On the Road to Breakthroughs: Looking Forward to the SF‑BioVac project’s Innovation Camp in Zambia

Cover picture: Unsplash.

Zambia is currently facing various challenges. Lack of electrification in rural areas and a large amount of municipal waste are among these challenges. The SF-BioVac project (with the real name The Sustainable Futures- Biogas Value Chain for Circular Economy Competence Growth in Zambia) aims at finding solutions to these challenges.  The project is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland and administered under the Finnish National Agency for Education's Higher Education Partnership (HEP) program.  The aim of the project is to support Zambia in the transition towards circular economy. It has been confirmed that a Circular Economy would have huge potential in Zambia (see for instance Tandem, 2024).

One activity of the project is the organization of an innovation camp for students in partner universities. The camp aims at solving local real-life challenges, related to circular economy.  The pedagogical approach influencing the learning methods of innovation camps is transformative pedagogy. This blog discusses the pedagogical background of innovation camps as an approach to learning and practical problems solving. Moreover, the blog elaborates on our expectations ahead of the camp that will take place in Lusaka, Zambia, in April 2026.

Transformative pedagogy 

Transformative pedagogy aims to help students change their basic thought patterns, values and perspectives through critical reflection. This process, known as transformative learning, involves challenging one's own assumptions to develop new ways of seeing oneself, others and the world. One of the goals is to develop the ability to cope with and adapt to a changing world. (Mezirow & Taylor, 2009) A transformative pedagogy encourages teachers to support students in growing into better humans (Farren, 2015).  Thus, a transformative pedagogy is often the starting point in learning about sustainable development and the need for societal change.   

Transformative pedagogy for sustainability develops problem-solving skills and systemic thinking, empathy and compassion (Salonen & Siirilä, 2019). Thus, transformative pedagogy can be described as activating, proactive, and reflective and includes, for example, project-based learning, real-life problem solving, and tasks, where students are given the opportunity to reflect and come up with solutions together.

The SF-BioVac project’s innovation camp in a nutshell

Innovation camps bring together diverse actors to explore development challenges from a user perspective and to collaborate in the design of solutions. The approach is usually interdisciplinary, and the participants are under pressure with tight deadlines during the few days they work together. In the end the solutions are presented.  (Olsen-Östergaard et al., 2019) Participants at the camp could for instance be social entrepreneurs, community activists, government agencies, designers, technologists, and others. In a university setting, it is usually students from different study programs who meet up for a camp. Together, the participants share knowledge and experiences, generate insights into problems, brainstorm, and test possible solutions. Thus, innovation camps foster creativity, encourage experimentation, and create an environment for risk-taking and learning. (UNPD, nd)

The innovation camp organized by the SF-BioVac project in Lusaka in April 2026, will bring together students and staff from Novia University of Applied Sciences in Finland and the Zambian partners Copperbelt University (CBU) and University of Zambia (UNZA). Students with different educational backgrounds will work in teams of six students to solve challenges given by the associated partners of the project. Lecturers from the Zambian universities will be trained in advanced to be able to work as coaches for the teams during the camp. In the end the students have to pitch their solutions to a jury, comprising experts of circular economy.  

A delegation of two teachers and six bachelor’s students from the business program at Novia’s campus in Turku, will travel to Zambia for the camp. The students have been trained in issues related to circular economy in Zambia through an online course. The students from Novia will work intensively with the Zambian counterparts for four days, to solve a challenge. To make the problem-solving process structured, it will be based on the LOOPA method.

LOOPA as an approach for innovation camps

The LOOPA method is an example of how a transformative pedagogy can be implemented in practice. Drivhuset, the organisation behind the method, describes LOOPA as “a concrete and action-based agile working method for how you can develop innovative ideas, services, products and concepts - with customer value in focus” (Drivhuset, 2026a).  The LOOPA method is thus about developing and testing business ideas in a cycle or "loop" of customer focus, testing and adaptation. The method combines different theoretical innovation tools to develop products and services that are tailored to customer needs and desires. The focus is on understanding the target group, as well as its problems and needs. By iterating and creating solutions together with the target group, one prepares a value proposition (see Harvard Business School, 2026) that adds value to the target group.

Proven tools such as the Business Model Canvas are used for business development to build and visualise business models. The goal is to reduce uncertainty and increase the chance of success with the business idea. The method is designed to be practical and realistic, and it usually works well for practical problem-solving like the one at the SF-BioVac innovation camp.  

The LOOPA method helps to visualise and systematise innovation processes, making it a very suitable tool for teaching innovation and entrepreneurship. By integrating these tools with team learning, a strong foundation for entrepreneurial thinking and innovation is established. The fact that the Loopa method nowadays has its own artificial intelligence  tool MAIA (Drivhuset, 2026b), will bring a completely new aspect for the students at the innovation camp to proceed through.

Expectations ahead of the innovation camp

As teachers engaged in the planning process of the innovation camp, and the ones joining the Finnish students on the trip to Zambia, we are full of excitement. Together with the lecturers from the Zambian universities, we are planning the schedule of the camp, coaching the Zambian lecturers, and following the process of finding challenging tasks for the students to solve during the camp. At the same time, we are meeting the Finnish students on a regular basis, making sure that they are well prepared to work in teams with the Zambian students. Both students as well as teachers, have to have a basic understanding of the Zambian society and challenges related to sustainable development and circular economy the country is facing.

April 16, 2026, we will start our trip to Zambia. Our aim is to document our experiences carefully and we look forward to disseminating more about our 10-day visit after the return. We would like to express our gratitude to Svenska Kulturfonden for supporting our trip.

Sources

Drivhuset (2026a). Our methods. https://drivhuset.se/en/utbildning/vara-metoder/

Drivhuset (2026b). Try our MAIA – AI Assistant. https://drivhuset.se/boka-radgivning/testa-var-maia-ai-assistent/

Farren,  P. (2015).  Transformative Pedagogy in Context: being and becoming https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309883887_Transformative_Pedagogy_in_Context_being_and_becoming

Harvard Business School (2026). Unique Value Proposition. https://www.isc.hbs.edu/strategy/creating-a-successful-strategy/Pages/unique-value-proposition.aspx

Mezirow, J., & E. Taylor, H.  (2009). Transformative Learning in Practice: Insights from Community, Workplace and Higher Education. JosseyBass. California.

Olsen- Östergaard, S. , Sugiarto S., Kondro, H. & Nöskov, J. (2019)    Innovation camps - Innovation Camp – what, why and how? In  Kairisto-Mertanen, K & Budiano, T. A.   (eds.) INDOPED-Modernising Indonesian Higher Education with Tested European Pedagogical Practices.  Turku University of Applied Sciences. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341434208_Innovation_Camp_-_what_why_and_how

Salonen, A.  & Siirilä, J. (2019). Transformative Pedagogies for Sustainable Development. https://helda.helsinki.fi/server/api/core/bitstreams/9ea8f8ec-68ba-40a2-9e7c-a37b09a45f23/content

Tandem (2024). Zambia Cirular Economy Study 2024.  https://finlandabroad.fi/documents/6314947/0/Zambia+Circular+Economy+Study+2024.pdf/85afc68a-0be2-2aa8-39f0-ed8298576172?t=1738656845440

UNPD nd. Innovation camps. https://www.undp.org/arab-states/innovation-camps

Texten har granskats och godkänts av Novias redaktionsråd 21.4.2026.