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Creativity and innovation are crucial skills to face challenges in economy, environment and social context today, especially next decade with 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States.  European Higher Education System considers STEM studies play a key role to lead the global labor market and address our economic system towards more sustainability and equality model. Innovative educational projects developed at the Universidad Politécinca de Madrid have identified lack of students skills in creativity and innovation to apply challenge based-learning and others methodologies in classrooms. Hovewer Higher Education institutions need a whole approach to include creativity in university curricula (graduate and postgraduate programs), at the same time, professors claim support to embebed innovative methodologies in their subjects. CHET Project is designed as a solid strategy aimed at developing an innovative process to modernization of Higher Education System in Europe. Step by step, the project begins by defining the learning environment, then developing creativity techniques and tools, and finally validating methodologies and processes. All this supported by free access online platform.

This paper presents an insight on the pedagogy and strategic design of the organization of the four experimental subjects of the Chemical Engineering Degree Curricula at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (GIQ-ETSII-UPM). Outcome-based learning is applied, focused on the student’s work, centering explicitly in Experimental Design outcomes. These skills are necessary not only for research, but also for innovation activities that will be fundamental for future engineers and chemists, and students should be encouraged to practice them during their time at university. The learnings are graduated following the requirements of the courses, and experimentations are realistic and easily approached as guided or free experimentation. Students must apply previous knowledge and acquire new ones, implement attitudes, work in teams, and make their own decisions. Among the students’ free comments collected in teacher surveys carried out on more than 400 students over 10 years, there are recurrent evaluations such as “We are able to put into practice what we have studied in other subjects”. These subjects are the ones students perceive as very important toward their future. Feedback is essential to improve their experimental proposals and make them viable to avoid student frustration. The number of teachers involved is between a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 7 for 30–40 students and 14 sessions in each subject. It is essential to note that the teacher’s engagement is indispensable for the performance of this framework.

In this study, yerba mate waste (YMW) was used to produce a kombucha beverage, and the obtained microbial cellulose produced as a byproduct (KMW) was used to reinforce a mechanically recycled poly(lactic acid) (r-PLA) matrix. Microbial cellulosic particles were also produced in pristine yerba mate for comparison (KMN). To simulate the revalorization of the industrial PLA products rejected during the production line, PLA was subjected to three extrusion cycles, and the resultant pellets (r3-PLA) were then plasticized with 15 wt.% of acetyl tributyl citrate ester (ATBC) to obtain optically transparent and flexible films by the solvent casting method. The plasticized r3-PLA-ATBC matrix was then loaded with KMW and KMN in 1 and 3 wt.%. The use of plasticizer allowed a good dispersion of microbial cellulose particles into the r3-PLA matrix, allowing us to obtain flexible and transparent films which showed good structural and mechanical performance. Additionally, the obtained films showed antioxidant properties, as was proven by release analyses conducted in direct contact with a fatty food simulant. The results suggest the potential interest of these recycled and biobased materials, which are obtained from the revalorization of food waste, for their industrial application in food packaging and agricultural films.

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