The megatrends are clear: people living in Europe will be older, more stressed and unhealthy, living in urban areas, and threatened by climate change effects with ever increasing immigration from developing nations. Agriculture, Forestry, Urban Planning and Environmental (AFUE) HEIs need to embed increasing health and social needs into their paradigms, teaching and business models. The health and social sectors also need to avoid the silos approach and adopt holistic thinking in achieving social and health challenges. Green infrastructures, social agriculture and forestry, rural tourism and wellness are some of the emerging business and research sectors that are providing cost-effective solutions to these emerging trends that are having a considerable impact on European policies and economy.
The GREEN4C alliance aims at increasing Europe’s innovation capacity among universities and businesses by promoting green and natural approaches to health and social care. It will do so by:
• facilitating the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge among universities and business coming from two key sectors that often fail to cooperate: the social-health and environmental sectors.
• promoting a new, innovative and multidisciplinary global blended training course to embed health and social challenges into Agriculture, Forestry, Urban Planning and Environmental universities.
• stimulating an entrepreneurial skills and attitude among students, researchers and young entrepreneurs to provide the public and private sectors with innovative and cost-effective solutions to health and social care by using natural resources.
The project will focus on the countries of Italy, Romania, The Netherlands, Ireland and Austria. Results will have a strong EU-global dimension and transferability potential, capitalizing on existing wide university-business networks, the partnership with the University of British Columbia, and the European Forestry Institute an international research and lobby institution with hundred members across the EU.
More info at the project website: https://www.greenforcare.eu/ (last visited 9.4.2021)
