Welcome to the FinTech Innovation Challenge – Designing the Future of Digital Finance.  

This challenge-based learning (CBL) module is designed to equip students with the analytical, technological, regulatory and innovation capabilities required to operate in rapidly transforming financial systems. Advances in artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, open finance infrastructures, digital platforms, tokenisation, embedded finance and regulatory technologies are fundamentally reshaping financial services, financial markets and financial regulation.

Students will engage with a real-world fintech challenge presented by an industry partner (fintech company, financial institution, regulator, innovation hub or digital finance ecosystem stakeholder). Learners will work collaboratively to investigate a contemporary financial problem or market inefficiency and design an innovative, evidence-based and commercially viable fintech solution.

The module explores key areas of contemporary financial technology. The intellectual foundation of the module is that fintech should be understood as a response to financial frictions such as information asymmetry, transaction costs, lack of trust, barriers to financial access, inefficient intermediation and regulatory complexity. Students will critically evaluate how technologies reduce these frictions while simultaneously creating new risks associated with algorithmic bias, cyber vulnerabilities, operational dependence, financial crime, privacy concerns and systemic instability.

Using the Challenge-Based Learning framework, students will move through three key stages:

- Engage – define and frame the financial technology challenge.
- Investigate – critically analyse the challenge using academic research, market intelligence, industry engagement and data-driven investigation.
- Act – design and present an innovative fintech solution with clear implementation, governance, regulatory and risk-management considerations.

Students will present their findings and recommendations to industry representatives and academic mentors. The module develops practical and transferable skills in innovation management, digital finance analysis, financial technologies, regulatory thinking, collaborative problem-solving and strategic communication.

This module provides an opportunity for learners to exercise their creative, problem-solving, critical thinking and collaboration skills in a practical and focused manner while gaining formative feedback from industry mentors and academic leads

Financial Technology and Innovation Challenge

Designing innovative, responsible and technology-enabled financial solutions for the future digital economy.

Codes of ethics and research integrity frameworks are designed to promote trust, guide professional conduct, and ensure the quality and credibility of results. They help create confidence among citizens, institutions, and society at large. However, breaches of these frameworks not only occur—they're becoming more frequent, yet harder to identify, in a world marked by complexity, crisis, and the rapid spread of information across diverse and sometimes unreliable channels.

Misconduct can take many forms, and its motivations vary widely. In some cases, ethical lapses arise from ignorance or pressure; in others, from deliberate manipulation or blurred boundaries. Whatever the cause, navigating these situations requires more than just knowledge of the rules. It requires the ability to reflect critically, to connect actions with consequences, and to develop a personal ethical perspective that is both informed and resilient.

In this challenge, you’ll investigate real and hypothetical cases of misconduct, learn from experts in different fields, and begin to build your own framework for ethical reasoning—one that can guide your professional choices in an increasingly uncertain world. You'll work with IRAFPA (Institut de Recherche et d’Action sur la Fraude et le Plagiat Académiques), a French nonprofit organisation, to create a deliverable that will have an impact on young professionals currently working in the field.

But what that deliverable is will be up to you! Guided by your teamcher, you'll design and craft an output that you think will best serve early-career workers regarding their own professional and research ethics at a crucial moment in their fledgling careers. Put your ideas into practice by helping IRAFPA develop clear, compelling messages that resonate with young professionals navigating today's complex world.

Rethinking Professional Ethics

Building Personal Integrity by Understanding Ethical Risk and Navigating Misinformation, and Polarization in a World of Complexity and Crisis

Around the world, agriculture and food production generate huge amounts of biomass and organic waste. Chicken manure, in particular, is produced in large quantities worldwide, and while it's increasingly used to feed biogas reactors, the digestate left behind is still an untapped opportunity.  
Brazil, with its large agricultural sector and growing biogas industry, offers an exciting setting for exploring this opportunity. How can a by-product of biogas production be transformed into high-quality biofertilizers that benefit farmers, businesses and the environment?  
You will use Santo Antonio do Monte, Minas Gerais, Brazil as your base, and together with InovaBiogas, you will investigate how digestate from chicken-manure-fed biogas reactors can be processed into different types of biofertilizers and other higher-value products. This could include liquid and solid biofertilizers, biostimulants, and solutions based on co-digestion with other organic materials.  
Producing different types of biofertilizers from raw digestate isn't just good chemistry; it's good business. It increases profit potential, opens up new markets and customer groups, creates additional revenue opportunities and contributes to healthier soils and more circular agricultural systems.  
Your challenge will be to examine the current landscape, identify barriers, and propose smart and realistic strategies to make biofertilizer production from chicken manure digestate more effective and profitable. Specifically, you will identify ways of dealing with digestate with high nitrogen levels, define strategies to minimize its presence in the final biofertilizer, and propose concrete, real-world solutions.  
There is no single right answer. You will work in interdisciplinary teams to combine different perspectives and develop solutions that are not only technically feasible, but also practical, sustainable and economically viable.

