In the context of the Bioeconomy Changemakers Festival, GenB will organise in March 2024 four exciting events targeting students and policy makers in four different countries:
Are you ready?
More information will come very soon!
Yes, of course. A GenB Ambassador is intended as any young person under the age of 30 who has an interest in sustainability/bioeconomy themes or who is interested in making his/her voice heard on these topics within the GenB project’s activities. Indeed, any youngster including primary school kids, can take a role, inspiring other peers, increasing their awareness on the bioeconomy and its related sectors, while engaging them in changing their lifestyle.
Yes, being active on social media is not a prerequisite to become a GenB Ambassador.
If you are an active sustainability content creator, as GenB Ambassador you can leverage your social media accounts by sharing specific contents on bioeconomy, designed together with GenB communication experts, and be part of joint social media campaigns through @biovoices channels (counting more than 11K followers on all social media), finally reaching a wider audience.
If you do not usually exploit social media to disseminate specific contents, as a GenB Ambassador you will learn how to produce tailored contents to raise awareness about the role of bioeconomy in everyday life (producing media, videos, cards, memes etc.), actively contributing to @biovoices social media channels planning.
Depending on specific criteria (such as age, expressed interests, motivation and knowledge about bioeconomy), more experienced candidates will be already involved in GenB activities as ambassadors in two large-scale events taking place in Italy between end of September and October (EU Researchers’ Night and Maker Faire). In general, the activities for GenB Ambassadors will fully start by the end of the year, after a capacity building activity organized by GenB experts, aiming at empowering the selected candidates.
Some of the activities will be held online (e.g. capacity building webinars, online workshops, mutual learning events, creation of contents etc.). In specific occasions (e.g. large-scale events, conferences, TEDx pitches etc.), depending on the geographical location, GenB Ambassadors may be contacted to participate onsite.
Based on the expertise, motivation, needs and interests, GenB Ambassadors will be involved in different type of activities and roles. A wide range of opportunities are foreseen, such as:
GenB Ambassadors are expected to be involved in the project in different ways throughout the duration of the project (until May 2025). We foresee at least a couple of activities (duration max 1 day each) for each GenB Ambassadors, but it will be agreed case by case.
In addition, all candidates will be invited to attend the capacity building webinars, where they will be equipped with the necessary skills, to become GenB Ambassadors.
T-shirts and gadgets will be distributed to GenB Ambassadors to award their involvement, together with the possibility to have their visibility and impact increased through the participation in high-level and large-scale events, as well as through the collaboration with the large community built around GenB project. In addition, the expertise and visibility as GenB Ambassador is expected to contribute to the curricular experiences of the candidates, who will have the possibility to network and eventually collaborate with different companies in the sector.
From March to May 2023, APRE organized two Living Labs with the “Istituto Comprensivo Guicciardini” school in Rome to co-create new educational approaches and accompany the new generation in the transition towards a circular and sustainable bioeconomy. An early school class (age 8-9 yo) and an elementary school class (age 11-12 yo) were involved. Students were highly engaged and proactive in all phases of the activities especially those which required autonomous decision-making (i.e. rules making, division in groups, roles of each group for producing the materials etc.).
The Activities concluded with the presentation and dissemination of the results of the living lab (final prototype of the game) to the school community in the open school event (“Sustainability Day”).
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Objectives of Living Labs in schools:
The Living Lab foresaw four phases with the engagement of teachers, students, parents, and GenB’s support staff, in the ways and at the times described below. Between the Workshop phases, APRE maintained constant communication and gave clear instructions to teachers prior to each workshop. The students received homework to review and deepen concepts for the next appointment. Parents were engaged in home activities.
Co-Creation Workshop: the first workshop began with a recap and brainstorming on the bioeconomy concepts, lifestyles and sectors. Responding different questions, the students understood the bioeconomy approach and its implications in daily life. APRE staff and the class discussed answers collectively. Then the students analysed the first ideas on the educational material to produce in order to educate on the bioeconomy. APRE asked students to divide into groups and think about a type of educational instrument/material they would have liked to produce to teach also other students about the bioeconomy.
The groups’ ideas were presented to the class that expressed their preferences through a voting mechanism.
Exploration Workshop: in the second Workshop, the classroom worked on the development of new educational product ideas based on the proposals developed during the Co-creation Workshop. To realize the prototype, the class was divided into four groups and the students were assigned roles (i.e.
