PolyUnderstanding: Polycrisis, Fragility and Resilience (2nd edition)

The PolyUnderstanding BIP, forming part of the future Joint Master on the Polycrisis by PolyCIVIS, comprises a foundational learning offering on Polycrisis and Polysolutions studies.

Bringing together an impressive line-up of more than 30 academic tutors from CIVIS Universities in Africa and Europe and world-class external experts from renowned international organizations, it takes stock of participatory, teamwork - and challenge-based pedagogies, games and COIL teaching, to delve into the mechanics of understanding what the polycrisis is, how it is triggered and keeps cascading across domains and geographies, how it relates to dimensions of fragility and how it can be countered through structural resilience.

Through an array of perspectives from crises in different domains, such as climate, environment, energy, health, society, cities, migration, international security and development, coupled with crisis experiences and lessons learnt from Africa and Europe, and discussions for the interplay of the polycrisis with the digital transition, development aid, open government, humanitarian action, public-purpose innovation and other agendas, this BIP is addressed at doctoral, masters and advanced bachelor students from all CIVIS universities who want to understand robustly how to build resilience against the polycrisis and polysolutions design in their own contexts, and form part of tomorrow's cohort of global awareness leaders and changemakers.

The BIP is offered during May-June 2027 in Athens, Greece and online, at a workload of 6 ECTS accredited to all successful attendees through active attendance and project assignments. It's a unique learning experience for forward-thinking, engaged students from across the disciplines, interested to see their own study contexts from a broader angle and explore the encounters of their learning and research paths with a global challenges and better futures perspective.

*The BIP has already had a very successful first edition implementation during May-June 2026, in Athens and online, with students' satisfaction at > 90% levels - enjoying contents, teaching and collaboration, as well as physical premises, online platforms and reception overall (information drawn from the official CIVIS BIP Student Survey results). You can find here all information and images from the first edition.

• An epistemology of the polycrisis: meaning(s), dimensions, triggers, cascading mechanisms
  
• Crises in domains across the SDGs: from climate, environment, health, society, cities, migration, all the way to international security and development
• Crises in, and across, Africa and Europe
• Unravelling fragility: meanings, dimensions, flavours, root causes and gordian knots
• Assembling resilience: mechanisms driving from non-fragility to resilient development and wellbeing
• Weaving resilience through the polycrisis: digital transition, development aid, open government, humanitarian action, public-purpose innovation and other fabrics
• An epistemology for polysolutions: what can they look like, what are their substantive features
• Design pathways for polysolutions: how can they be designed, one step at a time, across systems complexity.

• understand in depth what the polycrisis is and how it arrives;
  
• build awareness of crises in different domains and their interconnections;
• understand how crises cascade across geographies;
• gain an informed and holistic understanding of fragility;
• identify structures, components and degrees of resilience;
  
• develop a resilience view upon positive change agendas;
• learn to apply polycrisis, fragility and resilience lenses on own fields of study;
• explore the concept and structure of polysolutions across domains;
• learn to design polysolutions elements in a think big/ start small/ scale wisely/ extend across domains approach.

The physical section of the BIP will take place between 7-11 June 2027 in Athens, Greece. All the sessions will be held in the premises of the Dept. of Communication and Media Studies of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. 

The gathering starts with a reception on Monday, 7 June 2027 (09:00 AM EEST). The Athens-based tutors will meet you on the spot, making sure all students have arrived and settled safely, and to finalize any practical arrangements (premises accessibility, Wi-fi access, etc.)

The physical teaching week encompasses a series of 10 sessions for the physical teaching 5 days: one morning 4-hour session (09:00-13:00 EEST), and one afternoon 4-hour session (14:00-16:00 EEST), with coffee breaks and a light-lunch break in-between, for each one of the 5 days.

