Initiation of the teaching exchange process
As part of the teaching exchange activities planned in GreenFORCE, three project partners came to pass knowledge onto POLIS University students in between the months of March – May 2023. This exchange process allowed contributions from researchers and scholars onto selected modules taught at POLIS University, which are related to the just green transition. In addition, it made possible the presentation of lectures that drew on results produced so far from the project.
The teaching exchanges began with lectures from Center for Economic Analyses- CEA and the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Geography (UB-GEF) in March 2023. Three professors from UB-GEF, Dr. Zora Živanović, Dr. Marija Jeftić and Dr. Velimir Šećerov presented the below topics:
– Territorial Organization and Spatial planning system in Serbia;
– Functional urban areas (FUA) as the instrument of polycentric spatial development of the Republic of Serbia;
– Public Interest and City Planning in Serbia – Development of Belgrade on the River Banks;
Whereas Dr. Marjan Nikolov, from CEA conducted a lecture on Environmental Economics, the part of economics that deals with the inter-relationship between the environment and economic development, and covered the basics of this field for students.
The teaching exchanges then proceeded with two separate courses from researchers and scholars from the Polytechnic University of Turin.
From May 15 – 19, 2023, Prof. Isabella Lami and Dr. Elena Todella from the Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning presented to POLIS University students via an interactive workshop the subject of “Problem Structuring Methods for facing urban uncertainty“. Students were engaged during the week-long workshop on a multi-methodological application on a case study, combining Strategic Choice Approach and Analytic Hierarchy Process methods to deal with urban transformations.
From the 22nd to the 26th of May, Prof. Ombretta Caldarice and Dr. Danial Mohabat Doost from Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning and Responsible Risk Resilience Centre (R3C) set up an intensive week-long workshop in a hybrid format at POLIS University. It covered the subject ‘Resilience and Climate Change’ and focused on expanding the students’ knowledge of policies and tools to support the just green transition in tackling global threats, with a preliminary measurement of territorial vulnerabilities in Tirana.
The challenge the students faced was integrating resilience in climate change-related strategy and planning actions for supporting the just and green transition in Western Balkans, leveraging the opportunity of worldwide best practices.
The complete teaching exchange process will contribute to fostering research excellence in the researchers from the Western Balkan participating organizations, which in turn will embed its results on green transition into their future teaching curricula.
