The 66th SWST International Convention was held June 25-30 in Asheville, North Carolina, USA. The overall theme was “Wood Sciences in the Carbon Economy – Return to the Birthplace of U.S. Forestry“.

Dr. Rok Prislan, member of the NEBAP Hub Management Board, Assistant Professor in Physics at University of Primorska and Research Group Leader for Buildings research group at the InnoRenew CoE, actively participated at the conference.

In the education issues/recruiting conference session he presented the topic of co-designing a professional bachelor’s degree program in the framework of the Green, Digital & Inclusive University of Primorska (GDI UP) project, and the challenges and opportunities working with industry stakeholders.

Additionally, he presented the New European Bauhaus Academy Pioneer Hub for Sustainable Built Environments with Renewable Materials (NEBAP HUB). NEB Academy is the flagship initiative of the European Year of Skills, and the 1st Pionner Hub was established at the University of Primorska, in collaboration with the InnoRenew CoE. Its ambition is to accelerate the transfer and adoption of climate change mitigation knowledge and capabilities to businesses, policy makers, and the public by creating a hub where critical expertise on decarbonising the building stock using renewable materials is gathered, enhanced, and efficiently transferred to society, including policy makers, industry, and other stakeholders.

Among the first activities of the NEBAP HUB was to develop a survey on knowledge gaps and needs of the construction ecosystem through out Europe in 17 languages. The survey is published online and you are kindly invited to fill it out!

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. The project 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.