How do you develop a transdisciplinary honors program or a specific project within such a program? These topics were discussed during the online event ‘Transdisciplinarity in higher education: STEAM+ solutions’, held on 15 October as part of the Europe-wide Erasmus Days. The topic of transdisciplinarity in higher education and the relation to talent development programs was introduced and discussed, based on the STEAM+ project. The program featured three presentations:

1. “Developing a transdisciplinary honours program at the University of Oslo” (by Prof. Anders Malthe Sørenssen - University of Oslo, Norway)
2. “An example of a transdisciplinary project in an honors program” (by Dr. Anne Snick - KU Leuven, Belgium)
3. “STEAM+ Fun solutions” (by Prof. Zsolt Lavicza - JKU Linz, Austria) 

A full report can be found here.

On 20 November, the full STEAM+ steering group and Advisory Board met online to discuss project progress. The STEAM+ Advisory Board consists of:

• Carlos Alvarez Pereira, full member international Club of Rome and Founder and President of Innaxis Foundation & Research Institute, Spain
• Professor Jean-Pierre Gesson, International Relations manager of the Figure network in France, Expert for Hcéres (High council for higher education and research evaluation) and honorary president of University of Poitiers, France
• Martine Reicherts, former European Commissioner and Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (until 2018). Currently on Board of Directors of Luxembourg Central Bank and Board Chair of Luxembourg National Research Fund
• Professor Nils Overgaard Andersen, Commissioner International Affairs in European Honors Council Board, professor of Physics at University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and former vice-president of Danish government’s working group on talent
• Professor Maija Aksela, director LUMA Centre Finland, a Finnish umbrella organization connecting universities and university campuses to strengthen and promote their collaboration on national and international level in STEAM subjects

In the meeting, the Advisory Board commented that the STEAM+ vision with co-design, transdisciplinarity and talent pedagogies is rebellious, needed, urgent and ambitious. Among other things, the project team was advised to really include students to tell the project story; and to keep messages to policy makers concise.

Due to the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, some changes were made in the STEAM+ project. The first STEAM+ Lab, where students and teachers from nine countries come together to co-create solutions for grand challenges, is now planned for July 2021. It will be hosted by the International College at Ca’Foscari University of Venice and will focus on Citizen Science for Marine Conservation. In October, a first preparatory online session was held with the participants planning to take part in this Lab.

The STEAM+ team officially welcomes the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research as a new partner in the project. The Ministry replaces the Austrian organisation ÖZBF, who were forced to withdraw after major changes in the organisation’s structure. We are very happy to have another Ministry on board in the project. In addition, Utrecht University from the Netherlands joined STEAM+ as associate partner. A full list of partners can be found here.

In Belgium, students at KU Leuven were invited to join the STEAM+ team as part of their Transdisciplinary Honours Programme, which is supported by the Institute for the Future KU Leuven. You can watch the introduction for students here.

Are you looking for tools and inspiration to stimulate talent development in higher education? A number of the STEAM+ partners has also been involved in the CoTalent project. In this project, tools were developed that can help teachers spot and stimulate talents. In addition, there is a large e-library full of inspirational and instructional videos. Everything is available in open access at www.cotalent.eu.

Innovating STE(A)M in Higher Education with Transdisciplinary Talent Programs (STEAM+) is a large-scale innovative project with a holistic approach, aiming to provide educational policy makers with instruments to prepare new generations for handling the challenges of our time. It is supported by the EU’s Erasmus+ program in Key Action 3 (support for policy reform), as a Forward-Looking Cooperation Project. It will run until December 2022. See https://steamtalent.eu for more info. Any questions or remarks? Please send them to info@steamtalent.eu