Learning Units
The NBS EduWORLD Learning Units page offers a comprehensive and flexible suite of resources designed to integrate Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) into higher education and professional training. With 50 curated Learning Units, this platform supports educators, students, and practitioners at all levels—undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), doctoral (PhD), vocational, and entrepreneurial.
Covering a broad spectrum of themes and contexts, the Learning Units are structured around key educational streams:
- Common Core Units introduce foundational NBS concepts, such as ecosystem services, biodiversity, and the SDGs.
- 3rd Level Units target university-level learners, with a focus on implementation, policy, social inclusion, and future urban development.
- Entrepreneurial Units support learners exploring nature-based enterprises, business models, green finance, and sector-specific NBS opportunities.
- Vocational Units are tailored for practical skills development, project management, policy engagement, and multi-level governance.
- Case Studies and Workshops offer real-world applications and participatory methods from NBS EduWORLD demonstrator sites across Europe.
Each unit is aligned with European Qualification Framework (EQF) levels, ranging from Level 6 to Level 8, ensuring academic relevance and adaptability.
These Learning Units are editable and adaptable, supporting custom integration into curricula, practice-oriented, blending theory with applied learning, and geographically diverse, reflecting urban, rural, and coastal NBS contexts.
Download the full list of Learning Units
Whether you're a lecturer seeking ready-to-use teaching materials, a student exploring sustainability, or a professional upskilling in green innovation, the NBS EduWORLD Learning Units offer a unique, user-friendly gateway into nature-based thinking and action.
Exploring Biodiversity and Conversation Strategies of NBS using GreenComp
This learning unit offers hands-on examples of nature-based solutions in practice through a site visit or field study. The PowerPoint offers prompts and questions to maximise the learning and reflection on NBS strategies related to biodiversity and conservation. The LU starts with NBS definitions, the link to GreenComp: The European Sustainability Competence Framework and how elements of the field study/site visit may enhance some of these skills and competences. The field study/site visit provides a structure to enable a teacher to offer learners some context on choosing a good NBS site, and how NBS can contribution to biodiversity and conservation through reflective questions drawing on elements of GreenComp.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: TCD
Planning a Nature-inspired design Field Trip: Innovations in NBS architecture and engineering with the SDGs
Nature-based solutions are effective in their implementation with architecture and engineering processes in their nature-inspired design. This learning unit offers reflective questions and components to interrogate when designing a site visit or field trip to view nature-inspired design in-person. Examples of innovations in NBS nature-inspired design provide a context for analysis and debate for learners before and after the site visit. The connection of nature-inspired design and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demonstrates how architecture, engineering and design contributes to addressing key challenges facing the planet.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: TCD
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