The newsletter provides detailed information about the Erasmus+ KA2 strategic partnership project explaining its aims, impact, next steps to be planned, and project partners.

SUSTAIN-CE project will develop an undergraduate civil engineering curriculum that covers sustainable infrastructure design to ensure graduates have the ability to apply concepts and principles of sustainability to the solution of complex civil engineering projects. In order to achieve this objective, SUSTAIN-CE will lead to and test innovative curricula in Turkey, Greece, and Portugal by blending context-specific driven skill gap mitigation with globally benchmarked practices in true co-creation with industry, industry associations, policymakers, end-users, and academia.

Please click here to read the English version of the newsletter.

Please click here to read the Turkish version of the newsletter.

3rd-4th of November 2021

The second Translational Project Meeting of the SUSTAIN-CE project took place face to face on the 3rd & 4th of November 2021 in Thessaloniki, Greece, along with the first Train the Trainers Lab.

All six partners, YASAR University, Izmir Institute of Technology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the South East European Research Center, ISQ and FOLKART gathered together to discuss the progress in work packages, dissemination activities, quality management evaluations, project management activities, planning, and organization of the first Pilot Training Academy on water resources and transportation engineering, as well as the next steps that need to be taken related to the project.

The next Transnational Project Meeting is scheduled to take place on March 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal.

2nd – 4th of November 2021

The Train the Trainers Lab of the SUSTAIN-CE project took place face to face between the 2nd & 4th of November 2021 in Thessaloniki, Greece, along with the second Transnational Project Meeting.
All six partners, YASAR University, Izmir Institute of Technology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the South East European Research Center, ISQ and FOLKART gathered together to work on the following activities related to the project:

• Task Group co-creation workshops and peer training (content definition and preparation for content development):
  • Task Group 1: Sustainability
  • Task Group 2: Water resources engineering
  • Task Group 3: Transportation engineering
  • Task Group 4: Structural engineering
  • Task Group 5: Construction materials and buildings
  • Task Group 6: Geotechnical engineering
• Mutual learning workshop: Survey co-development & deployment strategy
• Quadruple helix co-creation in higher education & VET (Case study: Energy efficiency in buildings)
• Mutual learning workshop: Online education best practices – how to succeed
• Co-creation strategies for the learning academies
  • Training methodology and guidelines for the implementation of the Academies
  • Preparatory discussion on the first Pilot Academy in Lisbon
  • Assessment methods and tools for the evaluation of the Academies
  • Educational resources for the implementation of the Academies
• Determination of the SD/CE themes to be integrated in the civil engineering curricula
  • Fundamentals of sustainable infrastructure and circular economy
  • Construction materials for sustainability
  • Structural engineering for a sustainable world
  • Role of geotechnical engineering in a sustainable world
  • Sustainable transportation systems
  • Sustainable water resources engineering

The next project activity is the first Pilot Training Academy will take place in Lisbon, Portugal in March 2022 on the topics of sustainable water resources engineering and sustainable transportation systems.

11th – 25th of October 2021

In the framework of the EU Erasmus+ KA2 Strategic Partnership Project (2020-1-TR01-KA203-093522) SUSTAIN-CE (Integration of Sustainable Design and Circular Economy Concepts in Civil Engineering Curricula) project a questionnaire survey was implemented in Greece to identify what key stakeholders believe are the main concepts and principles needed to meet the requirements of sustainability and circular economy through the civil engineering curricula.

The key stakeholders of the Focus Group Greece that participated in the survey were representatives from academia, the public sector, the business sector, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and real estate companies from Greece.

The survey was implemented through telephone and face-to-face communication. During the survey, the participants were informed about SUSTAIN-CE project and its activities. Then they were asked to provide their thoughts and opinions about the content to be included in civil engineering curricula in relation to sustainable design applications, circular economy, sustainable construction materials, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), smart and sustainable urban design principles and regulations and standards on sustainable design and circular economy pertinent to civil engineering.

The results of the survey will be used in clarifying the topics that shall be included in the civil engineering design courses.

14th of September 2021

The first Focus Group meeting of the SUSTIAN-CE project took place virtually on the 14th of September 2021 in Izmir Turkey.

The Focus Group of Turkey, co-organized by Yasar University, Izmir Institute of Technology and FOLKART, gathered virtually to discuss the topics that should be included in the civil engineering curricula related to sustainable design (SD) and circular economy (CE). The members shared their experiences on different applications of SD/CE and their ideas on how these applications could be integrated into the curricula. The topics that were discussed in the meeting were:

• Sustainable design applications
• Circular economy
• Sustainability of construction material
• Life-cycle assessment
• Smart and sustainable urban design principles

Regulations and standards on sustainable design and circular economy
Members from HEIs of Turkey, Chambers of Civil Engineers and Architects, construction companies from the Industry and representatives of local Municipalities were among the participants.

Several polls were conducted to receive feedback from the participants on the importance of the topics / subtopics and their integration into Civil Engineering curricula.

The Focus Group in Turkey will meet in tactical intervals to further discuss the project results and the integration of the SD/CE concepts in the design courses of the contemporary civil engineering undergraduate programs’ curricula.

7th of May 2021

A Virtual Transnational Meeting of the SUSTIAN-CE project were held on 7th May 2021.

During the meeting partners from Turkey, Greece and Portugal evaluated the project progress & outputs and overviewed project time schedule while planning the next steps. Also, dissemination and sustainability strategy plan is presented by Yaşar University project team in order to support dissemination activities and ensure sustainability of the project after its completion.

Integration of Sustainable Design and Circular Economy Concepts in Civil Engineering Curricula (SUSTAIN – CE) is an Erasmus+ KA2 strategic partnership project coordinated by Yaşar University. The project aims to enrich the contemporary civil engineering undergraduate programs’ curricula by incorporating sustainability, resilience and circular economy concepts in various stages of the design courses.

14th of December 2020

On December 14, 2020, the Kick-off Meeting of our SUSTAIN-CE project took place online! All six partners; YASAR University, Izmir Institute of Technology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the South East-Europe Research Centre, ISQ and Folkart, representing academia, research and industry, from three different countries; Turkey, Greece and Portugal, came virtually together to start a 32 months lasting collaboration!

Although we couldn’t meet in person, due to COVID-19 pandemic travelling restrictions, the project got started, a promising cooperation just began with a fruitful and very productive online meeting and our appointment has been renewed to continue in person as soon as the circumstances will permit it!