ABOUT BALTIC UNIVERSITY PROGRAMME
Baltic University Programme (BUP) is a network of universities and institutions of higher education in the Baltic Sea region. The focus areas are sustainable development, environmental protection, democracy and the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Since the beginning of the 1990’s, BUP has been working for openness, internationalization and mobility, and today almost 90 universities are members in the organization. Every year, BUP organizes activities for students, teachers, and researchers. The network is coordinated from Uppsala university in Sweden. Åbo Akademi University in Finland is responsible for the ESD part and activities for teachers in higher education.
The Finnish center of the Baltic University Programme is situated at the Centre of Lifelong Learning (CLL) at Åbo Akademi University. Åbo Akademi University is the only Swedish-speaking university in Finland. The Centre for Lifelong Learning provides adult education and is involved in different kinds of project in sectors such as sustainability, health, pedagogy etc. The educational part is always visible.
About our team and role in CASCADE
In CASCADE, our part at BUP/CLL is to broaden the knowledge and visibility of the project outcomes in risk preparedness and management to institutions of higher education in the whole Baltic Sea Region.
We are mainly three persons at CLL involved in CASCADE: PhD Cecilia Lundberg, MSc Johanna Fredenberg and MSc Sinikka Suomalainen.
Cecilia and Sinikka are involved in BUP, Johanna at the Open University. Sustainable development, education and the Baltic Sea are keywords suitable for all the three of us.
From the left: PhD Cecilia Lundberg, MSc Sinikka Suomalainen and MSc Johanna Fredenberg from Åbo Akademi University.
Our role in CASCADE is to conform the educational material made for rescue staff to fit in courses in higher education. The content of CASCADE is important to communicate broader. Therefore, the material will also be open for everybody interested.
We once started to enter into the field of sustainable development from the ecological angle, as we all are biologists. However, during the years our minds have broadened. Agenda 2030 cannot be based on silo thinking with the ecological, social and economic parts separated. The holistic view is the only way to act. Therefore, it is interesting to be involved in a project like CASCADE. It has a practical perspective, involves different – and new for us – actors, and most especially: it is important, actual and mostly needed.
More information
Baltic University Programme - BUP (balticuniv.uu.se/)
The Finnish center of the Baltic University Programme (bup.fi/)
Åbo Akademi University (abo.fi/)
Centre of Lifelong Learning, CLL (abo.fi/centret-for-livslangt-larande/)
Text by: Cecilia Lundberg
Photos by: ÅA BUP
This is an article of the series “Introducing CASCADE Project Partners”. During the next weeks and months CASCADE introduces all the Project Partners and their visions here on the CASCADE website.
