Sign in
Understanding the structural challenges and opportunities for Nature-based Solutions in Teacher Training with the NBS Academy Policy Briefs
Defined as solutions that are inspired and supported by Nature, Nature-based Solutions (NBS) can play a pivotal role in addressing climate change and sustainability issues. And more than just providing solutions to environmental concerns, they offer a major opportunity to improve the lives of students and to empower them to become active citizens!
So, the NBS Academy project, an initiative co-funded by the European Union, has been working for the past 3 years to advance NBS education and teacher training by creating a Community of Practice made of teacher trainers, educators, NBS policymakers, and other NBS and education practitioners.
A major pillar of this work focused on supporting policy discussions with key stakeholders to understand the structural levers and obstacles, and to look ahead to the policy shifts needed for the introduction of NBS into teacher training.
Today, the project is proud to present three policy briefs that explore various aspects of the topic and progressively build a clear picture of the integration of NBS into teacher education, leading to clear policy recommendations to consolidate it.
The first policy brief presents an initial landscape analysis of opportunities and challenges for integrating NBS into teacher education across Europe. Informed by policy roundtables with representatives from the Scientix® Ministries of Education STEM Working Group (MoE STEM WG), the brief provides an overview of the current conditions shaping NBS uptake in Initial Teacher Education and Continuous Professional Development.
Across Europe, NBS in teacher education are moving from isolated, teacher-led initiatives towards emerging system-level practice. However, without clear concepts and structural as well as operational support for educators, these pockets of practice will not scale. Policy Brief 2 Policy is built on dialogues conducted in April 2026 with the Scientix® MoE STEM WG which identified teacher time and teacher confidence as the main challenges across countries; confusion between outdoor learning, sustainability education and NBS as a key challenge for teachers; child-protection rules and unstructured NGO partnerships as concrete operational blockers to outdoor practice.
This third NBS Academy policy brief shifts the analytical lens from European-level dialogue to national-level evidence drawn from roundtables and stakeholder interviews in six pilot countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece and Sweden. A consistent picture emerges across very different governance structures: the foundations of NBS education are already present in teacher education systems, but they are rarely framed as such, and most current efforts operate on a project rather than institutional basis.
Stay connected with NBS Academy via its portal and through Scientix for the Policy recommendations coming soon!