The Charles University Environment Centre (CUEC) is an independent institute within Charles University in Prague which focuses on interdisciplinary cooperation and research in the field of sustainable development and ESD. CUEC seeks to bring about innovations into the educational system and to promote systemic change at all levels. Innovative practices include
(i) the systemic building of open education resources and their use as part of our teaching/learning activities;
(ii) cooperation with a range of actors through CUEC national projects; and,
(iii) the testing of new forms of transboundary scientific work. Efforts to bring about systemic change in the educational system include involvement in expert teams with both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Environment.
CUEC has also been involved in a number of international EU-funded projects over the years, and has recently been working with a consortium of Central and Eastern European universities, as well some Western universities with internationally recognised expertise in ESD in the hope of establishing a strong alliance for spreading and strengthening ESD capability and capacity in the most recently democratised part of Europe.
An important part of the CUEC’s work is the support for different communication processes: either within the academic community (a Forum of University teachers exists since 1993), and beyond (voluntary work in the civic sector). To open up space for a scientific dialogue on the environmental and ESD themes, CUEC established the peer reviewed journal Envigogika in 2006. Our products include several methodologies (4 methodological materials for the incorporation of different innovations into teaching/learning certified by Ministry of Environment), and preparation of a special issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production called Learning for Sustainable Development in Regional Networks. Our future plans include cooperation with Czech regions to develop local knowledge in the form of regional case studies and support for communication processes between a range of actors where an academic institution plays the role of a catalyser of social learning processes and analyses their outcomes.
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