Entrepreneurship and Global Sustainability

label Diverse autorenew 2025-09-29, 17:01 history_edu Silviu Marinescu
The world faces numerous challenges around sustainability, and the expectation is that business and entrepreneurs will play a key role in addressing these challenges. At the same time, however, business is seen as inhibiting action on sustainable development. During this exclusive, multidisciplinary summer school, you will explore the opportunity and complexity of engaging business in global challenges such as those related to food, energy and water.During the summer school, you will discuss with business leaders whether the global companies are leading the world towards more sustainability, and with politicians and other decision makers how this can be changed for the better. At the same time, you will be provided with a sound academic background on the grand sustainability challenges by leading academics in the field.The programme will kick off on Sunday night with an inspiring keynote by Roelof de Wijkerslooth, former president of Radboud University and formerly part of the Unilever management. On Monday, Prof. Michael Grubb of Cambridge University will introduce his ideas on "planetary economics" to you, on how the global sustainability challenge can be addressed in an economically sound way. Tuesday through Saturday will be thematically organised, discussing energy, water, the financial sector, food and trade. Confirmed speakers include Anniek Mauser (Unilever), Yvo de Boer (KPMG, former Secretary-General of the UNFCCC), Aalt Dijkhuizen (President, Wageningen University and Research), Ambuj Sagar (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi) and Lilianne Ploumen (Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, the Netherlands).At the end of the week, you will be challenged to put your own ideas on business solutions for global sustainability into a pitch. The best pitch for a sustainable company will be competitively selected through peer review and feedback loops. The programme will end around noon on Saturday.The summer school will have a daily routine of morning lectures from 9-13h, provided by a well-known academic in the field. After a long lunch break, during which students can study, read, exercise or explore the surroundings, the evening programme starts at 16:30h and engages leading people from business or politics who will discuss with you the day's topic in relation to the practice of entrepreneurs and business. The Summer school will include an excursion on the Waal river, where you can see water management and stakeholder engagement around large infrastructural projects for climate change adaptation in operation.This summer school course will be situated in a historical, former monastery in the southern-Dutch countryside, about 20 km from the city of Nijmegen, where Radboud University is located. The price includes meals, coffee/tea and accommodation in the monastery, as well as all costs related to an excursion in relation to the Water day.

Period
17-08-2014 - 23-08-2014 (1 weeks)

Target group
Graduate (Master and PhD) students, young postdocs, junior professionals

Course aim
After this course you are able to:1. Critically discuss and reflect on the role of business and entrepreneurship in sustainability debates2. Reproduce general knowledge on global sustainability issues, in particular on the five themes in the course3. Discuss societally relevant topics with an international, multidisciplinary group of students and professionals



Credits
0.0 ECTS credits

Course fee
EUR 100[Convert to USD]DiscountsPartner universities: 800 (inclusive of accommodation and food) Radboud University: 500 (inclusive of food)10% discount for early bird applicants. The early bird deadline is 1 April 2014.

Course leader
Dr. H.C. (Heleen) de Coninck, Associate professor Innovation Studies, Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, Radboud University

Radboud University
Address: P.O Box 9102 Nijmegen
Postal code: 6500 HC
City: Nijmegen
Country: Netherlands
Website: http://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/
E-mail: radboudsummerschool@ru.nl
Phone: +31 (0)24 8187706