Communication & design Team, Crafting materials Team and Game rules and writing Team). This phase saw the use of innovative formats: flipped classroom, inquiry-based learning, hands-on learning (production of game materials).
Experimentation Workshop: The class was divided into four groups to test and evaluate the final prototype. In particular, 1 prototype of the game was given to each group, each group had to play the game and see what worked and what did not work. APRE staff continuously supported students explaining the rules and the development, where necessary. In each section of the game, the functioning of the cards, activities and boxes was assessed and feedback or other suggestions for improvement were collected Evaluation Workshop: in this final workshop, the results of the living lab (final prototype of the game) was presented and disseminated in an open school event (“Sustainability Day”), where parents, external bodies, institutions, were invited. The aim was to show the final output also to other students and classes, and to continue evaluate the contents and collect feedback from parents and other multipliers.
Students hence take on the role of “experts” for parents, citizens and teachers themselves. Between September and December 2023, APRE will carry on implementation and valorisation activities to improve and ensure the prototype sustainability after the project life.
The living labs need to be tailored to the needs, preferences and tastes of the students. In fact, all outcomes reflected the inputs coming from students both in terms of design and in terms of content creation.
The final prototype of the game aims to teach the bioeconomy to other students. It is a board game for children aged 8/13 years old. The students can play with other peers or with adults (parents, teachers etc.).
The objective of the game is to transform a biomass into a new bio-based product. The collection of ideas and pilot projects (co-creation and exploration phases) were successful. Students demonstrated wide creativity in thinking, suggesting ideas and the different aspects of the educational game to be produced as well as content creation. Teachers demonstrated awareness and interest on the topic of the bioeconomy and interest in being themselves “promoters” and key actors (ambassadors) of the bioeconomy, hence the objective of raising awareness for other multipliers was achieved.
Number of Living Labs organised (total): 4
Number of activities and experiments implemented (total): 7 Workshops
Number of students reached (total): 81
From March to May 2023, APRE organized two Living Labs with the “Istituto Comprensivo Guicciardini” school in Rome to co-create new educational approaches and accompany the new generation in the transition towards a circular and sustainable bioeconomy. An early school class (age 8-9 yo) and an elementary school class (age 11-12 yo) were involved. Students were highly engaged and proactive in all phases of the activities especially those which required autonomous decision-making (i.e. rules making, division in groups, roles of each group for producing the materials etc.).
The Activities concluded with the presentation and dissemination of the results of the living lab (final prototype of the game) to the school community in the open school event (“Sustainability Day”).
.
Objectives of Living Labs in schools:
The Living Lab foresaw four phases with the engagement of teachers, students, parents, and GenB’s support staff, in the ways and at the times described below. Between the Workshop phases, APRE maintained constant communication and gave clear instructions to teachers prior to each workshop. The students received homework to review and deepen concepts for the next appointment. Parents were engaged in home activities.
Co-Creation Workshop: the first workshop began with a recap and brainstorming on the bioeconomy concepts, lifestyles and sectors. Responding different questions, the students understood the bioeconomy approach and its implications in daily life. APRE staff and the class discussed answers collectively. Then the students analysed the first ideas on the educational material to produce in order to educate on the bioeconomy. APRE asked students to divide into groups and think about a type of educational instrument/material they would have liked to produce to teach also other students about the bioeconomy.
The groups’ ideas were presented to the class that expressed their preferences through a voting mechanism.
Exploration Workshop: in the second Workshop, the classroom worked on the development of new educational product ideas based on the proposals developed during the Co-creation Workshop. To realize the prototype, the class was divided into four groups and the students were assigned roles (i.e.
Communication & design Team, Crafting materials Team and Game rules and writing Team). This phase saw the use of innovative formats: flipped classroom, inquiry-based learning, hands-on learning (production of game materials).
Experimentation Workshop: The class was divided into four groups to test and evaluate the final prototype. In particular, 1 prototype of the game was given to each group, each group had to play the game and see what worked and what did not work. APRE staff continuously supported students explaining the rules and the development, where necessary. In each section of the game, the functioning of the cards, activities and boxes was assessed and feedback or other suggestions for improvement were collected Evaluation Workshop: in this final workshop, the results of the living lab (final prototype of the game) was presented and disseminated in an open school event (“Sustainability Day”), where parents, external bodies, institutions, were invited. The aim was to show the final output also to other students and classes, and to continue evaluate the contents and collect feedback from parents and other multipliers.
