From 07-11 July 2025, 33 students as well as eight interdisciplinary coaches from the E³UDRES² partner institutions made their way to the Austrian city of St. Pölten for the E³UDRES² Bootcamp 2025. Titled "Creative Roots: Designing Experiences Inspired by Nature", the event centered around a variety of nature-related real-life challenges. As is customary in E³UDRES² events, the challenges posed to the participating student teams were provided by local stakeholders: For this year's Bootcamp, the alliance collaborated with “Natur im Garten”, an organisation supported by the province of Lower Austria that promotes the greening of gardens and green spaces in Lower Austria and beyond its borders, as well as climate change adaptation and the promotion of biodiversity. Close collaboration was also established with “Die Garten Tulln”, a garden exhibition in the city of Tulln that the participants also visited during their Bootcamp week, as well as Tecnet Equity, an Austrian venture capital fund investing in innovative, high-tech startup companies with potential for significant growth.
Designing experiences inspired by nature
Throughout the week, the interdisciplinary student teams - who met for the first time on-site after a short online kick-off that took place prior to the Bootcamp - explored a variety of challenges submitted by "Natur im Garten":
How might we motivate garden visitors/owner in a playful way to design their gardens to be more climate-friendly and sustainable?
How might we rethink the visitor experience at "Die Garten Tulln" to make it more interactive, exciting, and informative?
How might we support balcony gardeners in creating a sustainable green oasis with minimal space and effort?
How might we inspire people to discover the diversity of garden birds in a playful way and encourage them to actively contribute to bird conservation?
How might we create experiences around predator-prey relationships in the garden that foster a deeper understanding of ecological cycles?
These complex and forward-thinking questions were not something the students had to take on alone: Throughout the solution-finding process, the students had the support of Educational Entrepreneurs - expert coaches from the E³UDRES² partner countries, who also guided the teams through the Design Thinking process, a problem-solving technique that focuses on understanding user needs and developing innovative solutions.
More than challenges
Of course, the Bootcamp program offered much more than just the space to work on real-life challenges: Participants also got to enjoy a well-rounded social program. From the E³UDRES² Science Pub Quiz to a relaxed barbecue evening at the lake of St. Pölten, and sporty sessions such as yoga and spikeball, there were plenty of opportunities for informal exchange and fun. Workshops on creativity and gamification supported the teams to get the necessary skills to create a valuable solution. The highlight of the week, as stated by many participants, was the visit to the "Garten Tulln": The students got to enjoy the beautiful gardens, learn more about the habitats of native animals and plants, and also had the opportunity to get creative in hands-on workshops.
As the week concluded, the last day of the Bootcamp culminated in the presentation of the concepts the teams had worked on during the course of the event. A jury consisting of Katja Batakovic (Natur im Garten), Sophie Egger (Tecnet Equity) and Sibylle Moser (FH St. Pölten) evaluated the solutions on aspects such as feasibility or environmental impact. Solutions to the challenges ranged from a subscription box for spiking interest in bird conservation to a fully designed 3D model for a vertical gardening system suitable for small balconies. "For me, the Bootcamp was an awesome experience. It really helped me be more patient and listen to people", says Amira Babkir of the Polytechnic University of Setúbal, Portugal, as she talks about her experience in working in an international, interdisciplinary group. Before the students had to finally say goodbye and make their travels back home, they got to look back on the week and their achievements in a final celebratory moment, cheering to their successful week.
