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PARTNERSHIPS ORCHESTRATING SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATIONS (POST)
SPRING SCHOOL

TOPIC: THE ROLE AND VALUE OF PARTNERSHIPS IN SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATIONS
Date: 24 – 26 May, 2023
Venue: FAU Nuremberg, Germany

ABOUT THE POST SPRING SCHOOL
POST Spring School will be organised by FAU from 24-26 May 2023 in Nuremberg, Germany by the Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nürnberg (CHREN) and Chair for Corporate Sustainability Management. It will focus on deepening the understanding of multi-stakeholder partnerships engaged in tackling grand sustainability challenges of our times. As such, it will help participants explore the ‘values’ dimension of partnerships and probe it from two aspects:

Corporate Sustainability perspective
Business and Human Rights perspective 

Businesses have had to adopt different pathways to influence positive transformation at both the organisational and societal levels. In this regard, a prominent approach has been to forge partnerships with cross-sector or non-business actors such as the government, civil society, practitioners, academia and community to collectivise ideas, resources, and action on sustainability.

Similar is the case when it comes to business and human rights. Today, it is increasingly being expected that corporate responsibility in regard to human rights must go beyond ‘doing no harm’ and include a proactive engagement to respect human rights. In order to do so, corporations need to partner with each other and with other well-positioned activist groups and organizations. One of the critical benefits of taking a multistakeholder approach is that it can potentially enhance the ‘leverage’ of companies, which refers to the capacity of companies to address harmful practices related to their business operations by influencing their own behaviour, as well as that of suppliers, customers, consumers and governments.

OBJECTIVES

Build understanding – To build an understanding of the nature and role of cross-sector partnerships from a Corporate Sustainability as well as Business and Human Rights perspective in dealing with the complexities and challenges of sustainability transformations. 
Create a community of practice – Share best and failed practices for cross-sector partnerships, including challenges, opportunities and learnings.  
Develop skills – Develop skills necessary to research on, build, manage, sustain and learn from effective cross-sector partnerships. 
Facilitate networking – Creating opportunities for future collaboration amongst the participating institutions and its participants specifically on research on partnerships and collaboration. 
Promote innovation – Encourage participants to think creatively and develop new approaches to cross-sector partnerships for sustainability transformation. 
Foster inter-cultural exchange – Organize social and cultural activities to promote networking and inter-cultural exchange.
 

PARTICIPANTS

PhD students/Postdocs from EELISA institutions engaged in research on partnerships, Corporate Sustainability, sustainability transitions or any aspect of Business and Human Rights. 

Researchers (PhD/Postdocs) and practitioners from other institutions who can support their participation financially

DRAFT AGENDA
DAY 1| WEDNESDAY | 24th MAY
LANGE GASSE ROOM 2.429 (SECOND FLOOR)

SESSION 0

1400 – 1600 HRS | NUREMBERG CITY WALK

SESSION 1 OPENING
EMCEE: NELSON OTIENO, PhD RESEARCHER, IDP, FAU

1715 – 1800 HRS | REGISTRATION & INFORMAL NETWORKING OVER COFFEE
1800 – 1815 HRS | INTRODUCTION & AGENDA
1815 – 1830 HRS | WELCOME ADDRESS: INTRODUCTION TO FAU AND NUREMBERG
Prof. Markus Krajewski, Chair for Public Law and International Law & Spokesperson, Centre for Human Rights Erlangen-Nuremberg, FAU

1830 – 1850 HRS | INTRODUCTION OF PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS AND PARTICIPANTS
1850 – 1910 HRS | OPENING REMARKS: UNIVERSITIES AS CATALYSTS FOR SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATIONS
Prof. Markus Beckmann, Chair for Corporate Sustainability Management, FAU
1910 – 1930 HRS | EELISA: FORGING AN ALLIANCE TO REDEFINE THE PURPOSE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Prof. Kathrin M. Möslein, Vice President – Outreach, FAU
1930 – 1950 HRS | PARTNERSHIPS ORCHESTRATING SUSTAINABILITY TRANSFORMATIONS (POST): THE JOURNEY SO FAR
Fiorenzo Polito, Doctoral Researcher, SNS
Dr. Teresa Sánchez Chaparro, School of Industrial Engineering, UPM
1950 – 2000 HRS | PRACTICAL INFORMATION AND CLOSING
PROCEED FOR DINNER TO A LOCAL RESTAURANT

DAY 2| THURSDAY | 25th MAY
FINDELGASSE ROOM FG 1.036 (FIRST FLOOR)

