After more than two years of work, the Sustainable Erasmus+ Travel (SET) project has come to an end. Charles University was proud to be part of this European initiative, which focused on how to make Erasmus+ mobility more environmentally friendly. The project ran from February 2024 to May 2026 and brought together partners such as the European University Foundation (EUF), Erasmus Student Network (ESN), University of Zurich (UZH), University of Porto (U.Porto), and, of course, Charles University (CU). The project was also supported by the associations Erasmus by Train and Generation Climate Europe (GCE).
The main coordinator of the project was the International Relations Office, in cooperation with the Sustainable Development Office of CU. “Our involvement in the project shows that international cooperation can bring concrete and practical outcomes for students, providing them with inspiration and tools for more sustainable travel within the Erasmus+ programme. The project outputs were also presented to international participants in educational activities organised at the central level of the Rectorate, helping to raise awareness of sustainable mobility,” says Petra Šmídová, the project’s main coordinator from the European Office of the CU Rectorate.
SET was based on a simple but important idea: that the journey to a stay abroad does not have to be merely a necessary transfer from point A to point B. It can be a valuable part of the entire international experience in itself. The project therefore focused on how students taking part in Erasmus+ actually travel, what influences their decision-making, and how low-emission modes of transport can be better supported. At the same time, it showed that more sustainable travel brings not only a lower environmental impact, but also new experiences, skills, and a different perspective on mobility itself.
Charles University made a very concrete contribution to this part of the project. As part of the project, it prepared a methodology for focus groups, including their organisation and evaluation. These focus groups were then held at Charles University, in Porto, in Zurich, and at the ESN branch in Brussels. Their results naturally fed into the next stage of work: Charles University created the project questionnaire, which the partners then disseminated through European networks and platforms. In this way, the university played an important role in the research part of the project and in mapping how students think about sustainable travel.
Project outputs:
|
|
|
|
You can find all outputs at the SET project's website.
For Charles University, involvement in SET therefore meant more than participation in a single international partnership. It also fitted well into the university’s broader efforts to support sustainability and a responsible approach to internationalisation. The project helped open up a wider discussion on how student mobility can remain open, inspiring, and international in the future, while at the same time becoming more considerate towards the environment.
|
| ||
This idea was also followed up by one of the project’s most interesting public-facing activities, the SET Journey Contest. The competition targeted students who were setting off for an Erasmus+ study stay or traineeship and encouraged them to travel to their destinations in a low-emission way, for example by train, bus, bicycle, or carpooling. However, it was not only about the mode of transport itself. Participants shared their journeys in the form of stories, blogs, or social media posts, showing that the journey itself can also be a valuable and inspiring part of an international experience.
The competition took place in two rounds: in the winter round, 6 student finalists were selected, and in the summer round, 10 finalists were selected. Each received EUR 625 for their active participation in creating educational content for the project’s social media channels and also for the Erasmus Student Network website. In the second round, there were even 3 finalists from Charles University, whom we briefly interviewed about what their journey to their Erasmus+ programme was like.
Open the full-size image by clicking on any of the images.
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Mgr. Ing. Nikola Rusová
Sustainable Development Manager
