Bremen and Cardiff Students Collaborate to Create Innovative Sustainable Business Solutions
The Bremen-Cardiff Initiative on Sustainability & Entrepreneurship as part of the Bremen-Cardiff Alliance entered its fourth round this year: Students from the University of Bremen and the University of Cardiff from various fields, from mathematics to computer science or geosciences to communication or economics, took up the challenge and worked on business ideas in the field of sustainability in interdisciplinary and international teams over three online days and five days on site.
Mandy Boehnke, Vice Rector for Internationality, Academic Qualification and Diversity, refers to the long-standing partnership between Cardiff University and the University of Bremen: “Partnership and cooperation – that is what this workshop is all about. The participating students also bring the cooperation to life. Over the next two weeks, they will get to know the respective universities, explore new topics, develop concrete ideas and hopefully spend an exciting time together.”
After three days online, the five teams met in person for the first time and were supported in the further development of their ideas with content ranging from marketing and branding to presentation assistance. But the interactive part was not neglected either, with Lego exercises as a team-building measure or a city tour. A three-person jury made up of start-up and sustainability experts chose Team SPARC as the idea with the most potential: the energy consumption of dormitory buildings is to be presented transparently via an app and challenges and small bits of knowledge are to be used to motivate people to save energy.
For communication and culture student Laurent Biel, the highlight of the week was diversity: “On the one hand, you could work on projects, continue your education, but also discover the city.” Environmental physics student Clever Ogbonna emphasizes the importance of sustainability for all courses and the interdisciplinary composition of the groups: “I can really recommend this great program to everyone!”
The initiative is conceived, organized and moderated by colleagues from the Global Opportunities and Entrepreneurship Team at Cardiff University and BRIDGE/UniTransfer and the International Office of the University of Bremen.