On 8 June, around 23 students and practitioners opened the same Zoom link and started talking. In the Netherlands it was 14:00PM in the afternoon. In Colombia, 07:00AM in the morning. In Kenya, 15:00PM. In India, 17:30PM in the evening. Same call, four time zones, one conversation. The programme they joined had been in the making for more than two years. This is how it began, and what it looks like now.
From a classroom observation to an international programme
The idea started with André Leliveld, researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden and academic coordinator of the LDE Frugal Innovation Minor. The students in that programme were motivated and internationally oriented. They wanted to make a difference. And the Minor worked hard to give them a global perspective: teachers brought in voices from the Global South, students travelled to regions where frugal innovation was being practiced and researched firsthand. But student evaluations kept pointing to a shared desire for more: more direct exchange, more perspectives from different contexts, more room to learn from peers rather than only from a curriculum. That desire was the seed of VOICE.
Leliveld's response was not to add more readings. It was to build a space where knowledge could move in all directions at once: a programme where students and teachers from different continents work on shared questions, each contributing from their own context. VOICE is not a critique of what came before. It is what the Minor pointed toward.
Leliveld took early retirement before the first edition could run. Madi Ditmars stepped into the lead, secured the Comenius funding through NWO/NKO, and built the team that made this edition possible. The programme is a joint effort: four partner countries, the Netherlands, India, Kenya and Colombia, each actively bringing in participants and contributing their own knowledge and networks. Students and practitioners came not only through direct invitations from partner institutions but also on their own initiative, drawn by the topic.
How it works: eight weeks in motion
By Dominque Stolk
Dominique Stolk coordinates VOICE alongside Madi Ditmars. In 2024/2025 she completed the LDE Frugal Innovation Minor herself, the minor that forms the basis of this programme. She kicks off this first blog edition to take you along on the eight-week journey through VOICE.
VOICE stands for Virtual Online International Collaborative Exchange. Every week, one partner institution takes the lead and shapes two live sessions around a theme from their own context. Participants then go out and do a flash ethnography: a short conversation with someone in their immediate environment about that week's topic. They bring what they found back to their international team. Eight thematic teams work across the full eight weeks, building towards a jointly written blog published on the ICFI website.
Sessions run every Monday and Wednesday, from 14:00 to 16:30 CEST, via a single Zoom link. The Brightspace environment, developed by the Leiden Learning and Innovation Centre (LLInC), supports all the asynchronous work in between. The programme is free of charge. There are no ECTS credits, but participants receive an official numbered certificate with the logos of all partner institutions.
Peter Knorringa (ICFI) opened the programme. From there the lead moves each week through the partner institutions. From the Netherlands to Colombia, then India, back to the African Studies Centre for academic blog writing, Kenya, and finally a closing week with all partners together.
Today, excitement, curiosity, and perhaps a touch of nervousness filled the air. As VOICE organisers, these were certainly the emotions we felt and they were likely shared by the participants as well. After all, no one quite knew what to expect, or who would join for sure, at the very first online VOICE meeting: the kick-off session.
Not everyone could join today, but those who did made it count. For those who missed it: Wednesday is just around the corner. And those who were there brought plenty with them.
Participants from Africa, South America, Europe, and Asia were all represented, bringing together a wide range of perspectives and experiences. As a result, the exchange of ideas was already rich, something I, as a former biology student, might even describe as particularly nourishing.
Knorringa delivered a presentation both educational and highly interactive, creating plenty of opportunities for participants to share their insights on frugal innovation and the frugal mindset. The Zoom breakout rooms further supported this exchange, allowing smaller groups to explore topics in greater depth and build more personal connections. One of the most inspiring aspects of the meeting was how quickly the traditional distinction between teacher and student seemed to fade. That said, there were also moments of shyness and silence during the meeting, which is absolutely natural in a first meeting. What mattered most was that the willingness to engage was there, a great starting point for what lies ahead!
Funnily, during the meeting, I realised that the project itself is a great example of frugal innovation, ticking all the boxes: resource-efficient, as being online saves both travel time and costs; highly functional, by providing access to knowledge and perspectives from around the world; and simple to use, requiring little more than a phone and a stable internet connection.
Overall, the kick-off was a success and now that we have got the ball rolling, I can't wait to see what comes next. Are you as excited as I am?
In this series, we follow the programme week by week. Each edition introduces one of the participating countries, the people behind it and the knowledge they bring.
The programme has started. We wish all participants and teachers an inspiring eight weeks. You can follow along here.