Video from PEOPLE project's 2nd Co-Creation Camp, which took place in Ljubljana on 3 and 4 July 2019. Special guest at the event was Prof Dr Sarah Pink, a world leading design anthropologist and PEOPLE advisory board member. Check it out and read more about the activities that took place over the two exciting and intensive days.

PEOPLE project team member Dr Sara Arko participated at the Digital Design Ethnography Symposium, held by Emerging Technologies Research Lab on 14 March 2019 at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. In her talk, she explains the idea and the experience from the PEOPLE project as a problem-based learning process that established close cooperation between Universities and industry partners.

Watch the video of PEOPLE team member Dr Dan Podjed as he discusses The Three Words Banned at Why the World Needs Anthropologists. In March 2019 he traveled to the Emerging Technologies Research Lab to speak as part of the Digital Design Ethnography: Technologies, People and Futures Symposium. In his talk, he underlines the value of applied anthropology in interdisciplinary R&D projects and innovation.

As part of the PEOPLE project's 2nd Co-Creation Camp, we presented our experiences to a wider public at the Forget about users - start thinking about people! symposium, hosted by the project partner, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU). The event, dedicated to developing people-centred solutions for a sustainable future, featured exciting keynote speakers, including Prof Sarah Pink (Monash University, AU) who argued in her talk that if we wish to have an impact in the world, qualitative social scientists need to re-think how we conceptualise our disciplines and our research towards a futures-focused approach. Peter Pos, Consultant Energy Transition at Alliander (NL) explained how he came to understand that the energy transition is not so much a technological transition, as it is a social transition, and may require a fundamental redesign of the energy system as we know it. Marko Javornik (Voyego, a Comtrade company) shared his experience and vision of future mobility and mobility as a service with exciting examples of urban mobility solutions around the world. And Dan Podjed (ZRC SAZU), who also moderated the event and the discussion, asked: What comes after PEOPLE?

PEOPLE team members Gregor Cerinšek (IRI UL) and Dan Podjed (ZRC SAZU) were in Bucharest, where they presented the Why the World Neds Anthropologists symposium and the PEOPLE project to the Romanian audience. The goal of their short intervention, which was screened at the beginning of Why Romania Needs Anthropologists event, was to present the idea of satellite WWNA events, which will be spreading around the world in the future. The PEOPLE project was presented as an example of new opportunities for anthropologists and other social scientists being employed outside academia and "traditional" research institutions.

WHY THE WORLD NEEDS ANTHROPOLOGISTS: DESIGNING THE FUTURE

WWNA is a symposium that explores the different applications of anthropology beyond traditional academia. The 6th edition, entitled Designing the Future, took place in Lisbon, Portugal, and focused on design anthropology, its methods, practical applications, and its potential for framing the future of humanity around the world. It examined human-centred design and design thinking with emphasis on the value of ethnography in these types of processes and techniques, while acknowledging the opportunities arising from a collaborative approach between anthropology and design. The event brought together researchers, designers, and developers from various domains to ensure an enriched discussion, facilitate collaborations, create innovation momentum, and provided a networking platform for new job opportunities. Watch the full stream here or find individual speeches by the fantastic speakers Anna Kirah, Jamer Hunt, Sarah Pink, José Manuel dos Santos, Rosa Maria Perez, and Miguel Vale de Almeida  at the EASA Applied Anthropology Network's YouTube channel.

On 4 and 5 July 2018, four PEOPLE project teams of students, their academic and their industry mentors participated at the 1st Co-Creation Camp in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The intensive two-day programme included presentations, workshops, dialogue tables and co-creation activities aimed at enhancing our learning process in the PEOPLE higher education - industry - students triangle. Our special guest at the event was Anna Kirah, a renowned design anthropologist and psychologist. See how it went! The video was filmed and edited by Tilen Šoštarič, member of the Slovenian PEOPLE student team.

On 5 July 2018, the PEOPLE project organised the 'Sustainable Living & Energy: Towards a PEOPLE Perspective' event at CIRCL in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. This event enabled students, university members, industry representatives, and sustainability experts from outside academia to share their experiences with people-centred approaches in sustainable living and energy. Over 60 participants from the Netherlands, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom explored the added value of social sciences for innovation, industry, and policy. Special guest speakers were Anna Kirah, design anthropologist and psychologist and PEOPLE Advisory Board member, and Dan Podjed, applied anthropologist and PEOPLE team member. The event was organised as part of PEOPLE's first two-day Co-Creation Camp, where teams from the four participating countries got together to share and discuss the results of their research on real-life, industry-relevant case studies.

Short video filmed and produced by the Slovenian PEOPLE student team, explaining how in the first PEOPLE Learning Cycle, the Slovenian team of students, higher education and industry mentors applied people-centred development approaches to an industry-identified case study.

PEOPLE team member Giulia Sinatti (VU Amsterdam) was interviewed by Antropología 2.0, a company and blog devoted to business anthropology. In this video, filmed by Antropología 2.0 at the 2017 edition of the Why the World Needs Anthropologists symposium in Durham (UK), Giulia Sinatti explains the essence of the PEOPLE project’s approach and presents the Dutch case study.

Five "Powering the Planet" videos from the 5th Why the World Needs Anthropologists international symposium, addressing energy as an indispensable part of our domestic and working lives, and the role of anthropology in the development of smart and sustainable energy systems that are environmentally responsible and people-friendly. The videos include all four keynote speakers (Benj Sykes, Sophie Bouly de Lesdain, Tanja Winther, and Veronica Strang) and the panel discussion. Watch them now and be inspired!

An animated sketch of the PEOPLE project's approach, aims and goals.

Real-life learning lab is experiential and problem-based learning and teaching approach where interdisciplinary groups of students work on real-life research and development projects that are practically oriented and involve relevant needs of industry and society. The process presents an ideal mixture of just-in-time knowledge and experience transfer and sharing between higher education and industry.

Key aim of the PEOPLE project (Erasmus+, Knowledge Alliance 2016) is to enrich existing learning and teaching practices of higher education by connecting students with industry and companies and through applying people-centred development approaches in real-world to improve or develop new products and services.