A Contribution to the Digital Transition in the European Water Education Sector

SMARTEN is an Erasmus+ project that supports current efforts towards digital transition and digital readiness, mainly in higher education and trainings. The two-year project focuses on water as a vital component of life and development, that benefits from informed management of resources and related information. Improvements are seen through promoting an educational digital environment of equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as strengthening the strategic and virtual cooperation between higher education institutions and business partners in the European water sector. 

Now more than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, people depended increasingly on virtual platforms for business and social interaction. Such new norms have pressured an acceleration of efforts in the EU towards digital transition and digital readiness. These transitions cover numerous sectors, including water education.  

SMARTEN is a collaboration of the following partners: Norges Milio-og Biovitenskaplige Universitet (Norway – coordinator), University of Nis (Serbia), University of Thessaly (Greece) and H2O-People / European Junior Water Programme (The Netherlands), and Water Europe as associated partner. 

This project proposes innovative practices based on serious games in education, while addressing the subject-specific of water in line with European environmental and climate goals. The serious games concept has proved its efficiency in the educational sector, mainly in the engineering domain.  

SMARTEN aims to impact the higher education on water: 

• Leading to a better use of digital technology, not only in teaching and learning of water subjects, but also in improving education through better data analysis and foresight 

• Developing skills and competencies necessary to support the digitalization of water education 
• Supporting a growing generation of water professionals who are leading the digital transformation of the water sector 

A range of workshops and interactive events are planned for online, in hybrid forums and in face-to-face events to implement the project objectives. These events will be announced on SMARTEN social media platforms and its website: www.smartenproject.eu 

Launch 

On 18 March 2021 the project is publicly launched during Water Knowledge Europe, Spring Edition. Sharing the goals and objectives with the European Water Sector specialized in research and innovation to connect the project not only with education, also with the industry.  

Stay tuned to many future activities by SMARTEN!