Space research shows value of partnerships for innovation

NASA astronaut Nicole Stott spoke below a giant image of the Space Shuttle on its way home from the International Space Station. It appeared to hang suspended, nose pointing down towards a ring of orange surrounding Earth, reflecting the sunset.

The picture was taken in 2009 and on board that shuttle was Stott herself, hurtling back to Earth at 17,500 miles an hour.

The screen above the stage flipped to a spectacular shot of craters on the moon in cold grey light.

“I’ll tell you, there’s no better way to look at the interconnectivity of personal and planetary health than through some of those images and understand how they impact each other,” Stott told an audience of nearly 700 students, academics, university administrators and industry partners attending the ABET Symposium 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 16 to 17 April, which explored the theme “Connecting with purpose: Advancing innovation through partnership”.
 

This article is part of a series on Education for Sustainable Development published by University World News in partnership with ABET. University World News is solely responsible for the editorial content.

Stott, delivering the opening keynote, praised the “international partnerships and all the science and engineering” that went into the International Space Station and the shuttle missions that supplied its astronauts.

She worked on the space station for three months, witnessing with wonder the rapid shifts through night and day as she orbited the Earth every 90 minutes while working as the active eyes and ears of scientists on the ground to carry out some of the 100 scientific investigations that were going on at any given time in the gravity-free environment.

They used satellites and instruments to collect data and images for research, observing and measuring the vital signs of the planet.

Rising to the theme, Stott, who is also an artist and educator, said the International Space Station was not just the best example of living off-grid, powered as it is by ginormous arrays of solar panels, but an international “masterpiece in space”.

It is where 15 countries currently collaborate – and over the quarter-century of its existence, many others have done so too – all agreeing to the higher-level mission statement and established rules of engagement to make that work.

“For over 25 years, orbiting around the Earth 16 times a day, we have had crews from all these different countries working peacefully and successfully in this place, off the Earth, for the Earth, together for the planet.

“It's what we're thinking about the whole time: everything we do there is ultimately about improving life on Earth.”

From her space experience, Stott came away with a strong sense that “we are all in space together” – sitting on a planet which is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour, orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles an hour and travelling through the universe at more than a million miles an hour.

“The only border that matters is the thin blue line of atmosphere that blankets and protects us all,” appearing like a shiny rim in the photos of the Earth taken by the space station’s crew.

“And what really hit me is how important it is for us to accept our role as crewmates, not passengers, on our planetary spaceship, too,” Stott noted.

The symposium theme focused on commitment to “community and collaboration” that spans across all disciplines. “We aim to inspire and equip participants to take on a tangible next step – a partnership to pursue, a practice to adopt, or a project to launch – in building a better world,” ABET said when it promoted the event.

The symposium covered not just accreditation, assessment and credentials but also expert discussion of current trends such as the rising impact of AI, the fast-expanding market in micro-credentials, rising employer demand for soft skills and the need for interdisciplinary and ethical approaches to addressing challenges. It also focused on the exchange of best practices in higher education.

Two breakout sessions focused on international partnerships “for a better world” and “to achieve the SDGs”.

Ethically grounded graduates

Michael K J Milligan, executive officer and CEO of ABET, stressed in the opening plenary that it wasn’t enough to address the world’s great challenges, such as sustainability, with technical advancements alone, because changes in human behaviour were also needed. Collaboration was needed across disciplines, cultures and perspectives.

The COVID-19 pandemic had forced a rapid decrease in travel and industrial activity, and, suddenly, we were being shown great photographs of clean air over cities like Milan, Jakarta, Los Angeles, and New Delhi, places that hadn’t seen that for decades.

But the lesson wasn’t that disruption is the solution but that “behaviour matters profoundly”.

Education is crucial in shaping future behaviour by ensuring graduates are both technically competent and ethically grounded, he said.

And when partnerships are built with purpose, “they create solutions that are not only innovative but durable and inclusive” and “meaningful progress follows”.

Advancing quality in skills-based education

ABET itself is currently involved in expanding partnerships around the globe, with the help of its professional societies, to ensure that education is “rigorous, relevant and responsive”, according to ABET President Laura Dietsche, who opened the event.

She said the organisation is breaking new ground through partnerships with industry to advance quality in the fast-expanding field of micro-credentials by developing a recognition service, thereby “extending quality assurance into the evolving landscape of skills-based and continuous education, which is becoming an essential component of professional development across every discipline”.

