Interdisciplinarity and sustainability for a better future

Its21 stands for Interdisciplinary Teamwork Skills for the 21st century, and the conference is arranged in a different Nordic city each year. Its21 is overall anchored in a Nordic network working to prioritize interdisciplinary collaboration in education and the workplace. This time around, TVEPS is the proud organizer and host.

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Logo Its21

This year's conference has the overarching theme In pursuit of a sustainable future: creating and anchoring interprofessional- and sustainability mindsets in educations and in the work field. With its comprehensive program, this year's Its21 conference will be highly relevant and exciting for both university faculty members, students, and representatives from municipalities and worklife.

Wicked problems

Ane Johannessen, head of TVEPS, is very satisfied with the program:

– Through lectures, workshops, e-posters, and panel debates, the conference will provide participants with insight into multiple topics - we will for instance learn more about how interdisciplinary collaboration can be used to solve so-called 'wicked problems' – societal problems without a clear-cut solution; how to best facilitate team-based learning; how interdisciplinary collaboration learning can ease the transition from studies to worklife; how interprofessional learning can contribute to better health services; how we can improve collaborative learning in innovation and entrepreneurship - and much more.

The conference will be a golden opportunity to learn from experts and researchers from diverse fields such as pedagogy, health and social sciences, and engineering. But the conference is also something more, Johannessen explains:

– Its21 is a perfect forum for anyone interested in learning about sustainability in education and society in general, and how interdisciplinary collaborative learning can create a better society. But the potential is far greater than just a learning forum: the conference is also a perfect platform for students, university faculty members, and representatives from municipalities and workplaces to build valuable networks for the future, and to share own experiences and ideas with others. And by including so many different stakeholders in one conference, Its21 will also be a unique contribution to reducing the silo organization that characterizes our education systems, and promote an inclusive approach and mutual acquaintances across different disciplines and sectors.

Welcome to Bergen!

The Nordic Its21 conference will be held at the Grand Hotel Terminus in Bergen, and registration includes access to both conference days and includes lunch both Thursday and Friday. In addition, there will be a banquet on the evening of Thursday, April 27th, for which separate registration is required.

Registration is available here, and the program can be found here.

The organizer, TVEPS - Centre for Interprofessional Workplace Learning, has a long-standing experience in interprofessional collaboration learning, and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Over the past decade, TVEPS has grown from a handful of students per semester to over 900 students from the University of Bergen and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences per year. Bergen and Øygarden municipalities have been solid partners from the start.

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UiB/Silje Katrine Robinson

In interprofessional collaboration learning at TVEPS, students encounter real-life challenges in the workplace arenas while they learn, by creating tailored interdisciplinary care plans for individual users of municipal health and social services, and by creating interactive educational programs on health and life mastery for children and adolescents. TVEPS' 10th anniversary will be celebrated in a special section in the conference program.

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UiB