Human geography students face changing qualification requirements due to a shift towards new topics, educational tasks and professional options regarding issues of spatial development. This ‘practical turn’ raises the importance of inter- and transdisciplinary work, management and capability building skills, with case study projects and student-centred learning providing suitable approaches. This paper introduces the example of the teaching and research project ‘Leben 2014’: Students, faculty and local actors have collectively worked out future development scenarios for a rural region in Austria, actually creating impact. The project may thus serve as a model that inspires similar schemes in other countries.