SESSION 2

0930 – 0945 HRS | WELCOME TO DAY 2/CHECK-IN/PRACTICAL INFORMATION
0945 – 1100 HRS | MASTERCLASS 1 – THE ETHICS OF/WITHIN CROSS-SECTOR PARTNERSHIPS
Prof. Markus Beckmann, Head – Chair for Corporate Sustainability Management, FAU
1100-1130 HRS | COFFEE BREAK
1130 – 1200 HRS | MASTERCLASS (CONTD.)
1200 – 1230 HRS | CHANGEMAKING THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS 1
To be decided
1230 – 1400 HRS | LUNCH
Der Trichter (FAU students’ run café)

SESSION 3 

1400 – 1530 HRS | PARTNERSHIP SPECTRUM: CASES FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Exploration of real-world examples of multi-stakeholder partnerships for sustainability comprising case studies of partnerships in different sectors (e.g., business, government, civil society) and in different regions of the world.

MODERATOR: STEPHANIE REGALIA, PhD RESEARCHER, IDP, FAU

[Multi-stakeholder partnership in social enterprise] Hello Tractor: Improving food & income security
Dr. Francisco Layrisse, Postdoc in Social Innovation and Sustainability Management, CSM, FAU
[University-Corporate partnership] Innovating Sustainability at Uvex
Lena Ries, PhD candidate, CSM, FAU/Guest from Uvex
[Regional partnership] Cooperation and Collaboration between EU-ASEAN
Loren Bustos, PhD candidate & DAAD Scholar, IDP, FAU
[BHR partnership] Partnering to advance and implement UNGPs in LATAM
Julia Stefanello Pires, BHR Analyst, Proactiva; Visiting Researcher, FAU; PhD Candidate, PUCPR

1530 – 1600 HRS | COFFEE BREAK

SESSION 4

1600 – 1730 HRS | MASTERCLASS 2: THE ROLE OF THE INDIVIDUALS IN PARTNERSHIPS
Dr. Leda Stott, European Community of Practice in Partnership (ECoPP)
1730 – 1745 HRS | WRAP UP FOR THE DAY/PRACTICAL INFORMATION
1900 HRS | ONWARDS POST SPRING SCHOOL OFFICIAL DINNER

DAY 3| FRIDAY | 26th MAY
LANGE GASSE ROOM 2.429 (SECOND FLOOR)

SESSION 5

0930 – 0945 HRS | CHECK-IN & PRACTICAL INFORMATION
0945 – 1100 HRS | KEYNOTE TALK: ROLE OF PARTNERSHIPS IN PROMOTING INDIVIDUAL AND INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND INNOVATION
Dr. Tulin Dzhengiz, Lecturer, Department of Strategy, Enterprise & Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
1100 – 1130 HRS | COFFEE BREAK
1130 – 1300 HRS | BRIEF OVERVIEW: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR PARTNERSHIPS

MODERATOR: CHAU BUI, Doctoral Researcher, IDP, FAU

Institutional Logics
Matthias Fertig and Xu Kang, Doctoral Researchers, IDP, FAU
Learning Theory
Irene Ezquerra, Doctoral Researcher, ItdUPM
Institutionalising BHR in companies
Sabrina Rau, Doctoral Researcher, IDP, FAU

1300 – 1430 HRS | LUNCH

SESSION 6

1430 – 1630 HRS | REFLECTION, FUTURE OUTLOOK & CERTIFICATE PRESENTATION
                            Facilitator: Supriya Singh, POST Representative & Phd Researcher, IDP, FAU

ABOUT POST

The Partnerships Orchestrating Sustainability Transformations (POST) is a collaboration between Scuola Normale Superiore, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, funded by EELISA European University.

Sustainability challenges are complex, wicked and transboundary in nature. Responding to them effectively requires the involvement and cooperation of different stakeholders – private companies, international organizations, civil society groups, academia, government bodies and local communities. UN SDG17 – Partnerships for the Goals – calls for strengthening the means of implementation and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development. Specifically, Goal 17.17 sharpens the focus on the promotion of effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships and understanding such partnerships as a place of mutual learning processes to accelerate sustainable development. POST is dedicated to understanding cross-sector partnerships for sustainability transformations through exploring its meaning, dimensions, context and nature in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa through interdisciplinary research, exchange and collaboration.

POST proposes to organize 4 distinct activities between September 2022 – April 2023:

Project initiation session (Online; Led by FAU)
Workshop 1 & Research visit (Hybrid; Led by Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence)
Workshop 2 & Research visit (Hybrid; Led by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in Madrid)
Spring School (in-person; Led by FAU in Nürnberg)