Project summary and overall objectives

The Climate University for Virtual Exchanges (CLUVEX; 1 Jul 2023 – 30 Jun 2026; www.atm.helsinki.fi/cluvex) is project carried out by the University of Helsinki (UH, Finland), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Mechnikov Odessa National University and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), Yerevan State University (Armenia), and art & science non-for-profit association BioArt (Finland). CLUVEX focus is in thematic areas of “climate action, environment and nature protection”, “environment and climate change” and “green skills”. Main aim is to bridge students from these Universities and to engage them with climate competences e.g., ideas of adaptation and mitigation to climate change and the green agenda together with interdisciplinary/ green/ soft skills. Main activity is the interactive Virtual Exchange (VE) including traditional education materials in a way that students, professors and teaching assistants will work together in small groups discussing topics of climate change.

CLUVEX builds on atmospheric sciences research, and existing virtual online platform called the “Climate University” (CU) developed/hosted by UH. CU has been already piloted since 2018 in 25 HEIs in Finland. VE activities, involving 2500 students, are integrated into interactive CU higher education e-courses. As a novelty, the BioArt Society introduces artistic perspectives on how contemporary art aims to contribute to the public climate change discussion as VE lectures and creative exercises. All Partners bring their technical tools and pedagogical expertise for designing new VE interaction between students, use their networks to attract other participants. Major outcome is nurturing the generation of young Climate Messengers competent in building climate awareness and sustainability strategies in their home organisations and future work life. CLUVEX has a high momentum in the post COVID19 situation. Thus, the VE cooperation complements the ongoing physical mobilities in the field of climate change research and the ensemble of political decisions and issues, where Neighbourhood East has an especially important role in a global scale and new Climate Messengers could be a much-needed expertise in labour markets.

Work performed and main achievements

During the CLUVEX project lifetime, the Partners worked towards VE concept, educational guidebooks and materials, practical training of moderators, and preparing and implementing 5 VE Weeks (VEWs; Oct 2024, May 2025, Oct 2025, Feb 2026, Apr 2026) for students. This work included overall design of the tailored VE concept meeting the curricula standards at UH – Open University for 1 and 3-5 ECTS credits for students and moderators, respectively. CLUVEX designed a procedure for issuing the Climate Messenger certificates. CLUVEX prepared the Virtual Exchange Guidebook (VEG), Climate Literacy Guidebook (CLG), Climate Messenger Code of Conduct (CMC), and designed the “Climate Horizon” Individual and Collaborative exercises built on the utopia pedagogy (Prof. Antti Rajala, UH) and based on interactive discussions in small groups of students led by moderators. Students discuss and collect their ideas and visions on the past-present-future. Workshop (May 2024) was organized for detailed planning of the VEW program, how to host and how to moderate online discussions, how to introduce/ demonstrate web-based tools for climate data analysis, etc. CLUVEX Partners designed and prepared program for moderators’ training and materials (slides and videos of lectures, tools, guidebooks, Climate Horizon exercise with examples, others).

CLUVEX Partners made design of VEW concept in details, training program for moderators, and technical preparations, which included checking for Zoom (communication), opening DigiCampus (educational), establishing Miro e-boards (collaborative) platforms. The digital e-campus platform DigiCampus for Moderators and for Students is the place with all prepared materials, internal communication, reporting for ECTS. The Calls for Moderators and for Students were opened in advance before each VEW, required registration in DigiCampus, and followed by online trainings for moderators, and then by VEWs for students.

CLUVEX piloted the 1st VEW (Oct 2024) and then, in a same way implemented the other 4 VEWs (May 2025 – Apr 2026). In total, 2053 students and moderators 238 pre-registered via e-form. Students from countries of the CLUVEX consortium and other countries worldwide attended VEWs. The 5-day online work (3 h per day) allowed participants to listen lectures on climate related topics; learn and practice with tools for visualisation, analysis and interpretation of climate related data; work as a group/team on individual and collaborative Climate Horizon exercises; etc. At the end, students shared their Collaborative exercises at joint session; and pre- and post-questionnaires with feedback forms (about VEW, VE concept, moderators’ trainings, pedagogical approach – for articles) from students and moderators were collected. Students and moderators interested to get ECTS prepared summary reports and submitted in the DigiCampus for evaluation. Overall summaries of 5 VEWs are publicly available (see section “1.11. References” of D4.3).

Results and impacts

• Designed the tailored VE concept, meeting the curricula standards at the UH – Open University for 1 (students) and 3-5 (moderators) ECTS credit points: CLUVEX VE 1 credit point officialised. • Elaborated educational materials for students and moderators – VEG, CLG, CMC guidebooks (D2.1, D2.2, D2.3, D2.5); 8 lectures on climate related topics, 3 tools for analysis of climate data – all available in DigiCampus, Google Drive, and website. • Designed and prepared the individual and collaborative Climate Horizon group exercise. • Designed, prepared, implemented, and piloted training program for moderators (D2.4) with educational materials (D3.1, D3.2): 5 online trainings in May-Sep 2024: TR1 CLUVEX concept, technical skills; TR2 Climate University MOOCs; TR3 Soft skills; TR4 CLUVEX guidebooks, materials; TR5 Climate Horizon group exercise, tools for climate data analysis. After the 1st VEW, the tradition of “Moderators-Get-Together” online trainings was implemented before each new VEW. • Educated cohort of CLUVEX Moderators: 238. • Established and maintained a digital e-campus platform DigiCampus for Moderators and for Students with all educational materials, communication chat, instructions to submit study report for ECTS. • Implemented 5 VEWs (Oct 2024, May 2025, Oct 2025, Feb 2026, Apr 2026) for students (D4.1, D4.2, D4.3) (numbers in DigiCampus for students and moderators): registered participants in the Students’ and Moderators’ DigiCampus areas: 195 and 1846. • Collected data using pre- and post-questionaries feedback forms (VEW, VE concept, pedagogical approach – for articles): analysis based on 1727 responses. • Distributed the Call text for moderators and for students for all 5 VEWs in CLUVEX Partners, collaborating universities, networks, introduced the CLUVEX concept in several events, established website, Facebook, LinkedIN, Telegram. • Implementation process required active communication between CLUVEX Partners through 26 monthly online meetings, online (Aug 2023) and hybrid (Oct 2023, Finland) kick-off, hybrid mid-term (May 2025, Finland) and online final (Jun 2026) meetings (D1.2, D1.3). • Dissemination and sustainability strategies were developed and successfully implemented (D5.1, D5.2).

Text by: Hanna K. Lappalainen, Alexander Mahura, INAR-UHEL