Students will receive funding of EUR 13,400 to develop and test sustainable concepts before and during the People’s Political Festival 2019.
The People’s Political Festival on Bornholm will be a living laboratory for testing of sustainable solutions. DTU Skylab has received a grant of EUR 13,400 (DKK 100,000) from The Tuborg Foundation as funding for students from DTU, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), and an art-driven innovation course at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art. In the project ‘Students hack the People’s Political Festival’, the students develop solutions which are presented and further developed at the People’s Political Festival (Folkemødet). Here, visitors will be able to see everything from technical prototypes, to new business models, and interactive works of art.
“The People’s Political Festival provides good opportunities for accelerated tests of sustainable solutions and for involving visiting organizations, industries, and politicians. For several years , DTU has collaborated with the Roskilde Festival on an equivalent model that has shown great potential for testing new innovative solutions and student-driven start-ups. At the People’s Political Festival, we want to build on this success—including through collaboration across educational institutions—and engage young people in participating actively in the public debate and involving the local community in their development process,” says Marie Louise Møllebæk Pollmann-Larsen from DTU Skylab, who is project manager on Students hack the People’s Political Festival.
The test of the individual concepts is based on four current challenges, including the coffee business Peter Larsen Kaffe— which is looking for solutions that engage coffee-drinking festival guests in contributing to their ambition of 100% recycling—and Fisher Lighting, which is challenging the students to study new markets for installation of new LED technology in existing lighting fixtures.
Both companies have participated in the Confederation of Danish Industry’s project ‘From philanthropy to business’. The two other challenges have been set by the Association of the People’s Political Festival (Foreningen Folkemødet), which is requesting solutions for both reduction and handling of waste, which are specific needs at the People’s Political Festival.
The total of 27 students from DTU, CBS, and ARKEN are organized in ten groups, each consisting of two to three students. The students commence the work to meet the challenges prior to the People’s Political Festival in connection with specific courses in their spring semester.
At the People’s Political Festival, the students are brought together to work intensively on the solutions in a process facilitated by DTU Skylab. Here, the students will get help in accelerating their development of solutions by participating in sessions and pop-up events. For example, a ‘Lion’s den’ event will be held at the Sustainable Development Goals Square.