The French organization Bouygues Bâtiment Sud-Est initiated the creation of an association unique in Europe, whose objective is to support the project to create the first European Campus for wood, forestry and architecture professions in the heart of the French Alps.

The New European Bauhaus Academy Pioneer Hub for Sustainable Built Environments with Renewable Materials (NEBAP Hub) and research institute InnoRenew CoE are among 26 international organizations from France, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria and United Kingdom, in this common effort to support the transition of the forestry and wood-building sectors by developing the skills that will accompany the strategic thinking of companies and managers in the future.

Dr. Andreja Kutnar, NEBAP Hub Head and director of InnoRenew is also the Campus’s Vice President for Scientific Relations: “I am convinced that collaboration of industry, academia, and society will lead our sector to become innovation driver in the region and beyond.”

The Campus is expected to start operating in 2026 as a private higher education institution to address the needs of the market and in coherence with public policies on a European scale. Specifically, it will work to reduce the potential imbalance between the number of trained engineers/senior technicians and recruitment needs, and the difficulty for professionals to recruit multi-skilled profiles at an engineer/senior technician level. Further it will strive to encourage more young people and females to join the sector and will highlight the need of Europeanisation of higher education and research sphere, for economic integration and social inclusion in Europe.

A multidisciplinary and international team of teacher and researchers will be mobilised to carry out the teaching and research work. This centre of expertise and innovation will be organised around five courses and four career paths. Entrepreneurship will be at the heart of the teaching and research modules, through the presence of managers, craftsmen and industrialists in the governance of the establishment, as well as through the continuous presence of professionals on site.

 Through its action this Campus aims to accompany the necessary increase in skills in the forestry sector, diversify and boost the industrial and territorial economy, create an enriching collaboration with the countries of the Alpine arc in order to participate in the development of the Alpine-Mediterranean forestry-wood sector.

Recently Dr. Andreja Kutnar participated in the Haute Ecole du Bois et de la Forêt Summer School and discussed the new NEBAP Hub co-founded with the University of Primorska at the  roundtable discussion “The forest as a resource”.

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.