Students hence take on the role of “experts” for parents, citizens and teachers themselves. Between September and December 2023, APRE will carry on implementation and valorisation activities to improve and ensure the prototype sustainability after the project life.
The living labs need to be tailored to the needs, preferences and tastes of the students. In fact, all outcomes reflected the inputs coming from students both in terms of design and in terms of content creation.
The final prototype of the game aims to teach the bioeconomy to other students. It is a board game for children aged 8/13 years old. The students can play with other peers or with adults (parents, teachers etc.).
The objective of the game is to transform a biomass into a new bio-based product. The collection of ideas and pilot projects (co-creation and exploration phases) were successful. Students demonstrated wide creativity in thinking, suggesting ideas and the different aspects of the educational game to be produced as well as content creation. Teachers demonstrated awareness and interest on the topic of the bioeconomy and interest in being themselves “promoters” and key actors (ambassadors) of the bioeconomy, hence the objective of raising awareness for other multipliers was achieved.
Number of Living Labs organised (total): 4
Number of activities and experiments implemented (total): 7 Workshops
Number of students reached (total): 81
Interested to know what has been going on in the first 8 months of GenB?
…and there’s even more!
4 Focus groups were organised in April and May 2023 at the 6th Primary School and the 2nd Secondary School of Gerakas, a suburb of Athens: one group for students of 4-8y, one group for students 9-13y and two groups for 14-19y students. Each one lasted for about 80min.
Children and teenagers with various interests and learning styles participated. The main aim of the focus groups organised was to have students express their opinions on what kind of activities they could find interesting in a bioeconomy project. There were parental consents for all students participating.
Every group was exposed to several activities pointed out as age relevant by the partner who had undertaken the scientific design of the focus group (AIJU).
The procedure was the following:
Initially, the young participants expressed their general interests and learning preferences. Afterwards, they had to express their preference in relation to some educational activities introductory/development/concluding) they were presented using cards that visualised the content of the activity. The findings reflected their perspectives and insights.
Researchers had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding in what motivates students and what causes intrigue and willingness to try. It was obvious that students appreciated the hands-on aspect and interactive nature of activities that allowed for initiative and creativity.
Number of Focus Groups organised: 4
Number of students reached: 32
When seeking to compile new educational material, it is of utmost importance to listen to the voice of the target group. These focus groups functioned as invaluable orientation in the learning preferences and styles of various age groups. It was also inspiring to see how serious and responsible all the young participants were during the procedure.
The GenB Living Labs took place in Austria from April to June 2023, engaging different age groups across two schools. The high school “AHS am Augarten” in Vienna’s 2nd district hosted the Living Lab for students aged 14 to 19.
Over three workshops, around 20 students from three 7th grade classes, accompanied by two teachers, actively participated in the sessions, which were integrated into the ‘Human and Environment’ subject curriculum.
Meanwhile, the elementary school Südstadt in Maria Enzersdorf, Lower Austria, served as the venue for the Living Labs targeting the 4 to 8 and 9 to 13 age groups.
A total of approximately 100 pupils and 7 teachers took part, representing all classes in the school, with the exception of two hindered by time constraints.
To accommodate the large number of pupils, two Living Labs were organized for 4 to 8-year-olds, while one was dedicated to the 9 to 13-year-olds.
In the first workshop of the High School Living Lab, students were introduced to the concept of bioeconomy and its challenges, with a specific focus on its connection to the food industry—a subject explored in their “human and environment” curriculum for the semester. In the second workshop, students had the opportunity to present their project ideas, which they had brainstormed during the intervening period. They received support from workshop moderators to further develop their ideas. During the final workshop, students showcased their completed projects and engaged in group reflection on the entire Living Lab process. The 17-year-old students successfully realised three projects as part of their participation:
During the first workshop of the elementary school Living Labs, students were introduced to the concept of bioeconomy through the book “What is Bioeconomy?” and a presentation of various related products.
They were then encouraged to express their own ideas on the topic through drawing. From these ideas, the classes collaboratively developed project proposals, which were presented in the second workshop.
Additionally, during the second workshop, the students had the chance to engage in hands-on activities at different stations, including painting with natural colours derived from plants and spices, creating seed balls, and playing a memory game focused on the theme of bioeconomy.
The final workshop of the Living Labs in the elementary school concluded with a showcase event, where the students’ products and projects were exhibited in the auditorium.
