FUNDED PROJECTS
E²
The ENLIGHT Empathy Incubator (E²) is a 5 ECTS Blended Intensive Programme designed to empower students to use empathy as a driver for innovation, inclusive leadership, and societal impact.
Category: Incubator Grant
University:
University of the Basque Country, University of Bern, University of Galway, Ghent University, University of Tartu
Period:
2025-2027
The ENLIGHT Empathy Incubator (E²) is a 5 ECTS Blended Intensive Programme designed to empower students to use empathy as a driver for innovation, inclusive leadership, and societal impact. The programme follows a full blended pathway: pre-online empathy foundations, an intensive experiential in-person week, and a post-online reflective and impact-focused phase.
Through immersive experiences, lived-experience partner engagement, empathy games, design thinking, problem framing, and multidisciplinary collaboration, students tackle ENLIGHT flagship challenges related to equity, health and wellbeing, digitalisation, climate, and culture.
Students develop competencies mapped to the ENLIGHT Competence Framework and EntreComp, including critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, global citizenship, and adaptability. By integrating community partners as co-educators and using challenge-based methodologies, the programme delivers authentic societal impact and builds long-term capacity for human-centred innovation across ENLIGHT institutions.
The incubator provides a unique European model for empathy-driven learning, combining emotional intelligence development with innovation competencies to create graduates equipped to lead meaningful change.
"The defining highlight of E² is its deep partnership with lived-experience contributors, who join the programme as co-educators. This creates transformative learning moments in which students confront real human stories, challenge their assumptions, and build authentic empathy that directly informs their innovation process. The result is a genuinely human-centred environment that blends academic rigour Standardised Enlight with emotional learning."
Participants and Stakeholders
Coordinator:
University of Galway, Ireland
Dr. Neil Ferguson –
Other Partner Institutions:
- University of Bern, Switzerland – Arno Ratzinger
- Ghent University, Belgium – Dr Bastian Baccarne, Dr Lore Brosens, Wanda Gaertner
- University of Tartu, Estonia – Marko Uibu
- University of the Basque Country – Nahia Idoiaga Mondragon
Team Composition:
- Galway: Programme coordination, design thinking methodology, blended learning design
- Bern: Pre/post online activity innovation, empathy games
- Ghent: Pedagogical framework, collaborative reflection platform
- Tartu: Academic validation, ECTS framework, quality assurance
- Basque Country: Stakeholder engagement and regional expertise
Stakeholders/External Partners:
- Community organisations and individuals with lived experience
- Local societal challenge partners contributing to immersive activities and real-world problem contexts
Objectives
- Develop students’ emotional intelligence and empathy as foundational competencies for inclusive innovation
- Build interdisciplinary teams addressing ENLIGHT flagship challenges through human-centred design and challenge-based learning
- Strengthen students’ capacity for societal impact, global citizenship, and collaborative problem-solving
- Provide an innovative blended learning model combining pre-work, immersive intensive week, and post-programme reflection
- Align skills development with ENLIGHT Competence Framework and EntreComp for EU-wide recognition
- Establish sustainable cross-institutional practices in empathy education and social innovation
Contact
Dr. Neil Ferguson, University of Galway
Additional information
- Lived Experience Co-Education: Community partners act as co-educators, providing rich real-world insight.
- Three-phase Blended Architecture: Pre-online empathy foundations, experiential intensive week, and post-online reflection.
- Challenge-based Learning: Students tackle authentic societal problems linked to ENLIGHT flagship domains.
- Multidisciplinary & Transnational Collaboration: Teams from five ENLIGHT partner universities.
- Mapped to ENLIGHT & EntreComp frameworks: Ensures academic and transferable skill recognition.
- Train-the-Trainer Pathway: Creating long-term institutional capacity for empathy education.
- Sustainability Embedded: Reflection platforms, challenge repositories, and alumni networks ensure longevity.