INCLUDE Summer School: Innovation for Inclusion, Equity and Participation in Higher Education

The INCLUDE Summer School, hosted at the University of Pisa from the 6th to the 10th of July 2026, offers an immersive learning experience combining knowledge acquisition and collaborative problem-solving around Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in higher education.

During the first part of the programme, participants will engage with key concepts, perspectives, and practices related to inclusion, accessibility, and equity in academic environments. Through interactive sessions, they will explore how EDI challenges manifest across teaching, learning, institutional practices, and innovation contexts.

Building on this shared foundation, the second part of the Summer School takes the form of a collaborative innovation sprint. Participants will work in interdisciplinary teams to explore and address concrete EDI-related challenges in higher education. Drawing on challenge-based and participatory approaches, they will co-develop ideas, strategies, or prototype solutions aimed at fostering more inclusive and equitable environments.

• Analyse and critically reflect on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) challenges in higher education, identifying how they manifest across teaching, learning, institutional practices, and collaborative environments.
• Collaboratively design and develop context-sensitive responses to EDI-related challenges, using participatory and challenge-based approaches to translate conceptual insights into actionable ideas or prototype solutions.

The Summer School targets an interdisciplinary audience of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students, as well as early-career researchers and lifelong learners. 

It is open to participants from all academic fields, with particular relevance for social sciences, humanities, business, law, education, and STEM disciplines interested in the societal impact of innovation.

Participants in the INCLUDE Webinar Series have preferential access, but the summer school is open to everyone.

• Duration: 5 full days
• Preparatory online session(s): 10 hours
• Follow-up reflection/assessment: 2-4 hours
• On-site activities: workshops, group work, stakeholder interactions, applied exercises (8 hours per day)
• Participants will receive a grade.

Participants completing both the webinar series and the Summer School receive 5 ECTS.

The course is organized as a blended intensive program (BIP) within Erasmus+, and hence you may apply for a grant at your home university.

Please contact the mobility office at your university for more information:

• Aarhus University: aarhus@circle-u.eu
• University of Belgrade: Nikola Savic nikola.savic@rect.bg.ac.rs
• Humboldt Universität zu Berlin: berlin@circle-u.eu
• King’s College London: Students are not eligible for Erasmus+ funding, but may have access to internal funding. Please check for funding opportunities or contact the Circle U. Team for more information: circle-u@kcl.ac.uk
• UCLouvain: infocircleu@uclouvain.be
• Université Paris Cité: circleu.iro@u-paris.fr and online at u-paris.fr
• University of Pisa: circleU.erasmus@unipi.it and on our website.
• University of Vienna: circle-u@univie.ac.at

Alessandra Meoni 
alessandra.meoni@unipi.it