Representatives from each class took the stage to present their projects to the entire school community, including teachers and staff members. Following the opening presentations, all students had the opportunity to explore the exhibition, examine their peers’ completed projects, and engage in discussions with the workshop moderators to gain deeper insights into the project development process and their overall experience with the Living Labs.
The elementary school students successfully realized a variety of projects, including flowerpots and purses crafted from recycled tetra packs and fabric remnants, pencil cases from repurposed plastic bottles, bags from fabric remnants, photo frames decorated with buttons, and a poster showcasing ideas for products derived from biobased materials. In addition, the older students created a bioeconomy magazine and produced a series of informative videos on various aspects of the bioeconomy.
Number of Living Labs organised (total): 4 Living Labs with 3 workshops each (in total 12 workshops)
Number of activities and experiments implemented (total): 89
Number of students reached (total): 120
EU project GenB announces open call for young “GenB Generation Bioeconomy Ambassadors”
The Consortium of the EU-funded project GenB– Young biovoices for a sustainable future – is proud to announce an open call for young individuals younger than 30 years old to become “GenB Bioeconomy Ambassadors”. This unique opportunity aims to empower young enthusiasts and provide them with the necessary skills and knowledge to shape a sustainable and prosperous future.
The GenB project is dedicated to promoting the bioeconomy, which harnesses the power of renewable resources to create innovative products, generate economic growth, and address environmental challenges. By engaging young people, the project aims to foster a new generation of change-makers passionate about sustainable development and equipped to tackle the pressing environmental issues of our time.
As GenB Bioeconomy Ambassadors, participants will have access to a comprehensive training program designed to enhance their understanding of the bioeconomy and its potential, as well as equip them with key skills and tools to promote the bioeconomy.
The program includes workshops, mentorship sessions, and networking opportunities with other EU Ambassadors, industry experts, policymakers, and renowned researchers in the field.
Key benefits and opportunities for GenB Bioeconomy Ambassadors:
Visibility and reward: GenB Ambassadors will be the frontrunners in promoting the bioeconomy among young people. Their role will be rewarded through many visibility actions, including social media, participation to conferences as young biovoices, engagement in communication activities at European scale.
Network Opportunities: GenB Ambassadors will have the chance to connect with a global community of like-minded individuals, industry leaders, and organisations committed to driving positive change in the bioeconomy sphere.
Skill Development: GenB Ambassadors will gain valuable knowledge and expertise in various aspects of the bioeconomy, including biotechnology, renewable resources, circular economy principles, and sustainable entrepreneurship. Ambassadors will also gain valuable skills, including video-making, copywriting, campaign planning, stakeholder engagement, workshops organisation. They will be also equipped with soft and transversal skills, such as design-thinking, visual thinking, pitching, and public speaking, to make their voice heard on the bioeconomy.
Opportunities for Outreach and Advocacy: GenB Ambassadors will be advocating for the bioeconomy and raising awareness about its potential among their peers, local communities, and wider audiences through various channels, including social media, large-scale events, and educational activities.
Have an active role in European Bioeconomy: GenB Ambassadors will have the opportunity to collaborate with the bioeconomy community, contribute to position papers for the EU Commission, participate in international competitions and awareness and educational initiatives of the GenB project related to the bioeconomy.
The open call targets individuals under the age of 30, who are passionate about sustainability, innovation, and would like to take an active role in their communities. Candidates should demonstrate communication skills, leadership potential, and a genuine interest in the bioeconomy, sustainability and circularity.
To apply for becoming GenB Bioeconomy Ambassadors and learn more about the selection criteria and application process, interested individuals are encouraged to visit the official GenB Project website at: https://www.genb-project.eu/ambassadors/become-a-member/.
The cut-off dates for applications are:
Successful candidates will be notified within one month after each cut-off date.
About the GenB Project:
Launched in November 2022, led by APRE and composed of 10 organisations from 8 countries, GenB is a 30-month project funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s funding programme for research and innovation.
The GenB Project is committed to promoting the bioeconomy and empowering young leaders to drive sustainable development. Through education, collaboration, and advocacy, the GenB Project aims to accelerate the transition towards a bio-based economy, harnessing the power of renewable resources to meet global challenges and foster prosperity.
On 25 April 2023 for the occasion of Earth Day, PEDAL accepted the invitation to visit the Leisure Centre at Gessayova in Bratislava (Slovakia) with an interactive presentation.
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