The Sustainability Transitions track was developed by TU/e’s Technology, Innovation and Society research group, which has a strong embedding in various social science and humanities disciplines. The group’s research projects concern sustainability transitions in the Netherlands and Europe as well as the Global South, including Bangladesh, Brazil and Somalia. For example, projects have focused on community-driven energy initiatives, ICT-enabled innovations in the field of energy and mobility, electric charging standardization across Europe, patents for sustainability, and palm oil resource chains. This expertise informs the track’s courses to prepare you for your future work in combining technology, innovation and sustainability.
Core courses
During the first year of Innovation Management, the four core courses build up students’ key knowledge of how we can best manage innovation processes in the context of sustainability and an ever-changing world. Students also develop important quantitative and qualitative methodological skills, including systems thinking and modeling. As with all TU/e programs, these skills are imparted through a mix of interactive lectures, engaging assignments and group work covering topics related to state-of-the-art research by the university’s professors.
Sustainability Transitions track courses
The Sustainability Transitions elective track deepens these insights by putting innovation management processes into a broader sustainability perspective. Throughout this track, you will also gain specialized knowledge that is grounded in qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Four courses guide students through the various aspects of sustainability transitions, innovation and technology. Some course names may change slightly as the degree is updated. Visit the education guide to find more information about the curriculum of this track.
- Sustainable Transitions. This course focuses on theories and tools to understand and evaluate sustainability transitions and discusses opportunities and barriers for sustainable technology development.
- Justice, globalization and sustainability. This course discusses the role of innovation and tech development in a globalized world and the consequences for justice and sustainability.
- Circularity, assessment and sustainable business models. This course reflects upon selected sustainability assessment methods and discusses circular and sustainable business model innovation.
- Green and digital transformation. This course explores core technologies, concepts and regulations that are relevant to the intersection of green and digital transformations, such as the difference between AI for sustainability and the sustainability of AI.
You can also complement the Sustainability Transitions track with courses from other tracks or electives to gain a multidisciplinary understanding of innovation management through the lens of sustainable transitions. This allows you to broaden your field of expertise and increase your employability. Options for customization include courses from Technology Entrepreneurship & Strategy, AI & Digital Technology, Collaboration Innovation & Marketing and Leadership & Organizing Innovation. This enables you to engage with expert staff from a variety of research groups: Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship and Marketing, Information Systems, and Human Performance Management.
Graduation project
The last two quartiles of the second year are reserved for your master’s thesis, for which students can choose to do an internship at a company or organization relevant to Sustainability Transitions and Innovation Management. In addition to working with partners from the Brainport region, students have engaged with projects across the Netherlands – and even beyond! Working on sustainability transitions opens a wide array of options to find a project and place that suits you.
Projects and partners from previous years include:
- Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy in a Regional Context: A case study analysis of four successful innovative regions in Europe (Rabobank)
- Evaluating co-creation in sustainability transitions: A case of the community-based Virtual Power Plant (Interreg)
- Flexibility services for citizen energy communities (EIT InnoEnergy)
- Industry 4.0 initiatives for the Electric Vehicle Lithium-ion Battery value chain: A Conceptual Design of the Battery Passport (Kryha)
- Urban transformative capacity of Project Management Bureau, Amsterdam (Municipality of Amsterdam)
- Governing our way towards 100% renewable energy: how governance dynamics influence a region’s capacity to bring about transformative change of the Dutch energy system (Technopolis Group)
- ‘Last-mile’ distribution models for solar home system distributors in East Africa (Mobisol)
These are just examples; students also have a high degree of freedom to choose a topic that appeals to them and matches their career vision.
Studying abroad
During the second year, you have the chance to go abroad and study at a university outside of the Netherlands, providing valuable experience for an international career in sustainability. You can also decide to stay at TU/e and follow more courses offered by the Innovation Management program or other technical programs. You also have the opportunity to participate in real-life challenges at the award-winning Innovation Space, which provides a community for students to practice challenge-based learning and entrepreneurship via complex societal and industrial challenges with researchers, businesses and over 40 student teams.