When Anna Cain, a master’s student in Barcelona, was looking for inspiration for a school project, she was thinking about climate change and how technology might help.
There was a severe drought underway that “was really bad where we were living in Barcelona,” she recalls; “so I think it was just at the top of my mind.” What if, she and some friends wondered, you could get water directly from the air?
The ATTRACT Academy is revolutionising how students engage with deep-tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Born from the success of the ‘Young Innovators and Entrepreneurs’ pilot in ATTRACT phase 1, it scaled up its impact during phase 2, expanding its reach to multiple universities across Europe.
The CBI Fusion Point (CBI-FP) programme exemplifies the innovative spirit of multidisciplinary collaboration in higher education, addressing real-world challenges with a focus on societal impact. The Challenge Based Innovation course was established in 2014 and is a joint effort by Esade Business School, IED Barcelona and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).
The IdeaSquare Planet (i2Planet) pilot programme is a disruptive innovation course that seeks to elevate students’ knowledge, skills, and problem-solving abilities in connection with the Sustainable Development Goals, and to challenge their assumptions about the future. At its core, this approach hinges on a bold question: What if humanity were compelled to start anew on an entirely different planet? How could we make choices that prioritise sustainability?
The Challenge Based Innovation programme by Fusion Point (CBI-FP) is a collaborative initiative that links research, education, and scientific expertise to address real societal challenges aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using cutting-edge technologies. This year marks a decade since the initiation of CBI in Barcelona, where the program has engaged over 400 students from 20 different nationalities.