ENGAGE.EU Expedition+@ Tilburg University 2026: BatteREstore
Title: ENGAGE.EU Expedition+@ Tilburg University 2026: BatteREstore
Topics: BatteREstore: Second Life for Batteries, New Energy for the City
Date and duration: Monday 29 June 2026 to Friday 03 July 2026
Format: IN PERSON in Tilburg, The Netherlands
Extended Application Deadline: 15 April 2026
About the ENGAGE.EU Expedition+
The ENGAGE.EU Expedition+ is a one-week intensive, international and multidisciplinary co-design programme and learning experience for students who work together with experts and mentors on finding solutions to real-life problems. It is a collaborative programme, which focuses on creating value for society and uses the framework for inno-preneurship as guiding principle. They offer formal and informal learning in context together with ENGAGE.EU partners.
By engaging in this international co-design programme, students contribute to real-life societal transformations. They work with other students in teams on challenges presented by the societal partners of ENGAGE.EU universities. Throughout the programme, they are guided towards knowledge-based and mission-oriented solutions by using design-thinking principles.
Gain insights into the previous Expedition Weeks:
Past Expedition Weeks
About the Challenges
BatteREstore: Second Life for Batteries, New Energy for the City
Cities across Europe are under increasing pressure from the energy transition. Electricity grids are reaching their limits, energy costs are rising, and not all residents benefit equally from sustainable innovations. At the same time, batteries from electric vehicles are reaching the end of their first life-while still offering significant potential for reuse.
The BatteREstore challenges are rooted in a real-world urban innovation project in Tilburg, where used EV batteries are repurposed for temporary and permanent energy storage. First deployed on construction sites, these batteries later serve as local energy storage in residential neighbourhoods. While this innovation can help reduce grid congestion and support the energy transition, it also raises critical socio-economic questions. Sustainable technologies do not automatically produce equitable outcomes. Without deliberate design, benefits may accrue disproportionately to already advantaged groups, while vulnerable residents face rising costs or exclusion from decision-making.
During these challenges, participants from different disciplines and academic levels will work on concrete sub challenges within the BatteREstore project. You will explore the problem from multiple perspectives, define key challenges, and develop solution-oriented concepts that address citizen participation and social impact.
The challenges are embedded in an ongoing collaboration between the Municipality of Tilburg, industry partners, social organisations, and researchers from Tilburg University. Your ideas and proposals will contribute to a live project that aims to make the energy transition more resilient, affordable, and fair.
The challenges invite you to work on real societal issues, engage with diverse stakeholders, and cocreate solutions that matter locally in Tilburg, and potentially far beyond.
Expected Impact
For participating students
Gain and deepen their knowledge and attitudes that enable them to act upon opportunities and transform them into value for others, being:
- Taking initiative, motivation and persistence, self-efficacy and self-confidence.
- Creating and recognising opportunities, creativity and innovativeness, and decision making under uncertainty.
- Collaborating in diverse and interdisciplinary contexts, mobilising resources, and implementation.
- Systems thinking, future and disruptive thinking and ethical and sustainable thinking.
- Developing, in addition to specialist knowledge, numerous other skills such as research, cooperation, dealing with uncertainty, solution-oriented thinking, organisation and communication
- References to a deeper understanding of what working on a real world project entails.
ENGAGE.EU Expeditions+ are organised on top of the regular curriculum of the student.
For participating PhD Candidates
- Collaborating in diverse and interdisciplinary contexts, mobilising resources, and implementation.
- Systems thinking, future and disruptive thinking and ethical and sustainable thinking.
- Opportunities to engage with real-world sustainability challenges
- Networking with industry, innovation actors, and international peers Early interaction with highly motivated, international talent
- Strengthened collaboration between academia, industry, and society; the expansion of participants’ European network, and the collaboration with stakeholders such as the Municipality of Tilburg.
Format of Expedition+
Groupwork in interdisciplinary and international teams. Students should be able to attend the programme in Tilburg, The Netherlands from Monday 29 June 2026 to Friday 03 July 2026.
Your Profile
The ENGAGE.EU Expedition+@ Tilburg University is targeted at Bachelor’s students in their last year, Master and PhD students affiliated with ENGAGE.EU partner universities. Participants of any citizenship and any field of study who are enrolled at an ENGAGE.EU partner university are welcome to apply.
Application
To apply for the ENGAGE.EU Expedition+ you should provide:
- A short letter (max. 300 words) explaining your motivation for applying to the ENGAGE.EU Expedition+@ Tilburg University
- Curriculum vitae (education, work experience, language skills, study/work abroad, other relevant skills and experiences)
- Academic records (transcript of records)
Selection
Submitted applications are evaluated by the academics and staff working in the ENGAGE.EU Labs. Candidates will be evaluated based on their motivation letter and CV. In order to ensure equal participation among students from the different partner universities, the selection committee will aim at choosing three students from each partner university. Final decisions also consider a range of criteria for cohort composition, including but not limited to disciplinary balance, institutional diversity, and demographic diversity.
Scholarship
Selected students may receive scholarships for participation in the ENGAGE.EU Expedition+ . Details will follow from the home university after being selected for the Expedition+ week.
Additional Details
In order to complete your application, you will have to fill in the application form below and upload your CV, academic records and motivation letter (in Word or PDF format), together with:
Applications must be submitted by 27 March 2026, at midnight CET. All documents must be in English, except for the academic records (which can be in any language of the partner universities).
Results will be communicated by 30 April 2026.
For further information and to submit a topic/issue, please contact: e.j.m.deneubourg@tilburguniversity.edu
Disclaimers
Disclaimer 1: The calendar of the in-presence Entrepreneurial Pathways activity might be incompatible with some academic calendars of Erasmus, Exchange Partners, Double Degree or other mobility programs. Students interested in both programs are urged to check academic calendars accordingly.
Disclaimer 2: This email is sent to manage and facilitate your participation in the educational and/or extracurricular activities organized by the University.