About TOGETHER
Scope
Sustainability challenges demand more than traditional education can offer. Lectures, assignments, and internships are resource-intensive and often limit training in sustainability skills to small, elite groups. TOGETHER changes this.
The TOGETHER project creates a hybrid serious game that scales sustainability education. It requires minimal preparation from lecturers, freeing them to focus on teaching and mentoring. The game immerses students in a simulated city, where they take on roles like policymakers, urban planners, and business leaders.
Here, students apply their disciplinary expertise, but success depends on understanding and collaborating with others who have different goals and perspectives. Together, they navigate complexity, uncertainty, and competing interests, building the skills needed to drive real-world sustainable change.
Building on GreenComp
TOGETHER builds on GreenComp, the European sustainability competence framework, to develop an educational tool to improve sustainability competencies in students in higher education.
GreenComp is a reference framework that does not provide guidelines to help educators translate the framework into educational practices. The objective of TOGETHER is to address this shortcoming.
Our Objectives
TOGETHER pursues three interconnected objectives to bring the GreenComp framework to life in higher education.
Adapt
Adapt GreenComp to higher education by developing the TOGETHER game — translating sustainability competencies into interactive, discipline-specific challenges.
Implement
Implement GreenComp in higher education by integrating the game into university curricula across multiple disciplines and partner institutions.
Evaluate
Evaluate the effectiveness of using the TOGETHER game to teach sustainability competencies through rigorous study design and data collection.
Work Packages
TOGETHER is organized into five work packages, each addressing a critical component of the project.
Project Management
Lead: Groningen University (RUG)Overall coordination and management of the TOGETHER project, ensuring milestones are met and partners collaborate effectively.
Design Thinking & Co-creation of the Game
Lead: Uppsala University (UU)Collaborative design and co-creation of the TOGETHER game using design thinking methodology, involving students, educators, and stakeholders.
Data Management, Study Design & PoC Evaluation
Lead: Ghent University (UGent)Design of study protocols, analytics tools, and user testing to assess the effectiveness of the TOGETHER hybrid simulation game.
Software Development / Proof of Concept
Lead: Groningen University (RUG)Development of the game infrastructure, user interface, and proof-of-concept software based on co-creation outcomes and evaluation data.
Dissemination, Integration & Scale-up
Lead: Illia State UniversityIntegration of the game into university curricula, organization of summer/winter schools, community of practice development, and scaling the game across institutions.
Partner Universities
Five European universities work together to develop, test, and scale the TOGETHER game.
University of Groningen
The NetherlandsHome to the Faculty of Economics and Business and the Faculty of Law, with extensive experience in serious gaming for higher education. Hosts the EOR and E&BE simulation games.
Ghent University
BelgiumBrings expertise in software engineering, serious games, gamification, and digital healthcare interventions. Leads WP3 on data management and evaluation.
Uppsala University
SwedenLeads WP2 on design thinking and co-creation. Campus Gotland serves as a key venue for intensive co-creation sessions.
Illia State University
GeorgiaContributes a unique perspective from the South Caucasus region. Hosts the final Erasmus+ launch event in Tbilisi (Q4 2028).
University of Bern
SwitzerlandThe Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) contributes expertise in sustainability transformations, Education for Sustainable Development, and competence-oriented learning design.
EU Co-funding
TOGETHER is co-funded by the European Union through two complementary funding streams, enabling the development, testing, and scaling of the TOGETHER game across European universities.
Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership
- Develops a serious game focusing on GreenComp competencies
- Focuses on educational outcomes and trains educators to use the game in their local context
- Evaluates the educational effectiveness of using the TOGETHER game to teach sustainability competencies
ENLIGHT Thematic Network
- Co-designs new game modules with local stakeholders to incorporate real-life challenges
- Focuses on local stakeholder engagement to bridge the gap between higher education and local communities
- Studies the impact of realistic scenarios on student learning
