7th CUCS Conference
UNIVERSITY COOPERATION IN THE NEW CHALLENGES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Capacity building, Science Diplomacy and Open Science between Global North and Global South within the new world context
Naples on 21st – 23rd April 2022
Sustainable outcomes through immersive experience and entrepreneurial engagements: grassroots to global model
ABSTRACT
Anamika dey, CEO, GIAN and visiting Faculty, IIMA and Prof Anil Gupta, VF, IIMA, IITB, AcSIR and NIPER-A,
SESSION
International cooperation in University teaching: training innovators for sustainable developmentR
Engaging students around the world with grassroots innovations and enterprises will deepen the empathetic bond between youth and the larger societal aspirations. Absorbing immersive experience about unmet social needs and creative experiments through Shodhyatras ( learning walks) will help create deeper understanding of obstacles and opportunities for achieving SDGs. Courses that expose the students and the youth about the interaction of eight Es (empathy, ethics, equity, environment, excellence, efficiency, entrepreneurship, and education) can help them uncover the latent inertia that prevents social transformation to speed up.
We describe the experience of several course taught by us at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and also online course for the solution mappers of 90 innovation UNDP Acceleration Labs in 115 countries. The students will need to encounter not just the paradoxes underlying the developmental realties but also address them through proactive action-research. Some of the student projects can generate unicorn as it happened with one of the students in CINE course in 2010-12 batch. But even if most students don’t pursue entrepreneurial path, their exposure to innovative and entrepreneurial approach will guide their professional pursuits in different roles, thus helping in achievement of SDGs. A self-critical look at the practices of using (or misusing) natural resources say water or energy inside the campus will also create a sense of responsibility among future leaders of the society. International exposure was facilitated through a class having exchange students, cases based on international experience of faculty’s global engagements and outstanding examples of global awards given by honey bee network through GIAN called as HBN creativity and inclusive Innovation awards (HBNCRIIA). How grassroots innovations can reach global markets has been tried at Norway Technical national University (NTNU) where NTNU students work with grassroots innovators in India and try to develop strategies for scaling their ideas globally.
Courses like MIIST (Management of Inclusive Innovations for Social Transformation) and Meeting the Unmet needs for doctoral students of various technology labs of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), CINE (Creativity, Innovation, Knowledge Network and Entrepreneurship), ISIKG (institutions, social innovations and Knowledge systems at Grassroots) provide diverse insights about how to bring international partnership and experiences in the courses aimed at motivating students to pursue achievement of SDGs in their future career. They will have to see the connections between policy, institutions, culture and resources through various analytical prisms to help achieve SSGS faster and in a frugal innovative way. The innovators learn from the students and vice versa. Special courses will need to be designed with international faculty to include the outstanding models of achieving sustainable development goals through youth engagement involving science and technological innovations from and for grassroots.
Keywords:
1. immersive experience
2. entrepreneurship
3.meeting the unmet needs
4. grassroots innovations
5. sustainability
