The ambition of the EC is to make Europe a Pole of Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainable Development (SD). CSR/SD is a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. CSR/SD has become an increasingly important concept both globally and within the EU, and is part of the debate about competitiveness and innovation (see e.g. revised Lisbon Strategy). Enterprises, as the engine for economic growth, job creation and innovation, are considered to be key actors in realising the Lisbon- and SD objectives. This implies that CSR should become a mainstream business practice. To reach this goal, adequate knowledge and skills need to be developed among future entrepreneurs, business leaders, company managers and employees. Whereas the challenges that companies and countries are confronted with call for a transnational approach, a gap analysis executed in the countries involved shows that apart from some national executive programmes in CSR/SD no pan-European executive programme exists. The growing body of knowledge that is available in universities and companies at national levels should be made accessible, exchanged, integrated and applied internationally. This project aims to do this by jointly developing a modular European post-master programme. AIMS & OBJECTIVES1) Develop a joint European part-time, modular post-master programme awarded with a certificate recognised in the countries involved, aiming at students with substantive working experience, aged 30-40, who are interested in CSR and who have the potential to become the future business leaders. The focus of the programme will be on the valorisation of existing and new scientific, applied and experiential knowledge within the network. Students will be equipped with insights, skills and innovative applications in the field of CSR/SD, after which they can use this knowledge in business practice. 2) Strengthen the network of expertise of European universities and enterprises, which have a clear vision on CSR/SD or have the ambition to develop such a vision and who want to promote this3) Given the fact that the proposed programme does not exist in Europe at present, it will contribute to addressing the current educational gap. Its unique parttime modular structure is expected to appeal to students with a full time job who would otherwise hesitate to take up a study due to time constraints. 4) The design, ambition and scope of the programme (with Associate business partners) will have the potential to contribute to the valorisation of national and EU policy objectives. IMPACT- Participants who have finished this post-master programme will be highly skilled in the field of CSR/SD. They will be able to change the mindsets of their organisations, and function as multipliers to recognise and respond to supranational influences on issues in CSR/SD. - The awareness of the EU business community on CSR/SD will increase, and best practices on implementation will be transferred, through dissemination via the networks of the business partners and students - There will be a better connection between the needs and expectations of companies and knowledge and skills accumulated within universities thus creating a better labour market connection. Knowledge of employees will be updated, which will increase their employability. - The project enables the universities to expand their collaboration with enterprises and other universities at the European level, which is in line with the institutions’ national strategy. As such, this collaboration will expectedly result in more joint projects (research, education), structural funding from new sources (businesses, joint research projects) in order to become less dependent of governmental funding. - Ultimately this programme will contribute to EU becoming a pole of excellence in CSR/SD.