Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important theme in business operations, and organisations are under growing pressure to integrate sustainable goals into their strategies. At the same time, professionals are expected to possess the knowledge and skills to drive sustainable innovation.
This research project focuses on developing a toolkit for creating or adapting curricula in the economic domain. The goal is to equip students with the necessary competencies—and provide them with opportunities to demonstrate these—to promote sustainability in open innovation projects within the business context.
These innovative curricula ensure that graduates are better prepared for a job market where sustainable development is central. This enables us to train future business experts in sustainability-oriented innovation and connect them with real business projects. Consequently, this project contributes to a job market in which organisations have professionals who not only promote sustainability within their own organisation but also across their broader ecosystem.
This research is part of an Erasmus+ project titled Developing Competencies for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation: The SOI Toolkit. The project focuses on developing a future-proof curriculum that equips higher education students with the skills needed for sustainability within business innovation projects.
Inholland aims to first develop an integrated competency framework for sustainability and innovation, which will be tested in collaboration with industry partners. Additionally, the project focuses on establishing educational design principles, which will be trialled in various partner organisations.
The project adopts a ‘living lab’ approach, where students, teachers, researchers, and external industry partners collaborate to solve practice-oriented problems. This creates an environment where students not only learn but also contribute to knowledge development throughout the project. Through this hands-on approach—where collaboration and learning go hand in hand—the results can be directly applied and adapted to meet the needs of both educational institutions and organisations.
This makes the project not only innovative but also highly relevant to fostering a sustainable and competitive job market in Europe.
"This project is unique due to its focus on sustainability and the development of competencies for open innovation projects."
This project is highly significant for education, as it addresses the growing need to prepare higher education students for the challenges of sustainable development within the business world. At a time when companies and governments are increasingly urged to act sustainably, educational institutions must ensure that graduates acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to contribute effectively to sustainability-oriented innovations.
A key aspect of this project is the development of a future-proof curriculum within the Business Studies programme, where sustainability and innovation are integrated. By embedding these themes into the curriculum, education aligns more closely with the demands of the modern job market. Students not only gain theoretical knowledge about sustainability but also develop practical skills for collaboration and problem-solving within complex, multidisciplinary environments.
One crucial competency that students can develop is the ability to collaborate with a diverse group of stakeholders, including competitors. In our project on sustainable textiles, research partners have expressed a willingness to collaborate with competitors in an open innovation environment but are unsure how to approach this or navigate such interactions. They have indicated a lack of skills in co-developing knowledge with others and applying it within their own enterprises. Developing this competency is essential for successfully contributing to sustainable innovation.
Additionally, the project promotes an active learning environment through the living lab approach, where students, teachers, and external partners collaborate on realistic, practice-oriented problems. This increases the relevance of their learning experience and ensures that they acquire skills that are directly applicable in the field. Moreover, it fosters closer collaboration between educational institutions and industry, allowing the curriculum to be continuously adapted to new developments and sector needs.
By better preparing students for the competencies required in sustainability-oriented innovation, this project not only enhances the quality and relevance of education but also contributes to a sustainable living environment.
In this project, we focus on companies and organizations that aim to integrate sustainability and innovation into their operations, particularly in sectors facing complex sustainability challenges, such as the fashion and textile industry, logistics, and the circular economy. The professional field includes companies, industry organisations, governments, and NGOs involved in sustainable development and open innovation. These stakeholders play an active role in developing and testing the toolkit.
The intended impact for the professional field is twofold:
The expected results of this project focus on developing concrete tools and frameworks that contribute to sustainable innovation in both education and the professional field. The primary outcomes will form key components of a toolkit for sustainable educational development. In addition to competency frameworks and curriculum designs, this toolkit will include practical tools such as self-assessments for curriculum evaluation, design guidelines for teachers, and an organisational readiness scan.
Components of the toolkit include:
