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.
Search results ( 1 - 5 of 32 )
Workshop I: Planning NBS 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
Applied Learning Seminar III: Implement NBS
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
Applied Learning Seminar V: Upscale NBS
This LU provides a Brief dive into the world of Upscaling and elaborates the differences between the different scaling methods used, scaling out and scaling deep for example. The unit is meant to shine light on the UbN Step 7 on Upscaling for local governments as well as regional entities to think of ways on how to upscale NbS and what to consider when doing so. The role of standards is also highlighted here.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: ICLEI
Creating Sustainable Learning Spaces through NBS - Opportunities for Policy Action
This Learning Unit introduces learners to policy action areas for promoting Sustainable Learning Spaces. It discusses how four policy action areas can support the development of Nature-based Solutions on educational institution grounds. Some best practice examples are provided from various EU member states.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: PPMI
Ecosystem Restoration: EU Policy and Principles to Heal and Project Landscapes with Nature
Ecosystems have been disturbed by human interventions, such as logging, damming rivers, intense grazing or by natural disasters like hurricanes, fires and floods. This learning unit introduces the concept of Restorative Ecology using NBS as a way to protect and heal urban, rural and coastal landscapes. Learners will be introduced to principles to guide ecosystem restoration as part of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (to 2030) and to the EU Nature Restoration Law enacted in 2024. Learners debate the benefits of the practice to protect, restore and heal ecosystems and consider the implications in their own personal or professional contexts and to their local community.
Find here the editable version and the teaching note.
Educational Level: Higher Education
Language: English
Organisation: TCD
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