NEB Academy Pioneer Hub in Slovenia launched

The NEB Academy is a flagship initiative on skills for sustainable construction of the European Year of Skills. The first Pioneer Hub is being launched by the University of Primorska in Slovenia together with various institutions across Europe.

A main bottleneck for the transformation of the built environment is the massive need for skilled workers. More than three quarters of companies in the EU report difficulties in finding workers with the necessary skills. Therefore, the NEB Academy was announced in November 2022 by Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, as a main flagship of the New European Bauhaus. The NEB Academy will focus on research and innovation and to provide the necessary skills that we need for the green transition in the construction sector. The Academy will train construction professionals on sustainability, circularity and bio-based materials. It is foreseen to set up several NEB Academy Hubs around Europe that can bundle the necessary competence to provide easy access to up- and re-skilling content via common training and e-learning platforms.

More info: EU NEB Academy | President’s statement 24 Nov 2022 | European Year of Skills

Survey on knowledge gaps and needs | July 2023

To identify the needs for new knowledge and tailor these trainings perfectly to the target groups, we would like to ask you to fill in our first European survey on knowledge gaps and needs of the construction ecosystem. The anonymous survey is available in 17 languages of the European Union.

Complete the Survey

It takes about 10 minutes to complete all questions. You can choose to fill the survey in your favourite language or mother tongue!

The goal of this survey is to get a first overview how aware and familiar respondents in different countries are with new topics that are not yet part of Vocational Education and Training (VET) or Higher Education (HE). Based on three characteristics (age, education level, country), we will make a stratified analysis and identify the gaps/needs per respondent group. The ranking of importance per group will point out what kind of contents should be developed in the NEB Academy Hubs, for each specific knowledge levels and VET formats. Some of these topics may seem quite advanced and only known by academics, but it is important to obtain a lot of replies here. The results will also be validated together with education experts and be published.

Launch and first expert workshops | March 2023

The New European Bauhaus Academy Pioneer Hub for Sustainable Built Environments with Renewable Materials (NEBAP Hub) was launched by the University of Primorska in Slovenia. The main purpose of the NEBAP Hub is to accelerate the decarbonisation of homes and buildings by connecting various institutions which will jointly develop new trainings and upskilling courses of the ACE (Architecture, Construction, Engineering) professionals. It also targets citizens and cultural actors, policy makers, students and educators, investors, insurers, and standardisation bodies.

The NEBAP Hub will offer off- and online trainings for the construction ecosystem about the use of bio-based materials, digital technologies, and increased circularity in order to accelerate decarbonisation of homes and buildings in Europe and beyond. The Hub is steered by the Management Board and the Council Board consisting of international experts.

Furthermore, the University of Primorska is a member of the European Network of Higher Education Institutions (ENIHEI), which makes up a forum to exchange knowledge, ideas and experiences on how higher education can promote an innovation culture, and enable creativity, entrepreneurship and talent. The network has currently 38 members, which of 28 members are appointed by Member States, and 10 higher education institutions are nominated by the European Commission.

More info: NEBAP Hub at UoP | ENIHEI network

Picture credits: © University of Primorska 2023. Roundtable on 16 March 2023 of representatives of EU Innovative Universities with Mariya Gabriel, former European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth (now Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria), and first NEB Academy workshop on 22 March 2023 with EC NEB officials and invited experts.

About NEBAP

The survey has been developed by the NEBAP Hub of the University of Primorska (Slovenia) in collaboration with InnoRenew CoE (Slovenia), Czech Technical University in Prague (Czechia), Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia), InnovaWood (Belgium), Bauhaus Earth (Germany), University of Sopron (Hungary), University of Florence (Italy), Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry (Latvia), Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia), Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), Danish Technological Institute (Denmark), Xyhlo Biofinish (Neatherlands) and RISE (Sweden).

The NEBAP Hub project is co-funded by the NextGenerationEU programme. The project Green, Digital & Inclusive University of Primorska (GDI UP) is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation and the European Union – NextGenerationEU. It is implemented in accordance with the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) under the development area Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, component Strengthening competencies, in particular digital competencies and those required by the new professions and the green transition (C3 K5), for the investment measure Investment F. Implementation of pilot projects, the results of which will serve as a basis for the preparation of a roadmap for the reform of higher education for a green and resilient transition to a Society 5.0: project Pilot Projects for the Reform of Higher Education for a Green and Resilient Transition.

The development of the NEB Academy is also supported by the digiNEB project 2022-2024 coordinated by TU Delft, which has has received funding from the EU’s Digital Europe Programme under Grant Agreement no. 101083743.