The goal of the ActSHEN project aimed to increase student influence in university courses on sustainability and explore how participatory and collaborative education in sustainability education could be strengthened At the outset we were guided by three principles: 1) we would address cross-disciplinary knowledge 2) as we encouraged respect for various forms of knowledge and 3) found ways to share values and responsibility. Two research questions were set forward: • What types of student-driven activities in higher education lead students, teachers and staff to richer understanding and better preparedness to work with sustainability issues? • What actions are needed to support and encourage university teachers and students who wish to work with and for sustainability? In this paper, two aspects of the project are considered, first as a university teacher and second as the director. As a university teacher and regular member of the project I did some pilot work. For personal reasons and influenced by design-based research I tried out specific changes within some of the courses I taught (Nieveen (2009).. I did this by addressing core aspects one at a time: assessment, curriculum, and pedagogy. The advent of a co-researcher helped in keeping records and discussing changes. The educational changes will be briefly discussed and their success or otherwise evaluated in terms of their effect on learning and motivation. Second, as the project director I will report on the dynamics of this strange project which (against the odds) has led to real change. To do this I will consider the following aspects of project management: information, financial resources, people and operations. In closing I will reflect on and justify my personal interpretation of the idiosyncratic nature of this successful project. Unspoken and explicit rules of project management were broken but these breakages improved the outcomes. This development project was funded by Nordplus Higher Education and we thank the administrators for constructive support throughout the project. We also thank the financial office at the School of Education at the University of Iceland not just for services rendered, but for the practical way in which they were provided. The Icelandic team were the project coordinators and this author was the overall director. Other partners were from the Icelandic Art Academy, CEMUS at Uppsala University and the Chemistry department at Helsinki University. It has been both a pleasure and a learning experience for us all.

Nieveen, N. (2009). Formative evaluation in educational design research. In T. Plomp & N. Nieveen (Eds.), An introduction to educational design research (pp. 89–101). Enschede: SLO, Netherlands Institute for Curriculum Development. ActSHEN Project Group (2016). ActSHEN: Action for Sustainability in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://blogs.helsinki.fi/action-for-sustainability/ (papers by Singer and Macdonald).