Our Virtual Campus



"Democratizing Innovation for Sustainable Development"

A GLOBAL ISSUE WITH A SOLUTION

We believe that investing in education on entrepreneurship is the best way to improve the well-being and prosperity of our communities. Entrepreneurship is key to the Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG 8) on inclusive growth and decent work. That Goal lies at the heart of the action-oriented Agenda 2030 of the United Nations, but entrepreneurs have rarely been offered the training opportunities they would find relevant. The Democratizing Innovation for Sustainable Development (or DISD) action program will unleash innovation by opening access to critical training in social entrepreneurship. We plan in 2025-2030 to engage 15,000 students in a proven and rigorous 15-week course in social entrepreneurship. They will incubate 400 businesses and launch 200 businesses across the globe. DISD graduates will reshape the global innovation ecosystem, generate inclusive prosperity, and design policies that invest in scalable innovations and address pressing sustainability challenges. They will continue their entrepreneurial work through continued access to the on-line innovation ecosystem. An incubator/accelerator process will support their most promising ideas.

OUR ACTION PROGRAM

To succeed in their mission, DISD graduates require the resources of a global partnership and the recognition of their roles as agents of change. We have based our action program on a well-tested pilot out of the MBA in Sustainability at Bard College, which has been developed with colleagues at global universities. Our academic programs in Switzerland and in America have already designed the methods and tools that entrepreneurs need to access knowledge, skills, and resources on how to build social enterprises. Our students will learn how to combine:

  • The reach of synchronous on-line education via a powerful social technology platform.
  • The high-touch, small-class, and in-person instruction needed to master the innovation skillset.
  • A train-the-trainer model that expand social entrepreneurship educational capacity at colleges, universities, and NGOs.

OUR TEAM AND PARTNERS

Our Virtual Campus is lead by a core team of academics from CCRS (School of Management Fribourg) and GPS (Graduate Programs in Sustainability) at Bard College:

Our twelve partners include Al Quds University, the American University of Bulgaria, the American University of Central Asia, Bard College, BRAC University in Bangladesh, the Ecosystem Restoration Communities, the European Humanities University, the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, the Open University of the Philippines, the University de los Andes, the University of Professional Studies in Ghana, and the School of Management Fribourg (University of Applied Sciences of Switzerland). The participation of HNUST, a major university in Hunan (China), in the DISD project is under discussion.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Please write to Prof. Philippe C. Forêt: philippe.foret[at]greenbridge[dot]org.