For two weeks, students of three educational and research institutes of the Ukrainian National Forestry University together with students of the University of Sustainable Development in Eberswalde and students (teachers on an Erasmus + internship) from Transport University in Kyiv studied the course “Green Project development and management”.

Teaching the course became possible thanks to cooperation within the framework of the Ukrainian-German Teaching Network for a Digital Transformation of Environmental Education (Consolidation and Expansion Phase 2024) project supported by the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD (scientific adviser of the University of Eberswalde - Professor Pierre Ibisch, from UNFU - Professor Vasyl Lavnyi).

Ihor Solovii, Professor of the Department of Environmental Economics and Business at the Institute of Environmental Economics and Management, and Professor Orest Kyiko, Head of the Department of Furniture and Wood Products Technology at the Institute of Woodworking Technologies and Design, who developed this course, became lecturers for Ukrainian and German students of this intensive block week for the third year in a row. In addition, project management experts from German universities were involved in introducing topics on European project funding costs.

Moreover, students completed practical assignments, going through all stages of the project from the inception of the idea to its implementation, and during thematic seminars, they discussed promising project ideas. The final stage was the development of project applications for the Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, and German Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture funding programs.

The students also visited the Konrad Wolf Babelberg University of Film Arts in Potsdam, where they had a number of meetings and got acquainted with many scientific and educational projects. In their free time, they took excursions to the University's Forest Botanical Garden and got acquainted with the cultural and historical sights of Berlin. Despite the intensive schedule of the educational process, the teachers had a number of working meetings to discuss the development of the joint course and worked in a professional studio on video materials for it. At the end of the productive trip, international certificates were awarded to both students and teachers of the course.

Feedback from students:

“First of all, it is a useful experience of communicating in a foreign language and working in international groups, a new environment for knowledge and thoughts.”

“We are returning to studying in Ukraine with renewed vigor, striving together for international cooperation and improvement to build a worthy European state.”