A european competence framework for a low carbon economy and sustainability through education

Through a transdisciplinary and participatory process applying the principles of ‘citizen science’, ECF4CLIM will develop, test and
validate a European Competence Framework (ECF) that will empower the educational community towards climate action and
sustainable development.
ECF4CLIM will engage the broader educational community in selected schools and universities in four European countries in the codesign,
implementation, and evaluation of the ECF. At each demonstration site, the design and validation of the ECF comprises: 1)
elaboration of an initial ECF, supported by crowdsourcing of views and ideas, and analysis of existing ECFs in other policy areas; 2)
establishment of a baseline of individual and collective competences as well as the environmental performance; 3) implementation
of a variety of co-designed, practical, replicable and contextually adapted interventions to foster the acquisition of competences in
climate change and sustainability; 4) participatory evaluation of the success of the interventions in strengthening climate and
sustainability-related competences as well as environmental performance; 5) validation of the ECF.
This process is underpinned by a hybrid participatory approach combining elements from participatory action research, practitioner
research, citizen science, citizen engagement, deliberative will formation, crowdsourcing, and theory-based stakeholder evaluation.
ECF4CLIM will pay particular attention to the individual, organisational and institutional factors and will promote a dialogue
between the technical STEM-related competences and those relating to social interaction, learning skills, and institutional framework
conditions. To encourage learning-by-doing and citizen science, a digital platform will be created.
The applicability and exploitation of the innovations generated during the project is ensured by the inclusion of several small and
medium-sized companies in the consortium.