Time2Act@SD: Advancing sustainable development in higher education through innovative tools

Abstract

This paper presents the Time2Act@SD project, an Erasmus+-funded initiative that aims to promote sustainable development (SD) knowledge, skills and behaviour change among higher education (HE) students and educators across Europe. The project takes an innovative, multimodal approach to sustainability education, integrating gamification, digital tools and experiential learning (Loureiro et al., 2024). Key deliverables include a MOOC platform offering courses on environmental, social and economic sustainability, interactive virtual reality games such as 'SDG Quest' (Nisiotis et al., 2024; Piki et al., 2025), and mobile apps promoting practical sustainability competencies. The project also includes international sustainability bootcamps that engage educators and students in reallife applications of SD principles. Results from empirical studies show significant improvements in SD knowledge, attitudes and behaviours among participants (Leal et al., 2024), as well as identified gaps in sustainability education that Time2Act@SD addresses. With open access resources and participation from four universities across Europe, the project contributes to improving sustainability education globally and provides replicable models for transformative learning in higher education. This paper discusses project outcomes, lessons learned and the implications of innovative methods for advancing the SDGs in academia and beyond.