Valletta, Malta – June 5, 2025 — The SciCultureD project, backed by the European Commission through the Erasmus+ Programme, has officially wrapped up on a high note with the endorsement from Malta’s National Authority, the European Union Programmes Agency (EUPA). In its final evaluation, EUPA applauded the project’s bold approach to transdisciplinary innovation in higher education and its meaningful societal impact, emphasizing the its relevance for students, educators and professionals alike for its forward-thinking approach to the challenges of the post-COVID world.
The three-year project (2021–2024), coordinated by the University of Malta in partnership with Høgskulen på Vestlandet (Norway), ScienceView (Greece), and city2science (Germany), successfully fostered transdisciplinary and solution-oriented approaches to tertiary education by merging the sciences, arts, and entrepreneurship through student-centered and challenge-based learning.
Rooted in Design Thinking and the Creative Pedagogies, SciCultureD partners co-developed and organized three intensive courses in Greece, Germany and Malta, empowering over 70 participants across Europe with hands-on experience in transdisciplinary practices, artistic approaches and social entrepreneurship. These courses served as immersive labs for co-creation and innovative solution-thinking towards sustainable societies, enabling participants to tackle complex challenges weaving artistic creativity, entrepreneurial strategies, active citizenship, and sustainable development.
SciCultureD’s outcomes extended far beyond the courses. It reached over 9,000 users from 83 countries online and engaged more than 300 stakeholders through seven multiplier events, the final arts exhibition ‘CONNECT – Communities for Change’, and a high-impact final conference in Valletta, Malta in October 2024, opened by the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation of Malta. The project successfully established transdisciplinary networks among higher education institutions and professionals.
To ensure long-term impact, the consortium released a set of free,online toolkits for educators and course planners which enables them to embed the ScicultureD approaches in educational and professional setting:
- The CourseKit and CourseKit Lite (for 1-2 hours workshops) is a toolkit consists of 9 different suits of prompt cards and a board facilitating the design thinking approach. This toolkit brings people from different fields together to collaborate and create effective courses which focus on a locally-felt, real-world challenge.
- The EngageDkit, stemming from the CourseKit, is a card-based toolkit co-developed with the Horizon Europe project JUSTNature for inclusive science communication and public engagement activities, rooted in the CourseKit approach. EngageDkit is delivered through an immersive role-playing game which helps the participants take the perspective of their audiences, and then the organisers can create innovative events effective to that group.
These resources are available online at www.scicultured.eu, where interested educators can also contact project tutors for a printed version, guidance and collaboration.
Along with practical tools, SciCultureD’s legacy is contributing to academic practice.
To assess the current landscape of transdisciplinary education in HEIs, a comprehensive review of 32 selected studies was conducted by city2science in collaboration with HVL and the University of Malta, exploring definitions, boundaries crossed, motivations, methodologies, and challenges. ScicultureD transdisciplinary courses evaluations
Partners also made available the intensive courses evaluation: each training was studied to improve the next one and develop a best practice transdisciplinary courses. These reports analyse the impact the project had on the partners and on the participants. HVL in collaboration with all partners evaluated the three intensive transdisciplinary courses through a mixed methodology approach that aims to capture participants’ and staff experiences and improvements.
A major milestone is the launch of two postgraduate modules at the University of Exeter, Transdisciplinary Collaborations for Creative Futures, spearheaded by HVL project partner Prof. Kerry Chappell, embedding the project’s methods in formal curricula. On July 10th, Prof. Chappell and her colleagues will launch the Centre for Research in Transdisciplinary Education (CRETE), a vibrant new centre connecting research within and across disciplines, working with partners to enrich our thinking about education – places at this hybrid event can be booked at this link.
The consortium celebrated the publication of a peer-reviewed scientific article stemming from the previous project Sciculture (2019-2021):
“Conceptualising and exploring creative pedagogies and design thinking in transdisciplinary STEAM higher education courses” is now available and open access on Research Papers in Education journal. The article highlights the key creative pedagogy features (namely transdisciplinarity, embodied dialogue, empowerment and agency, and ethics and trusteeship) and design thinking approach working together in productive patterns, helping teachers and partners establish new learning strategies and offering insight into how transdisciplinary learning around complex problems can be facilitated in STEAM Higher Education. This theoretical framework and the practical insights were the starting point for SciCultureD, which continued investigating the roles of transdisciplinarity, creativity and STEAM approaches in Higher education as essential tools for societal transformation.
Note of authors: the ScicultureD partners wish to honor the memory of Kristine Pace, who valuably contributed to the realization of the ScicultureD intensive course through her unique knowledge, and much loved presence.
For more information, resources, and future collaborations, visit www.scicultured.eu or contact us at sciculture@um.edu.mt
