University students face a complex world of local and global challenges. It is therefore up to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to continually review and update their strategic plans, integrating specific objectives that encourage interactive, personalised and student-centred educational experiences. Such environments prioritise student agency. This article analyses innovative active methodologies focussing on collaborative and cooperative learning approaches, which were implemented at the IADE School Agency created in 2008, an organic unit at a Portuguese university (predecessor of the current IADE Factory).

The IADE School Agency was a pilot model for contact and sharing between students, teachers and partners, i.e. a common territory whose mission was to unite the Higher Education Institution (HEI), the Market and Civil Society. The model created, which internally was based on the integration of other departments and laboratories, and which was considered in 2010 by the EUA - European University Association as one of the institution's best practices, was based on three premises: Talent, as a pool of creative talent for students and alumni; Projects, as a promotion of Portfolio, train our skills, get creative; and Jobs, orientated towards the market being able to find talent.

In the field of Projects, to bring the academic world closer to the social and business world, it organised a series of creative challenges of varying duration, signing protocols with multiple partners. To this end, it adopted a procedural methodology very similar to any other professional agency. However, given its existence within the institution, this took place in an experimental environment, developing its action in parallel with its partners, ethically avoiding competing against them.

The innovative challenges, known as ‘Creative Week’ and ‘48 Creative Hours’, were designed to give hundreds of students gathered in multidisciplinary teams from the institution's academic training areas (Marketing and advertising, Design, Photography, among others), accompanied by a group of teachers/tutors, the chance to create communication proposals to real briefs from a given brand, which, just like in an advertising agency, would be assessed by a multifaceted jury. The winning team was given the chance to see their project implemented.

These methodologies, locally applied, demonstrate how collaboration between peers is an opportunity for networking with stakeholders, learning and building talent, acting as a platform for learning and personal and professional growth.

The time frame of this study focuses on the first decade of the IADE School Agency, specifically the ten ‘Creative Weeks’ and the two ‘Creative 48 hours’ challenges that took place during this period. The case studies presented in this article aim to highlight how cooperative and collaborative learning approaches can contribute to the dialogue around active learning methodologies in higher education, in line with global challenges and motivating students to thrive in a rapidly evolving world with multilingual and multicultural connections.

Keywords: Cooperative Learning, Collaborative Learning, Innovation, Creative Challenges, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).