Detailed schedule: 

1. Monday, 7 June 2027, 9:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 EEST: Module B - What is the polycrisis, based on the CI & WITS approach
2. Tuesday, 8 June 2027, 9:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 EEST: Module C - Domain crises (spanning climate, environment, health, society, cities, migration, international security, development and others) and Continent crises (spanning Africa and Europe)
3. Wednesday, 9 June 2027, 9:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 EEST: Module C - Domain crises (spanning climate, environment, health, society, cities, migration, international security, development and others) and Continent crises (spanning Africa and Europe)
4. Thursday, 10 June 2027, 9:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 EEST: Module C - Domain crises (spanning climate, environment, health, society, cities, migration, international security, development and others) and Continent crises (spanning Africa and Europe)
5. Friday, 11 June 2027, 9:00-13:00 & 14:00-18:00 EEST: Module D - The Fragiles vs Resilients game

The virtual part will take place between 10 May - 21 June 2027. We will start with a virtual pre-reception on Monday, 3 May 2027 (13:00 - 15:00 CEST), by all tutors and students, to pre-meet, make the tour de table, make sure that all preparations are in place and present to students the PolyCIVIS podcasts, webinars, policy briefs, research volume and handbook on the Polycrisis as an introduction to the BIP’s topics.

This is followed by a series of 4-hour afternoon sessions (13:00 - 17:00 CEST), covering:

• policies about the polycrisis;
• research about the polycrisis;
• fragility and the polycrisis: towards a poly-fragility concept;
• resilience and the polycrisis: toward a poly-resilience concept;
• topics on domain crises, on top of those covered in the physical teaching week;
• topics on continent crises, on top of those covered in the physical teaching week.

These sessions are to be delivered by academic tutors, as well as accommodate expert speakers from international organizations, who will be invited to make interventions in lecture or panel formats followed by discussion with the BIP students.

The webinars will take place on: 

• Monday, 10 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Wednesday, 12 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Monday, 17 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Wednesday, 19 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Monday, 24 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Wednesday, 26 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Monday, 31 May 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST
• Wednesday, 2 June 2027, 13:00 - 17:00 CEST

Taken all together, these 8 virtual seminars are covering Module A of the BIP, on Fragility, Resilience, Domain and Continent Crises, Policies and Research, with the specific tutors and topics of each seminar to be announced.

The virtual part completes with student assignments to be presented orally in a final virtual session on Monday, 21 June 2027, between 10:00 -13:00 & 14:00 - 17:00 CEST and delivered by that date (10 days after completion of teaching).

Students will be evaluated on the basis of 4 components :

1. attendance - mandatory for all physical and virtual teaching activities - and substantive participation in physical and virtual activities, including organized discussions and exchanges on selected topics;
2. full compliance to respect for diversity, academic integrity and anti-plagiarism principles;
3. purposeful palling with peers during class interaction and project assignments;
4. individual / small group (2-3 students) / large group (8-10 students) project assignments, on reflecting on the ways in which what has been presented in the BIP combines with their own research questions, linked to their own disciplinary and geographical perspectives, and delivering and presenting some written essays by a fixed hard deadline, at a total length of 4,000 words per student, counting from introduction up to conclusions, with a ±10% margin, referencing the BIP sources in a substantive manner, in English, following APA style, with zero tolerance for plagiarism and AI writing.

Assignment topics will be determined by the PolyUnderstanding BIP scientific committee working together with participating students. They will be based on documented interdisciplinarity needs and scope of work and expected to have a balance between study-review work (approximately 70% of the final assignment’s workload) and work to formulate an open research question (approximately 30% of the final assignment’s workload).

Motivation Letter

CV

Research project outlines

Applications will be evaluated based on:

• quality and interest of CV (max 4 points);
• quality and interest of Motivation Letter (max 4 points);
• quality and interest of Research project outlines (max 4 points);
• effective demonstration of applicants’ interest for opening up their knowledge into a polycrisis, fragility and resilience epistemology which transcends their own study domains and geographies, and substantively liaising this epistemology to their own studies (max 4 points).

In case of the lowest-ranking applications gathering equal evaluation points, all corresponding applicants will be offered a place in the BIP.

