Sustainability transitions pose some of the most urgent challenges to societies today, as well as in the (distant) past. Transitions in energy systems, food production, the use of natural resources, or the shift from agrarian to urban and industrial societies always play out over longer spans of time. Current debates on sustainability challenges and proposed transitions benefit greatly from professionals who understand history deeply and can compare developments across long periods of time.

This package equips students with skills to analyze various types of sustainability transitions in a temporal (intergenerational) framework. By examining transitions in depth and comparing different methodological and theoretical approaches, students will learn to untangle complexity and synthesize diverse perspectives.

Students will:

• Gain knowledge of dynamic models linking environmental, demographic, economic, political, and technological forces.
• Explore key concepts such as path dependence, resource curse, carrying capacity, and tipping points.
• Apply their learning to real cases through written reports, scenario modeling, and case-based games.
• Actively engage with them through hands-on cases, written reports scenario-modelling and case-based games.

Students can choose how many courses they want to take from the package.

Overview electives and registration links

Advances in synthetic biology have redefined the life sciences by integrating molecular biology, computational modeling, and automated engineering approaches to enable the rational design and construction of biological systems. Biological function can now be precisely controlled and modified across genetic, cellular, and multicellular scales, allowing for the creation of systems with predictable and controllable behaviors.

Within this context, living technology emerges as an application-driven paradigm in which living systems are treated as engineerable platforms. Cells, genetic circuits, and multicellular assemblies can be designed, optimized, and deployed to perform defined functions – ranging from biosensing and bioproduction to therapeutic intervention and environmental remediation.

Students participating in the International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) operate at this interface, applying engineering principles to biological design. This course package extends that experience by providing deeper theoretical grounding and interdisciplinary integration across computational, engineering, and translational domains.

What this package offers

The Living Technology Course Package empowers students to move beyond the subjects offered within their home institutions by providing access to complementary expertise across key domains of living technologies.

This flexible and interdisciplinary offering includes:

• Molecular and cellular engineering
• Systems and computational biology
• Bioengineering and design
• Biomedical and translational applications
• Sustainability and bio-based solutions

Students can select and combine courses that best support their International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM) projects and align with their academic interests.

Who is it for?

• iGEM students seeking deeper scientific and technical grounding
• Students exploring synthetic biology and bioengineering
• Learners interested in the future of living technologies

For courses at your home institution you can register via Osiris.
To register for courses outside your own institution go to EduXchange and follow the next steps:

• Simply click on your ‘home institution’
• Copy-paste the title from the provided course list based on your interest and schedule
• Read more about the course
• Directly register (if it’s open) or set a reminder in your calendar for later. Note that you register per course, so simply repeat the last three steps, if you would like to combine multiple courses.

Download BA courses list

Download MA courses list

We live in a rapidly changing world, shaped by climate challenges as well as technological and societal developments. Are you prepared for the uncertainties of the future? By learning about the science and practice of resilience, you can equip yourself with the skills to adapt and bounce back.

What is this package about?
This package helps you explore and apply the principles of resilience in both societal and personal contexts. You will learn how systems, communities, and individuals can adapt, recover, and even grow stronger through challenges—and how you can apply this knowledge yourself. This interdisciplinary package connects students from Eindhoven, Wageningen, Utrecht, and UMC Utrecht, bringing together perspectives from technology, nature, health, and society.

What can you learn?
Depending on the courses you choose, by the end of the programme you will be able to:
• Recognize disruptions, crises, and transitions, and explain why resilience matters.
• Understand what makes systems (and people) resilient.
• Strengthen your own personal resilience.
• Reflect on resilience in your environment.
• Connect resilience principles across different fields and disciplines.

How it works
• Compulsory course: The Resilience Lab (3 EC): A central, hands-on course in which you apply resilience thinking and explore your own personal resilience in an interdisciplinary group with students from other universities. You can register for this course if you have completed, or are enrolled in, at least one other elective associated with the package.

• Elective courses of your choice (9–17 EC): Choose courses from at least two EWUU universities. Have you already taken, or are you currently taking, courses listed in the suggested overview below? If you have completed them within the past six months, they may count toward the package.

Are there courses you believe are relevant to this package but are not listed in the course overview? Would you like to check whether they can be recognized as part of the package? We welcome your suggestions. Send an email to the package coordinator, Gijs Elkhuizen, and include information about the course, such as its description, its relevance to the theme of resilience, and why you consider it a suitable addition to your package.

How to register for this package?
There are two types of courses and registration procedures for this package, depending on whether the course is offered by your home institution or by another university.

• For courses offered by your home institution, register via Osiris. This also applies to the compulsory course.
• For courses not offered by your home institution, you can register via EduXchange. Select your home institution and search for the course name or course code listed below.

Download the course overview list