A hybrid seminar introducing the concepts of geosynthetics to the higher education community in Scandinavia was held for the first time in Spring 2025.

IGS Nordic held a series of talks as part of its first IGS Educate the Educators (EtE) event, both online and in person, in Lund, Sweden. Topics included filter geotextiles, landfill structures, and reinforcement.

The popular EtE program aims to show university educators how to incorporate geosynthetics into their existing curricula so students graduate with a basic knowledge about the applications of geosynthetics and their benefits.

Held at AF Borgen, home of The Academic Society of Lund University, 58 participants (43 online, 15 on-site) from 16 countries attended the event last month. The majority were from Norway and Finland, with the rest from mainly Iceland and Sweden.

Chapter President Minna Leppänen said: "Our aim was to support teachers in Nordic universities as well as engineers looking for information on the basics of geosynthetic products and their applications especially in the Nordic environment.

"The event was successful and attendees told us they thought our presentations were great. It would have been nice to meet more people face to face to have discussions so perhaps we'll look how we can facilitate that at future events."

IGS Nordic is planning another EtE event in January, next year.

IGS Nordic was established in fall 2021 with the amalgamation of the Norway and Finland chapters, augmented by individual members from Sweden, Iceland, Denmark and Estonia.