12.04.2023 INCOPS Meeting & Workshop in Coimbra, Portugal

Learning, Teaching and Training Activity & Transnational Project Meeting in Coimbra, 27.03.-29.03.2023

For the first meeting in person this year the project members traveled to Coimbra in Portugal. This meeting was organized by the partner of the University of Coimbra and designed as a three-day event. The program was a mix of workshops on site and sessions in a hybrid format as not all participants were able to take part in person. In total, several project-external educators, researchers and administrative staff of the partner university in Coimbra and students from all other partner universities were able to join the workshop.

The following people participated and contributed at the workshop: Ana Pantea (Cluj), Carla Cavalheiro (Coimbra), Carolina Lopes (Coimbra), Chris van der Borgh (Utrecht, online), Daiane Andrade (Coimbra), Daniela Nascimento (Coimbra), David Curran (Coventry), Frank Grundig (Kent), Gunda Menrad (Marburg, online), Inês Matos (Coimbra), Joana Carvalho (Coimbra), Laura Burmeister (Marburg, online), Lena Runge (Marburg), Luuk Slooter (Utrecht, online), Maria Raquel Freire (Coimbra), Mariana Neves (Coimbra), Marta Fonseca (Coimbra), Miho Taka (Coventry), Paula Duarte Lopes (Coimbra), Sergiu Mişoiu (Cluj, online), Stéphane Voell (Marburg), Tabea Hanke (Marburg, online), Tânia da Silva (Coimbra), Thorsten Bonacker (Marburg).

After starting the stay in Coimbra with an interesting tour in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the University of Coimbra – Alta and Sofia, the meeting was a great success.

This time, we focused on service learning and the integration of voluntary work into academic teaching in the field of peace, conflict and security studies. In brief, service learning aims at firmly anchoring the social commitment and voluntary work of students in everyday university life and combining it with teaching and contents of the study programs.

For this, there were numerous opportunities during the meeting to exchange perspectives of educators and staff as well as share the experiences made at each university. In particular, the results of the pilot program in Marburg initiated in the fourth project phase (Intellectual Output 4) in February 2023 served as a first basis of our discussions on challenges and current practices. Likewise, the input by the project of UC Transforma and UC Social at the University of Coimbra gave a lot of food for thought. This project supports students in social projects and creative efforts of social entrepreneurship. Based on this impulse, the INCOPS team discussed options of implementing WBL activities apart from internships at the partner universities, with a particular focus on volunteering and service learning. For instance, the partners from Marburg shared insights in how students can integrate a project called “Trial Monitoring” in their studies in which students volunteer for the International Research and Documentation Centre for War Crimes Trials.    

Moreover, during the meeting the INCOPS partners discussed with student volunteers their experiences, needs and recommendations with regard to harmonizing both the practical experience of voluntary work or other forms of Work-Based Learning (WBL) and the academic studies in the field of peace, conflict and security. These insights were extremely valuable for the development of our IO4 guidelines to integrate voluntary work and other WBL activities within academic teaching also including the identification of most relevant staff competencies for this.

Furthermore, the workshop continued in the coffee breaks with delicious Pastéis de Nata and evening programs as we profited from the opportunity to discover the integrated university city and its specific urban typology as well as its own cultural traditions that have been kept alive through the ages.

In general, at the organisational and coordination level as the project is ending in August this year, the partners discussed the finalizing procedures for the outstanding outputs and possibilities of future cooperation. In addition, the partners from Cluj and Coimbra as lead partners for the sixth and last project phase gave a first outlook on the respective intellectual output – a policy brief -, its current planning status and clarified still open questions. Further, the plans for the closing conference coming up in July 2023 were likewise outlined and discussed.