The partnership between the four institutions stimulates new innovative forms of education, such as Challenge Based Learning. Students from different disciplines work together and with social partners on actual problems from the business world or society. In 2021, the alliance organized the following challenges for third-year bachelor students and all master students from TU/e, WUR, UU and UMC Utrecht.

• COVID Challenge
  The Covid-19 pandemic still confronts us with a new reality to this day. For the Covid Challenge, the municipality of Utrecht was looking for solutions to minimize the health, social and economic burden of the pandemic for Utrecht residents. Student teams set to work, in line with the national corona measures, to find creative solutions.

• Dutch Dairy Challenge
  The Dutch Dairy Challenge helped dairy farmers to give ‘hands and feet’ to their own innovative and entrepreneurial idea for the future of the dairy farm. Students joined the team of a dairy farmer and together with a professional coach, the students developed entrepreneurial and start-up skills.

• Food for Health and Safety Challenge
  The Ministry of Defense was looking for a new food concept for soldiers on training and missions. In this challenge, students were challenged to design a new sustainable concept that satisfied the military while meeting all the requirements of the ministry.

• Inter-University Sustainability Challenge
  What will the sustainable city of the future look like and how can we achieve sustainable cities? Within this challenge, the students were given a choice of three subjects: (1) Urban agriculture, (2) Air quality, or (3) Energy transition. In interdisciplinary teams, they worked together, each with their own expertise, on out-of-the-box, scientific solutions for the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

• Bio-med-tech Interdisciplinary Team Training (BITT)
  In this challenge a current and urgent problem of a patient was the starting point. Think of risks due to adhesions as a result of multiple heart operations and an eating problem due to tumor treatment. Three small groups of students from different institutions and multiple disciplines worked on a solution for these patients.
  
• RAT Challenge
  We assume that the products we buy in the supermarket are not harmful for our health. What is often not realized is that all products are tested on animals: from the ingredients to the packaging, all is screened with use of laboratory animals. What would our supermarket and health care look like if we would stop animal testing today? That is the central question in this challenge.