Complex challenges, like climate change, require solutions that combine multiple perspectives. No single discipline can solve a complex issue alone. This realisation has inspired a movement in education, away from being discipline-bound. University programs are increasingly multi-disciplinary (teaching more than one topic), inter-disciplinary (showing how multiple topics interact with one another), and even transdisciplinary (moving beyond university disciplines, to integrate non-academic stakeholders, like business leaders).

The Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development Vienna (RCE Vienna) at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) coordinates one such program. Urban Shift is a transdisciplinary program, co-taught by four educational institutions (three universities and one vocational training institution) and four business partners. It teaches students how to create start-ups, which tackle challenges related to climate change.

If you are an educator with an interest in transdisciplinary teaching, this article is for you. It describes:

• The structure of the Urban Shift program

• Impacts the program has created

• Challenges we’ve faced in delivering the program

• Advice for offering transdisciplinary learning (which we highly recommend!)

Program objectives and partners

Urban Shift is an experimental project funded by the European Commission. The program teaches students how to create a start-up business, based on a product or service that enables cities to respond to climate change-related issues. Core student learning objectives include:

• Solving a problem using design thinking

• Making an innovation economically viable

• Working effectively with people across different disciplines and cultures

Four educational institutions work collaboratively to teach the program, including the Vienna University of Economics and Business, the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the Stuttgart Media University, and WIFI International. Each institution contributes educators to teach a particular discipline (business and economics, design and architecture, digital media, and environmental engineering), and each invites 10 of its students per year to join the program.

The program is also supported by four business partners, who help deliver business education, provide coaching, support curriculum development, and evaluate student pitches. Business partners include Terra Institute, Multicriteria, Green Innovation Group, and Pretty Ugly Duckling.

Together, these eight organizations create a learning opportunity that no institution could offer on its own.

Program structure

At the heart of the program is challenge-based learning. Students are organized into transdisciplinary groups, including architects, media students, business students, and professionals. Together, each group targets a specific urban sustainability problem, designs a solution, and creates a business model to support their solution. The goal of the program is not to launch these businesses, but to teach students the skills of communication, innovation, and business.

(That said, several Urban Shift students have gone on to create startup businesses after they graduate, suggesting they are applying the skills we teach!)

Urban Shift students are scattered across Europe, so the program uses a creative structure to enable students to work together.

• December to January: In December and January, we convene students for two virtual meetings. Here, they learn about the climate-related challenges they will be solving and get to know one another.

• February: Next, all students travel to Vienna for 5 days, where they are organized into transdisciplinary project teams. Teams learn the design thinking process and begin developing their climate-friendly innovations.

• March to May: In the months that follow, teams work remotely to iterate their innovations, including producing a prototype and an economically viable business model. Educators also provide additional training, and each team receives a business coach who follows their progress, helps them overcome challenges, and celebrates their small victories along the way.

• June: To close the program, students gather in person in Barcelona to present their prototypes and pitch startup ideas to a group of industry experts.

Students in the first two cohorts of the program created 15 innovations to address pressing urban challenges. In the first year, the learners addressed the challenges of urban heat islands and food waste. When the programme was run for the second time, the learners addressed the challenges of urban mobility and extreme weather events. Below are some of the innovative solutions created by student start-up teams, so you can see what can be achieved in such a short period of time. The selected projects have an architectural or urban design focus, but this was not a requirement.

From left to right, these solutions are:

• Klimatile: A passive cooling façade system developed with clay 3D printing.
• Ovolo: Tiles produced with eggshell waste from local restaurants.
• Planterra: Indoor green wall system fabricated on a CNC mill. It houses plants and has acoustic properties.

Challenges and learnings

We have learned a lot as we delivered the first two editions of the program. Here are some of the things we learned:

1. Start with partners you already know: Before we started this program, 5 of the 8 partners had already worked together on other different projects. They knew each other’s areas of expertise and experience, and knew they could work well together. This provided a strong foundation for Urban Shift.

2. Flexibility is key: The educational institutions partnering on this program all have different academic systems. We had to design the program in a way that could work within each institution’s constraints. For example, we ran the program from December until June, to ensure it fell within each institution’s academic year. Each institution also fills its 10 student spaces differently. For example, the Vienna University of Economics and Business offers the program as a stand-alone course. We carry out interviews in the fall, select 10 students, and then offer credit upon completion. The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, however, incorporates Urban Shift as a project within an existing course they offer on prototyping, because they know Urban Shift will give students a chance to practice their prototyping skills.

