From May 27th to 31st, 2024, lecturers and students from CIVIS partner universities visited Paris Lodron University Salzburg as part of a Blended Intensive Program (BIP). These interuniversity courses are characterized by a hybrid model that combines monthly online lectures with a final blocked presence phase.

The BIP on “Regional climate change impact – cumulative effects and mitigation scenarios” aimed to gain and promote insights and experiences in the field of climate change research, utilizing a interdisciplinary approach and geoinformation technologies. Special emphasis was put on the climatical characteristics and conditions in Uganda. This was achieved by a collaboration with Makerere University in Kampala.

This collaboration follows the PLUS’s efforts to strengthen cooperation with African partners in order to jointly address today’s societal, economic and ecological challenges. This also includes increased exchange opportunities for African students, which, among others, are implemented with this program.

During the monthly online lectures, important theoretical foundations were taught and case studies were discussed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of climate change impacts in different regional scenarios and their impact as well as possible adaptation and mitigation approaches.

The presence phase in Salzburg was the highlight of the BIP. During this intensive five-day event, participants had the opportunity to actively engage with various facets of climate change impacts through workshops, practical exercises and discussions. The students discussed topics such as ethical and social challenges in the context of climate change, climate-induced migration and learned about different methodological approaches in GIS, network analysis, open labs, data management and dashboards.

The program was complemented by expert talks and guest lecturer Rose Kobusinge. Hailing from Uganda, Rose Kobusinge is a dedicated environmental scientist, Migration, Environment, and Climate Change (MECC) Ambassador and Youth4Climate (Y4C) representative. She shared her expertise on climate induced migration and climate change policy making by running climate mitigation and migration simulations with the participants.

Project Context

“CIVIS – Europe’s Civic University Alliance” is a university alliance consisting of 11 universities including Paris Lodron University Salzburg, and 6 dedicated African partners. It implements the “European Universities initiative” of the European Union, which aims to create a more unified European higher education area.

The CIVIS partnership enables participating universities to promote the exchange of knowledge and expertise and advance joint research projects through interuniversity courses such as the BIP. This contributes to strengthening European collaboration in the field of higher education and the development of a sustainable and inclusive future.