**A Summer School in Brazil**  
This challenge offers more than an opportunity to work on a real-world sustainability problem. It is also an international summer-school experience in Brazil, combining challenge-based learning, academic credits and the opportunity to experience a different country and culture.  
A face-to-face (F2F) week in Santo Antônio do Monte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, is a mandatory part of the challenge. During this week, you will take your work from the virtual environment into the real world, working directly with InovaBiogas, researchers specialised in biogas and biofertilizer production, and other relevant stakeholders.  
You will explore the local context, discuss your ideas with experts and investigate how advanced biogas and biofertilizer production systems could be implemented in practice. Being on location will allow you to see the challenges and opportunities first-hand and to test your ideas against the realities of the Brazilian context.  
But the experience does not have to end with the challenge. Why not make the most of your journey to Brazil? Depending on your plans, the summer-school format gives you the opportunity to extend your trip before or after the F2F week to explore Minas Gerais and beyond, from vibrant cities to stunning natural landscapes, turning this academic experience into a broader adventure of discovery and cultural immersion.  
By the end of the challenge, you will have gained experience in tackling a real-world sustainability problem where biogas, agriculture, circular economy and innovation meet. At the same time, you will work in an international team, earn credits toward your studies, and experience the opportunities and challenges of developing sustainable solutions in Brazil — all while exploring one of the world's most captivating countries.  
Go to Brazil to solve a real-world challenge. Come back with new knowledge, new connections and a new perspective on what is possible when waste becomes a resource.  

**Syllabus**

This challenge is given within the context of the course 746G77 Advancing Sustainable Futures: International implementation of Biogas solutions for a Global Greener Transition  
The course examines the implementation and adaptation of anaerobic digestion, biogas and biofertilizer solutions in international contexts outside Europe. It is organized in connection with cities, communities, companies or other relevant actors in an international setting. The course considers context-specific international challenges related to organic waste, energy, agriculture, climate, sanitation and health and evaluates opportunities for addressing these through anaerobic digestion. Attention is given to international differences in feedstocks, infrastructure, climate, resource availability and other local conditions that influence the feasibility and sustainability of biogas and biofertilizer solutions

Building Sustainable Futures: : Biogas Without Borders - Implementing Solutions Beyond Europe

From Global Knowledge to Local Impact: A Summer School Challenge in Brazil

Strategic Communication in STEM, Environment and Healthcare is part of the MSc in Science and Health Communication housed within DCU's School of Communications The MSHC is known for its global reputation in teaching and research excellence in media, communications, and journalism. The faculty comprises of not only esteemed academic scholars but also seasoned industry professionals. The groundbreaking research conducted by these faculty members, which is peer-reviewed and internationally recognised, significantly contributes to policy-making in the realms of media, communications, and journalism, both within Ireland and on the international stage. The School of Communications has a rich tradition spanning nearly four decades, and today, it hosts nearly 1,000 students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, in addition to those undertaking doctoral research, making it a thriving hub of academic and professional development.

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Strategic Communications in STEM, Environment and Healthcare

Outlining the various models and activities of science and technology communication across sectors.

This Challenge Based Learning module introduces learners to the principles and practices of ethical and inclusive guidance within contemporary educational contexts. Participants will explore how guidance can support individuals in making informed educational, training and career development decisions while promoting equity, inclusion and lifelong development.

The module examines theoretical perspectives on inclusion, social justice and human rights, with particular attention to supporting young people as they transition from school to further education, training, employment, and adult life. Learners will develop an understanding of the role of schools and guidance professionals in fostering inclusive practice and ensuring that all learners, regardless of background, disability, or circumstance, can access meaningful opportunities.

This ELO adopts a challenge-based learning approach, enabling learners to apply principles of ethical and inclusive guidance to real-world issues identified by stakeholders working in social justice, education and inclusion contexts. Working individually and collaboratively, learners will critically examine contemporary challenges and develop evidence-informed responses that promote equity, participation, and positive outcomes for diverse learner populations. The module culminates in the creation of a research poster and a recorded presentation through which learners communicate their analysis, recommendations, and proposed solutions to stakeholder-defined challenges.

Contemporary Challenges in Career Development

Motivation letter is a personal statement and it might include a brief introduction of yourself, explanation why are you interested in the learning opportunity you are applying to, any relevant experience or skills that you have, your goals and how this opportunity will help you achieve them, This document should not be more than 400 words.

Motivation Letter

CV (Curriculum Vitae) is a document that summarizes your educational and professional history. It must provide a detailed overview of your academic and work experience, skills, achievements, and qualifications.

Transcript of Records is an official document issued by your home university. It specifies the name of the institution, the academic programme you are enrolled in, the list of courses taken up until the current period, the exams or tests you passed, the grades and the credits you earned. 

Transcript of Records

Dublin City University

Resilient communities

Circular economy

Entrepreneurship, technology and innovation

Critical and innovative thinking

Inter-personal skills

Media and information literacy

Intra-personal skills

Global citizenship

Member universities may require additional information from applicants. Please read the application information section carefully and include any extra required information in this section.

Other

Linkoping University

Energy and sustainability

INSA Group

The ability to show tolerance and appreciation for different values and norms held by different people and cultures. The mindset and awareness to respect, always, that these values, norms, and perspectives are developed under different circumstances and in different times and places.

Respect for Diversity

Respect for Diversity

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