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.
Steps to NBS Workshop I - Planning and Introducing Co-Production
This is the first of three workshop sessions navigating workshop participants through the initial planning stages of an NBS implementation with a focus on co-production. This learning unit workshop focuses on planning the goals drawing on the Connecting Nature one of the seven interrelated elements: co-production described during this workshop. Participants will consider a community context (e.g. space, location) for an NBS either from their professional or personal experience to work through workshop activities including to consider co-production activities including stakeholder mapping and the roles of key actors in the development of NBS.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: TCD
Steps to NBS Workshop II - Delivery with Co-Production
This is the second of three workshop sessions navigating workshop participants through the steps to the delivery of the coproduction of NBS in urban, rural or coastal context. This learning unit workshop focuses on delivery planning the goals drawing on the Connecting Nature Framework element: co-production. Participants are encouraged to consider a community context, that is, selecting an NBS in terms of location and scale, either from their professional or personal experience to work through workshop activities, including an assessment of the social, environmental and economic needs.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: TCD
Steps to NBS Workshop III - Stewardship
This is the third of three workshop sessions navigating participants through the steps to the stewardship of NBS in an urban context. Following the planning and delivery of an NBS intervention, this workshop focuses on stewardship (maintaining, monitoring and evaluation) navigating the Connecting Nature Framework. In this final iterative process of developing NBS, participants are encouraged to consider a community context, either from their professional or personal experience to apply to workshop activities.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: TCD
UrbanByNature: Going through Step 5 IMPLEMENT
In this Learning Unit, you will enter the role of a stakeholder at the fictional Evergreen School. Located in a city with 200,000 residents, Evergreen is facing sustainability challenges after a city council report reveals its poor sustainability performance in areas such as emissions, energy inefficiency, and biodiversity decline. A student-led survey further highlights issues of food waste and a lack of green spaces to address these challenges. The school principal, Mx. Green, initiates a mission to transform Evergreen School into a model of sustainability.- you will collaborate and co-develop knowledge regarding key elements in the nature-based solutions implementation process.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: ICLEI
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