptation), food waste and loss, sustainable food value chains. 

MODULE 4 | Energy Resources, Power Technologies, Energy Scenarios and Planning 

Politecnico di Milano 

The main goal of the module is to widen the participants’ knowledge of the energy sector, examining energy systems at different scales. The module will also highlight the main challenges in the energy sector for the decades to come, thus giving constraints and opportunities for energy technology development. The first part of the module provides an overview of the Global Energy Scenarios and Energy Policies including the classification, reservoirs and potential of energy resources. The second part of the module targets the technologies available for electricity and heat production from conventional and renewable sources, with a focus on the control of pollutant emissions. The third part focuses on capacity and tools for energy modelling, providing essential knowledge and fundamentals of energy planning at a regional and national scale. The students will be requested to apply their knowledge to a number of hand-on session about energy system optimisation or energy system modelling by using open-source/in house tools. 

MODULE 5 | Cultural Heritage  

Università La Sapienza di Roma

The module examines different aspects of cultural heritage in Africa, by means of a series of interconnected lectures focusing on 4 specific topics. The first section will analyse the legal framework and wide-ranging actions of the main international UN-based actors (e.g., UNESCO, ICRROM, ICOMOS) working in Africa, together with other international and national stakeholders. The role and functions of preventive archaeology will be examined in the framework of the need of infrastructure and sustainable development as expressed in the Africa 2063 agenda. The relationship among cultural heritage, local communities and society at large are the heart of the third part of the module. The last section will focus on digital humanities, providing information on the methodologies to manage different set of data up to the creation of digital repositories and strategies of dissemination to promote fruition of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.  

MODULE 6 | One Health: introduction to system thinking, Healthand Sustainbale Lifestyle, Pollution and Health  

Alma Mater Studiorum Bologna

The main goal of the module will be to introduced the students to One Health approach and system thinking at human/animal/environment interface. Student will be also introduced to understand how Nutrition and Physical Activity are associated to a Healthy and Sustainable Lifestyle. Consideration on the nexus between Pollution and Health will be also subject of this module. Each topic is equally distributed along a duration of 6 hours of lessons.