Elcra Project
ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY IN
HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT FOR
PREVENTING
VIOLENT RADICALIZATION IN CLIMATE ACTIVISM
The project
Project Background
In recent years, movements have spread that represent, for many young people, especially university students, a form of activism and peaceful protest related to environmental sustainability issues and the fight against climate change.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
The project aims to increase students’ environmental literacy, particularly university students, by involving them in their communities and transforming them into actors of change.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
To understand the phenomenon of violent radicalisation linked to environmental and climate challenges through qualitative and quantitative research on emblematic cases, attitudes and opinions of university students on environmental sustainability
The results
The project will promote the environmental literacy of university students, developing their knowledge and skills and creating a link between them and the community they are part of and increase their interest in and knowledge about climate change issues.
The project will provide participants with an understanding of the complexity of environmental and social systems and strong problem-solving skills, through which they will be able to intervene in systems with innovative and effective solutions that contribute to combating climate change and environmental sustainability problems while preventing violent radicalisation.
The project will promote the professional development of the participants through the creation of a community of practice on the theme of preventing violent radicalisation in environmental activism; the project will unite the contributions of different actors (academics, students, third sector realities), enhancing the impact of actions to prevent violent radicalisation in environmental activism and combating climate change.
Social
ELCRA
Behind five COIL courses in five different countries lies a piece of coordination that usually goes unseen. In this second interview, Professor David Varona Aramburu of the Complutense University of Madrid explains how ELCRA's COILs were organised. 🎥
A COIL, Collaborative Online International Learning, is the format ELCRA uses to have students from different European universities collaborate online. The training design was led by the project's Spanish research team at the Complutense University of Madrid: structure, duration, student numbers, timelines and content. 📋
It began with a shared opening session, with students and staff from every university involved, to define the aims and structure of the work. From there, the groups collaborated remotely. 🌍
The biggest hurdle? Language: it slowed the early sessions, then was gradually overcome. For most students the experience proved very positive, above all the chance to work with peers from other countries. 🤝
The most telling result is about people: it brought to the fore students with deep commitment, solid knowledge and real communication skills. These are the opinion leaders carrying the ELCRA message further. 🌱
ELCRA is an Erasmus+ project coordinated by the University of Siena to promote environmental literacy in universities and prevent radicalisation in climate activism.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
#ELCRA #ErasmusPlus #COIL #EnvironmentalLiteracy🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
@Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
@Uniwersytet Jagielloński
@Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
@Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT
ELCRA
What is a COIL in the ELCRA project?
How do you bring together students from five European universities, have them collaborate remotely and turn them into environmental communicators? 🌍
In ELCRA, the answer is the COIL: Collaborative Online International Learning. In this interview, Professor David Varona Aramburu of the Complutense University of Madrid explains what COILs are and how they took shape in the project.
The mechanism: students from different universities meet online, follow a shared block of training, then organise themselves to develop a joint piece of work and present their findings. 💻
Five were run, one per partner country: Spain 🇪🇸, Portugal 🇵🇹, Lithuania 🇱🇹, Poland 🇵🇱 and Italy 🇮🇹.
Each brought together students of different nationalities, working on a key aspect of the project and turning it into an interactive visual narrative. 🎓
The COILs carried forward ELCRA's MOOC on environmental literacy and surfaced the most committed students, who went on to lead workshops on environmental communication as peer trainers.
ELCRA is an Erasmus+ project coordinated by the University of Siena to promote environmental literacy in universities and prevent radicalisation in climate activism.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
#ELCRA #ErasmusPlus #COIL #EnvironmentalLiteracy #ClimateActivism
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
@Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
@Uniwersytet Jagielloński
@Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
@Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT
ELCRA
ELCRA is an Erasmus+ project built on a specific concern: that climate activism, under certain conditions, can shift towards radicalisation. Understanding those conditions — and how education can counter them — is the core of the project. Its COIL programme puts that understanding into practice through five modules, each led by a partner university.
The module coordinated by the University of Siena addresses the most delicate question in the series: how and why does environmental engagement sometimes turn towards violence? Students examine the mechanisms of radicalisation within climate activism, the factors that accelerate it, and the educational strategies capable of interrupting it.
The most concrete part of the module is also its most significant: each international group designs a micro-workshop or simulated educational intervention aimed at fostering forms of climate engagement that are informed, dialogical, and non-violent.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇵🇱 🇵🇹 🇱🇹 🇪🇺
#ELCRA #COIL #Radicalisation #ErasmusPlus #UniversityOfSiena #ClimateJustice
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Uniwersytet Jagielloński
Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT
ELCRA
One of the central concerns of the ELCRA project — an Erasmus+ initiative on environmental literacy and the prevention of radicalisation in climate activism — is the quality of the thinking that underpins environmental engagement. Its COIL programme addresses this directly, with five thematic modules delivered by partner universities across Europe.
The module coordinated by Klaipėda University focuses on critical thinking as a practical skill. In a public debate saturated with competing narratives about the climate, the ability to assess information carefully, question assumptions, and reason independently is not a given — it has to be developed.
Through inquiry-based learning, gamification, and structured discussion, students build the capacity to analyse sources, identify hidden biases, and construct well-grounded arguments on environmental issues that affect everyone.
🔗 www.elcraproject.eu
🇱🇹 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇵🇱 🇵🇹 🇪🇺
#ELCRA #COIL #CriticalThinking #ErasmusPlus #KlaipedaUniversity #SocialSustainability
🇪🇺 Co-funded by the European Union
Università di Siena
OpenCom Italy
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Uniwersytet Jagielloński
Socialinių ir humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas, KU
Instituto Jurídico da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra
Erasmus Student Network Italy - ESN Italia
Erasmus Student Network Portugal - ESN PT