Milligan told University World News the symposium theme was “spot on” for facing the challenges of our times because while there have been a lot of developments in technology, one of the most frustrating aspects when it comes to making progress, for instance, on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, is insufficient collaboration.

“It’s about how do we bring people in from all fields – social scientists, economists, business people and governments – as well as those in the STEM fields and have them work together? That is the key to success,” he said.

The other key aspect was what partnerships are for. He said ABET wants to be seen to be encouraging innovation in all aspects of higher education, and in its own work it wants to be innovative in how it assesses student learning and pushes for and accepts flexibility in higher education programmes by not being prescriptive with accreditation criteria.

ABET has many partnership agreements with partners in different areas of the world, including North Africa and India, through which it shares a lot of ideas and best practices. In some places ABET gets involved in directly reviewing programmes and providing assurance.

“But equally we see ABET as really the international standard, and we want to be recognised by them because they feel that that's going to open a lot of doors, provide them a lot more opportunities, attract a lot more students, maybe research funding, maybe more attention from industry,” he said.

Distance learning in particular is becoming a big option, and if courses are reviewed and assessed by a reputable third party, it helps to attract students and gives employers confidence in hiring the students, he argued.

One of the big benefits of having partners in India and Africa is that ABET’s more than 2,000 volunteer programme evaluators get a lot out of “getting to see how things are done in different institutions, programmes, universities” in various contexts, he added.

“So one of the things we hear over and over again, when we send people internationally to different parts of the world, is that they really do benefit from not just the opportunity to visit a new culture and a new country but also seeing what they are doing there and what we could perhaps benefit from. It's definitely a two-way street.”

Partnerships ‘broaden perspectives’

Echoing Milligan, Stott told University World News in an interview that when it comes to higher education, “we should not just be providing technical or course content but always encouraging students to understand how what they are studying can purposely and positively impact life on Earth”.

Reflecting on the 15-country partnership involved in the space station research and what it means for science, Stott said: “It’s huge, because the ability for us to look at things from different perspectives, not just physically but intellectually, is really important.

“And I think that is where partnerships play a big role; they allow us to see things. And this should be happening whatever we are doing, whether in politics or science or in the playground, appreciating perspectives of everyone and pulling that in,” she said.

“I think we all get better solutions that way. It’s like using your whole brain, bringing all of our talents to bear, because that is what is going to help you solve the problem in a much better way than if you just kind of silo one way or the other.”

She believes the International Space Station is at the forefront of inspiring and building knowledge for humanity.

“I think if you look at the International Space Station Program, there’s certainly the science that’s happening there, right, the engineering that goes into creating that masterpiece in space, which is extraordinary.

“But when you look at how we have managed to do that peacefully and successfully for over 25 years, with people representing 15 and more countries in that place, working as one crew on this machine in space, I think it’s the best example for how we can do that peacefully and successfully down here on our planetary spaceship.

“And what’s so cool is that the science then comes from it in a really beautiful way, the engineering and the innovation extend it in a really beautiful way. But ultimately, I think it's about deciding to work together on a common mission.”

Stott said the space programme has a number of ways of engaging students over time, including a programme where students can design their own miniature satellite and nanosatellites, called CubeSats, and then have them deployed from the space station or actively worked on within the space station by the astronauts there.

Rising above Earthly conflicts

Asked how it felt looking down on the world knowing there is so much conflict going on below, Stott said she was struck by the “very deliberate decision to work together peacefully and successfully.

“Human spaceflight has demonstrated over and over again that at times when the worst stuff is going on down here on Earth, we somehow manage to rise above it and do things differently when we're in space together.

“And that’s why I love for people to remember that we are all astronauts. We’re on a planet, in space, one that was perfectly designed for us; all we have to do is respect the boundaries of it, the limitations of it, and make that work for everyone.”

Speaking below a stunning giant image from the Artemis mission of the far side of the moon, with the Earth setting beyond it, she stressed the importance not just of having a purpose but of having a common purpose.

“I don’t know what better way to look at it than to think about a machine we’ve built in space to mimic what Earth does for us naturally, and we have to work together there to survive and thrive in that place.

“This is like an Earth-rise moment that should be the inspiration for everyone, acknowledging that together is the way to make it happen.”

• University World News is hosting a free webinar on Global North-South Partnerships: How to achieve impact, on Thursday 7 May at 4pm BST. You can register to take part here.

ABET’s next symposium is in Seattle from 8 to 9 April 2027.