Project leader: Dr Steve Cayzer, Department of Mechanical Engineering

This project, which was awarded funding by the Teaching Development Fund (TDF), will evaluate the value of Vertically Integrated Projects (VIPs) in terms of their impact on climate change, awareness of sustainability and climate change issues at global and local levels, and the development of related employability skills.

VIPs are innovative research and applied learning projects that enable inter-disciplinary, multi-level teams of students to work with a member of academic staff on long-term real-world projects. They provide an innovative pedagogical platform that can motivate and educate students to engage proactively with climate change and the wider sustainability agenda during their student journey and as graduates as they engage with work and local communities.

The project's approach will be to map all current VIPs against the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals with the intention of making more explicit the impact of each VIP on the global vision for a sustainable future. The project will measure the value and impact of VIPs in terms of knowledge and motivation to meet the challenges posed by sustainability and climate change issues. Finally, we will evaluate the extent to which VIPs respond to skills gaps related to sustainability and climate change.

The project findings will be disseminated locally and nationally, and will be used to create web-based resources to support the promotion of VIPs to all students and staff, in direct support of the University’s Climate Agreement Framework (CAF) principles and Education Strategy.

A full evaluative report of this project is available to view