View source for Strategic Partnership LED2LEAP

'''LED2LEAP''' stands for: '''L'''andscape '''E'''ducation for '''D'''emocracy towards '''L'''eadership, '''E'''mpowerment, '''A'''gency and '''P'''artnership.

The LED2LEAP project aims to bring a new way of thinking and acting into relevant university
curricula in order to prepare the future generation of landscape architects, planners, architects and
designers for their role as democratic leaders for sustainability. There is an urgent need for
transformative competence at all levels of society since the challenges for our communities are
growing across Europe. Powerful driving forces such as the globalization of work, climate change,
digitalization, demographic ageing, migration, individualization, biodiversity loss and unequal
resource distribution are not resolvable within the framework of election periods and sector-specific
policies.

The proposal aims to develop the discussion within academia and the landscape and planning
professions around the need for landscape democracy-building policies and processes related to
landscape change. Linking expert and local knowledge is not only helpful to inform better decisions
but also ensure policies which are both grounded in state of the art knowledge and communities’
perceptions. The partnership between academia and civil society is also embedded in the
Participatory Action Research (PAR) nature of the project, and its predecessor LED seminar. This
framework allows knowledge to be co-created rather than simply transferred to communities top
down.
Disciplines involved in the projects are mainly landscape architecture, urban and regional planning,
and architecture, social and urban studies. The consortium consists of the following university and
NGOs partners: LE:NOTRE Institute (Netherlands, the project coordinator), Hochschule für
Wirtschaft und Umwelt Nürtingen-Geislingen (Germany), University of Bologna (Italy), Szent István
University Budapest (Hungary), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sweden) and the NGO
Partners KultúrAktív (Hungary) and EtaBeta Cooperative (Italy).
The teams will exchange their work in a cross-cultural perspective during the LED online course,
LED2LEAP living Labs and Intensive Study Programs (ISPs). The goal is to prepare future
professionals to operate in cross-cultural and transdisciplinary contexts. Engaging with local partners
will allow them to gain a deeper understanding of the complex challenges to address. The project
goals will be achieved by the following activities: (1) Development, testing and documentation of the
LED2LEAP methodology in partnership with local communities; (2) elaboration of a European
professional development certificate for democratic landscape professionals (3) a series of blended
learning activities combining student engagement in local ‘LED2LEAP Living Labs’, international
reflection in the LED online course and international mobility of staff and students to one of the
university’s ‘LED2LEAP Living Labs’ in the framework of three ISPs.
Since this project follows the methodical paradigm of a pedagogical and PAR cycle, the learning
Call 2019 Round 1 KA2 - Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices
KA203 - Strategic Partnerships for higher education
FormId KA203-CAF4DDE9 Deadline (Brussels Time) 26 Mar 2019 12:00:00
EN 4 / 176
activities will be implemented during the process, and thus, evaluation and revision of the activities
are closely interrelated. The output 1 ‘Reflection in Action: Community Learning Model’ will focus on
identifying relevant methods for working with the communities, implementing local LED2LEAP Living
Lab, joining online course and three ISPs, and evaluating and revising.
Output 1 will be exploited and disseminated in order to involve the wider context of participatory
planning and community activation. The international meetings on the project outputs and core
activities will be organized around the consortium partners. The project is expected to have impacts
on the teaching staff involved (e.g. developing transformative competences). Students and other
learners participating in the blended learning courses and the LED2LEAP Living Labs are expected
to improve several competences (e.g. thinking, norms and strategies). Impacts will also occur on the
institutions and municipalities in which the ‘LED2LEAP Living Labs’ are going to be initiated and
activities held. Additional impacts might occur in the municipalities/areas ISPs will be held. All partner
institutions are asked to disseminate the project activities and results on a national level.
The project is also expected to have European and international impacts (e.g. the new recognition
process for professional development at EU level). In general, the project will support the raise of
community-centred and participatory planning and design across disciplines (from local to European
and International level), with all benefits related to it, in particular in the view of social coherence.