• Ahmadou Aly Mbaye, Professeur titulaire, Département d’Analyse et Politique Economiques, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD)
• Alessandra Battisti, Full Professor of Technology of Architecture, Sapienza Università di Roma
• Alessandro Bozzini, Expert in democratic governance, freelance consultant
• Alexandra Nakou, PhD,Postdoctoral Research Fellow, NKUA Dept of Communication and Media Studies, 
• Amandine Sabourin, PhD, Senior Policy Analyst, ECDPM
• Aminata Mboup, Chargée de partenariat, UCAD
• Andreas Pavlou, Lead, Independent Reporting Mechanism, Open Government Partnership
• Chrysafo Arvaniti, Community Engagement Senior Advisor, Médecins Sans Frontières
• Constantinos Cartalis, Professor of Environmental and Climate Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, IPCC AR7 Lead Author Adaptation, Member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change,
• Delia Popescu,Professor at Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Bucharest
• Dimitris Gouscos, Associate Professor of Digital Communication, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, PolyCIVIS Communication & Dissemination Co-leader, PolyUnderstanding BIP Coordinator
• Elda Stoupa, MSc, Scientific Associate, Project Manager, NKUA Medical School
• Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, MA, Chief Executive, South African Institute of International Affairs
• Emilio Tostão, Professor, Managing Director, Research Centre for Agricultural Food Policies and Programmes, UEM
• Emmanouil Pikoulis, MD, MSc, DMCC, PhD, FACS, FEBS, Professor of Surgery, Medical School, NKUA, President of Hellenic Surgical Society, Vice President of WSES, European Jean Monnet Chair in Peacebuilding Health Diplomacy (2025-2028), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
• Emmanuella Doussis, Professor of International Institutions and UNESCO Chairholder on Climate Diplomacy, NKUA, 
• Evika Karamagioli, Assistant Professor, Medical School, NKUA
• Fadma Ait Mous, Professor of Sociology at Hassan II University of Casablanca
• Faith Mabera, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of the Witwatersrand
• Giannis Skiadaresis, Area Coordinator at DG HOME - European Commission
• Ilias Plakokefalos, Assistant Professor of Public International Law, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
• Ines Ellouze, Habilitation universitaire, Professor, USF
• Inês Macamo Raimundo, PhD, Researcher, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane
• Ioanna-Mirto Chatzigeorgiou, PhD, Electrical Engineer/Project Manager, ELECTRA ENERGY cooperative ● Energy in the hands of citizens
• Jonathan Marley, PhD, Senior Policy Analyst on development peace and security at the OECD, leading the OECD’s States of Fragility series and overseas associated research and analysis
• Juan Esteban Malo Arrazola, Profesor Titular de Universidad del Departamento de Ecología de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Research Group on Ecology and Conservation of Terrestrial Ecosystems (TEG)
• Katerina Christopoulou, MSc, MSc, Research Fellow, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, PolyCIVIS Communication & Dissemination Officer
• Katerina Schoina, MSc, MA, Research Fellow, NKUA
• Khady Yama Sarr, PostDoc Researcher and WASCAL Research Assistant, UCAD
• Livia Calcagni, PhD,Research Fellow, Sapienza Università di Roma
• Malte Brosig, Professor of International Relations, Head of the Dept. of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand
• Maria Fátima Franco Múgica, Profesora Contratada Doctora del Departamento de Ecología de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Research Group on Ecology and Conservation of Terrestrial Ecosystems (TEG)
• Marina Tomara, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, NKUA Dept of Communication and Media Studies
• Mbayang Thiam, Researcher and Lecturer, UCAD
• Nibal Idlebi, PhD, Senior Advisor on Digital Transformation and Innovation Policies, Collaborating Expert, ARISPA (The Arab Federation for Internet and Communications), Former Director at UN-ESCWA
• Noor Gulamussen, Senior Lecturer, UEM
• Olfa Ammar, PhD, Research Fellow, University of Sfax, PolyCIVIS Communication & Dissemination Officer
• Panayotis Tsakonas, Professor of International Relations, Security Studies and Foreign Policy Analysis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
• Petra Kežman, MA, MA, Senior Advisor, Union for the Mediterranean
• Ruth Aura Odhiambo, Senior Lecturer, Egerton University, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya
• Sabine Klocke-Daffa, Apl. Professor Dr. and Research Associate, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen
• Sotiris Kirginas, PostDoc, Research Fellow, NKUA
• Thannaletchimy Housset, PhD, Global Insights Manager, Internal Displacement Monitoring Center
• Theodoros Tsekos, Professor Emeritus of Public Administration, University of the Peloponnese