Last week, CATA-Earth held its second annual face-to-face meeting for the members of the CATA-Earth consortium in Utrecht, Netherlands. The four-day meeting was filled with progress discussion, strategic discussion, knowledge exchange, and future-oriented planning. With participants flying in from across Europe as well as South and Southeast Asia, each day of the meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on our progress and refine our shared vision for transformative planetary health education. Here’s a look back at the inspiring journey.
Day 1
The meeting kicked off with welcoming each member and engaging in social activities, such as exchanging personal updates and warm hugs. Afterwards, a general overview followed, reviewing the progress that had been made and a recap of the major milestones and events from the past year. Then, we moved into comprehensive updates from each Work Package. This first day meeting aligned all members’ understanding of what has been done and our vision for the future.
Day 2
The meeting focused on Work Package 3 (Train the Trainer) through in-depth discussions to formulate the evaluation questionnaire of the Training of Trainers that had been conducted on the 2nd of July. This session discussed the best practice of program evaluation methodology to ensure the meaningful engagement and impact of the Training of Trainers program in an engaging and fruitful manner. In the afternoon, the meeting continued with a workshop about ‘Challenge Based Learning’ facilitated by Judith van de Kamp. This dynamic session ignited fresh ideas among consortium members to be applied further in the instructional design process of the program they are developing on Planetary Health in their respective institutions. This second day was a day of immersion both in knowledge and practice.
Day 3
The meeting opened with a recap from Day 2 before moving into an in-depth discussion about Work Package 2 (Course Development), focusing on the instructional design process. Each institution discussed its own syllabus in more detail and agreed on which learning units they are contributing for the Massive Open Online Course. In the afternoon, the meeting continued with in-depth discussion of Work Package 4, exploring the development of the knowledge repository, and Work Package 6 with the social media content development plan as the output. The NSTU team also launched their video about Planetary Health conditions in Bangladesh. The formal program wrapped up with reflections, but the day continued with a canal tour through Utrecht and a consortium dinner, creating an informal scenic atmosphere which strengthened relationships and collaboration among members.
Day 4
Day 4 was the final day of this annual consortium meeting and brought the consortium to a location that fit the planetary health theme – the Botanical Gardens. Starting with a brief reflection and feedback session of the CATA-Earth’s annual consortium meeting, then continued to the co-developing session where the group co -developed an action plan for the future year, identifying priorities and next steps. We closed the meeting with a walk through the gardens, reinforcing the connection between nature, health, and education. It was such an inspiring and thoughtful way to end a meaningful week.
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