Erasmus University Rotterdam aims to make a positive societal impact with its education. With that ambition in mind, we are building courses and programmes that are future proof in which students can work on the wicked problems of our time, alongside professionals from the field and fellow students from other disciplines. In surveys, students have stressed that they expect us to teach them the skills necessary to deal with contemporary societal challenges, in order to prepare them for the future.
We expressly invite you, our teachers, researchers and students, to develop this type of education together with us. Therefore, we are launching an open call, a unique chance in which we are asking for your ideas concerning impact-driven education. This unique opportunity falls within Impact at the Core, a programme set up to fund, support and co-develop initiatives for education that revolves around the meaningful, tangible effect that we induce.
Please find all relevant answers about the open call below
- The project or idea aim fits into the focus and goals of Impact at the Core;
- The project or idea is aimed at initiating a new initiative in existing initial programmes (Bachelor / Master) or strengthening/upscaling an existing one;
- Your knowledge and experiences will be shared within the learning community of Impact at the Core and/or CLI;
- All projects are subject to quality guidelines of Impact at the Core (TBD), e.g. PDCA / evidence-based research and evaluation;
- You are willing to apply ideas developed and researched by Impact at the Core;
- Funding is only necessary for a fixed time frame, after which the initiative is financed by regular educational funding.
The support from Impact at the Core can consist of financial, project-based, educational and other types of relevant support.
The application process of the open call procedure is a two-step process.
Step 1: application form
- Teachers can apply for support by sending their completed application form to: impactatthecore@eur.nl.
- The Project Management Officer (PMO) reviews if the application includes all the relevant information.
- In case there are any questions which need to be answered before approval, the PMO contacts the applicant.
- The application is reviewed and approved or rejected by the Academic Lead.
We will support you in exploring if it is possible to implement your idea at your faculty or the university.
Step 2: project plan
- After approval of the application, the application will be further developed into a complete project plan together with a learning innovator (either from your faculty, or from Impact at the Core).
- Following approval of the complete project plan, resources are allocated and the project can be executed. The PMO will stay in contact with the project leader(s) and involved stakeholders to track the status of the project.
- All approved applications will be shared for information with the Advisory Board of Impact at the Core.
- During and after the realization of the project, your (learning) experiences are shared within the Community of Practice. Together with the involved learning innovator and teacher(s), it is discussed how this will be shaped.
- The project is evaluated after it is finished. The final report is sent to the educational director(s) and the Advisory Board of Impact at the Core.
In impact-driven education, students work together in (multidisciplinary) groups on (buildings blocks of) a solution for a real societal problem from societal stakeholders.
Impact-driven education thus has some distinct characteristics:
- It deals with real, unstructured and multifaceted societal problems (i.e. ‘wicked’ problems);
- Students learn to understand and approach these problems in a multidisciplinary way;
- Students learn to cooperate and to cocreate in (interdisciplinary) student teams, together with academic staff members and stakeholders;
- Students learn to diagnose and frame problems and propose clear guiding policy and action steps that would help to develop (building blocks of) a solution;
- Stakeholders and/or problem-owners are actively involved in this type of education.
As an example the following principles define the ‘must have’ conditions and the ‘nice to haves’.
| Principle | Must have | Nice to have |
| Complexity | Solutions are unknown | Problems & solutions are unknown |
| Students | Cooperation | Multidisciplinary cooperation |
| Stakeholder | Actively involved in defining the problem | Actively involved in the whole process from defining a problem to problem solving |
| Problem | Problem is slightly customized (casus) | Authentic problem |
| Perspective | One perspective | Multiple perspectives |
If you are not certain if your idea fits within Impact at the Core, please reach out to us through impactatthecore@eur.nl. Together we can take a look if there is a possibility or if we can make it suitable to fit within the focus of Impact at the Core.
Please find the application form below. Please send your finished application form to impactatthecore@eur.nl
Application Form Impact at the Core
Please find all relevant answers about the open call below
- The project or idea aim fits into the focus and goals of Impact at the Core;
- The project or idea is aimed at initiating a new initiative in existing initial programmes (Bachelor / Master) or strengthening/upscaling an existing one;
- Your knowledge and experiences will be shared within the learning community of Impact at the Core and/or CLI;
- All projects are subject to quality guidelines of Impact at the Core (TBD), e.g. PDCA / evidence-based research and evaluation;
- If you are involved you are willing to apply ideas developed and researched by Impact at the Core;
- Funding is only necessary for a fixed time frame, after which the initiative is financed by regular educational funding (e.g. your faculty);
We are of course there to help you with the above steps
The support from Impact at the Core can consist of financial, project-based, educational and other types of relevant support. When sending in your application we can take a look together at what is needed to make it happen.
The application process of the open call procedure is a two-step process.
Step 1: application form
- Students can apply for support by sending their completed application form to: impactatthecore@eur.nl.
- The Project Management Officer (PMO) reviews if the application includes all the relevant information.
- In case there are any questions which need to be answered before approval, the PMO contacts the applicant.
- The application is reviewed and approved or rejected by the Academic Lead.
We will support you in exploring if it is possible to implement your idea at your faculty or the university.
Step 2: project plan
- After approval of the application, the application will be further developed into a complete project plan together with a learning innovator (either from the involved faculty, or from Impact at the Core).
- Following approval of the complete project plan by people involved at your faculty or university, resources are allocated and the project can be executed. The PMO will stay in contact with the people involved to track the status of the project.
- All approved applications will be shared for information with the Advisory Board of Impact at the Core.
- During and after the realization of the project, your (learning) experiences are shared within the Community of Practice
- The project is evaluated after it is finished. The final report is sent to the educational director(s) and the Advisory Board of Impact at the Core.
In impact-driven education, students work together in (multidisciplinary) groups on (buildings blocks of) a solution for a real societal problem from societal stakeholders.
Impact-driven education thus has some distinct characteristics:
- It deals with real, unstructured and multifaceted societal problems (i.e. ‘wicked’ problems);
- Students learn to understand and approach these problems in a multidisciplinary way;
- Students learn to cooperate and to cocreate in (interdisciplinary) student teams, together with academic staff members and stakeholders;
- Students learn to diagnose and frame problems and propose clear guiding policy and action steps that would help to develop (building blocks of) a solution;
- Stakeholders and/or problem-owners are actively involved in this type of education.
As an example the following principles define the ‘must have’ conditions and the ‘nice to haves’.
| Principle | Must have | Nice to have |
| Complexity | Solutions are unknown | Problems & solutions are unknown |
| Students | Cooperation | Multidisciplinary cooperation |
| Stakeholder | Actively involved in defining the problem | Actively involved in the whole process from defining a problem to problem solving |
| Problem | Problem is slightly customized (casus) | Authentic problem |
| Perspective | One perspective | Multiple perspectives |
If you are not certain if your idea fits within Impact at the Core, please reach out to us through impactatthecore@eur.nl. Together we can take a look if there is a possibility or if we can make it suitable to fit within the focus of Impact at the Core.
Please find the application form below. Please send your finished application form to impactatthecore@eur.nl