Circular economy, education for sustainability, centre of excellence

2026-07-22

KODECET aims to create 4 Digi-SUSTEACH centers that build capacity at universities to teach Sustainable and Circular Economy (SACE) to new career faculty, students, and early-stage professionals. The goal is to develop a workforce with the knowledge and skills on SACE for better business and environment. Asian industrial economies that face a shortage of expertise in the SACE sector will benefit from this. Part of Asia is already industrialized and needs capacity building. The 'China plus one' strategy by foreign businesses consider India and Thailand as viable industrializing options, thus these countries need attention on skilled labor to transition into circular economies to meet global and national sustainability agenda. In 2015, many European countries, such as Finland, the Netherlands, and Austria, have dedicated significant resources to SACE knowledge development. KODECET uses this knowledge from European universities for capacity building in Asia. Creating high scale and impact, 2 universities each in India and Thailand will have total of 4 'digital centres, Digi-SUSTEACH' under KODECET with open-source courses in SACE helping to improve job opportunities and skill development. Digi-SUSTEACH will develop 3 courses with full delivery materials in booklet and videos format, train 20 faculty members on a didactics manual and training material kit, enroll 120 students in courses and organize HACKTHON with 80 registrations, which will connect universities and businesses. Multiplying its reach, the centre will disseminate this knowledge to other universities, colleges, and businesses. By building capacity in universities and training future manpower, the project addresses knowledge gaps and develops academia-business network in the SACE domain in 2 countries. EU universities develop an ecosystem understanding and build capabilities to better deal with global sustainability issues by collaborating with Asian counterparts.

Finland, Austria, India, Thailand

2026-03-01