The Minor Future Planet Innovation (FPI) is a university-wide minor programme worth 30 ECTS open for all 3rd year bachelor students from the entire University of Groningen. It is aimed at bringing together students from a variety of backgrounds with an interest in sustainability. A strong, core characteristic of FPI is an interdisciplinary approach, reflecting the fingerprint of sustainability issues. FPI is built up and structured in three separate courses:

• Global Challenges is the 'introductory' course that serves to establish a shared baseline in knowledge and understanding of fundamental sustainability concepts. Global Challenges has two core elements: theory and research. In the theory part, students engage with fundamental concepts and current developments in the realm of sustainability. This is done through a combination of lectures by FSE-staff and contributors form other faculties, industry, consultancy etc and interactive elements such as assignments, exercises and games. The research part involves groups of three students digging deeper into a sustainability-related topic of their choice, and writing a paper on their exploration and findings. In this process, several workshops and formative assignments help the students through the motions. Essential elements therein are conceptualization, planning, processing of literature and other information, and communication. The overarching rationale behind the two-part structure of Global Challenges is that the theory part provides the width of the field, and the research part provides the depth.

• Global Integration runs parallel to the course Global Challenges. It is a highly interactive course which helps students to integrate the many perspectives of sustainability and apply those on real-life and actual problems. In two- or three-week thematic cycles, students work in groups to bring the course topics into practice by taking specific continents' perspectives on them into consideration. Every thematic cycle in Global Integration aligns with the thematic cycles in Global Challenges. Each cycle comes with its own type of deliverable product, together covering a wide range of media and communication strategies. All course products together will form an overview of perspectives, issues and strategies on sustainability in different parts of the world. The course is wrapped up with a collective integration session that takes inspiration from the United Nations.

• Sustainable Contributions to Society is the challenge-based part of the minor. In multidisciplinary teams, students work on a real-life problem brought in by real-life clients from outside university.  Independence and responsibility are the key words in this course. The different sustainability-aspects of a real-life problem are analysed and the societal input has to be actively searched for by stakeholders. During the project, students receive tailor-made feedback from the staff and fellow students. Different workshops guide the groups to the end-result: a written advice to the commissioner of the challenge. The result is also presented to invited experts from the field during the final FPI Symposium. 

The default FPI programme assumes participation in all three courses, together worth 30 ECTS and spanning the full first semester of every academic year. That combination of courses offers a complete learning line from theory to practice. However, a shorter 15 ECTS package is also an option, including only the first two courses and ending at the end of block 1A, halfway through the first semester.

Signing up

Signing up for FPI works through Progress, with the sign-up period typically runs late May to early July. For 2025, the sign-up period opens on 23 May and closes on 4 July.