3. Keep students engaged. One challenge we faced in the first cohort was student attrition. Students were engaged and enthusiastic during their week together in Vienna, but the virtual group work that followed was challenging. Students were scattered across Europe, so teams struggled with regular and effective communication, and some learners dropped out. We’ve done a couple of things to address this. As a program, we require student groups to meet with their coach four times as they develop their solution, and do a mid-way pitch. This adds extra motivation and accountability. Here at Vienna, we have also started being very clear with students before they start the program about the expectations and the learning environment. These modifications have helped.

4. Expect to learn and adapt. For any new project, there will be challenges you can’t foresee. Collect lots of feedback from your learners and your partners, so you know how to optimize your program. Then… pivot accordingly! Our second cohort ran much more smoothly than our first cohort, and we expect future iterations of the program will be even smoother.

Program impacts

We’ve seen several promising impacts from the Urban Shift. Some of the positive impacts have been for students—but others have been for those running the program!

1. Partners learning from partners: One thing that worked really well was collaboration between diverse project partners. Before each cohort, we ran ‘train-the-trainer’ sessions, where educators taught one another about their disciplines. This broadened the way educators thought about sustainability and equipped them to better support students. Involving business leaders also pushed academics’ thinking in useful ways. Academics got a better sense of the practical implications of what they were teaching, and were challenged to look for opportunities within climate challenges.

2. Design thinking and business skills. The program aimed to equip students with design thinking and business skills, and student feedback suggests this was successful! One student, Perniyal Waseem, reported, “One of the most significant takeaways from the program was the enhancement of my existing design skills, coupled with the acquisition of new competencies in areas such as sales pitching and marketing strategies. These skills have since played a crucial role in my professional development, allowing me to communicate ideas more effectively and understand the marketability of design solutions.”

3. Increased student resilience: Another outcome we observed, was increased student resilience. Design thinking and pitching a new business both require students to be creative, try new things, fail, and try again. This is an uncomfortable–but very valuable!–skill to develop. One student, Olivia Thieme, reported, “The fast-paced nature of the project demanded resilience, especially when initial ideas had to be discarded and reworked multiple times. While we were reassured that this was a natural part of the process, it was nonetheless challenging. I had to embrace a “just try it” mindset and trust the process. This experience taught me the importance of concise communication, rapid iteration, and action-oriented thinking— skills that I now apply in my academic and professional work.”

4. Working effectively with people across different disciplines and cultures: We anticipated that our students would get great practice talking to people with different backgrounds. After all, they were grouped with people who use different disciplinary terms, and people from different countries and cultures. Student feedback suggests we also achieved this objective. Olivia Thieme, the student quoted above, also shared, “Unlike previous projects, where I primarily collaborated with peers from my field, Urban Shift offered a unique opportunity to work with individuals from different disciplines and universities. This interdisciplinary approach significantly enhanced my learning experience, as I was exposed to new perspectives and skill sets beyond my usual academic environment.” 

Conclusion

We believe strongly in the importance of transdisciplinary education. To tackle our most pressing urban challenges, students must learn to work across disciplines, talk to people who are different from them, and develop holistic solutions. (Transdisciplinary programs also produce secondary benefits for educators, who expand their own understanding of sustainability.)

We also think it’s important for students to link their education with what is happening in the real world, and develop concrete skills that they will use in their careers. Business collaboration is vital for ensuring students are equipped with the skills and competencies to enter the labour market, whether it is joining a firm or setting up a start-up.

Transdisciplinary programs can be complex to run, especially when they’re delivered collaboratively by different institutions. However, such programs are vital to ensuring that future generations are equipped with skills and competencies that they can apply to deal with our planetary challenges.   

Acknowledgements

Urban Shift is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

References

1. Vereijken MWC, Akkerman SF, te Pas SF, van der Tuin I, Kluijtmans M. “Undisciplining” higher education without losing disciplines: furthering transformative potential for students. Higher Education Research & Development. 2022;42(7):1762-1775. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2022.2156482

2. European Commission. The European Green Deal. European Commission. https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en

3. Rösch, N., Tiberius, V. and Kraus, S. (2023), “Design thinking for innovation: context factors, process, and outcomes”, European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 160-176. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-03-2022-0164