Alliance

About the EULIST Alliance

ABOUT THE ALLIANCE

EULiST Alliance

EULiST Alliance is a consortium consisting of ten, 10, universities with complementing strengths in technical subjects, humanities and social sciences. Through joint and integrated approaches in social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, it aims to develop new sustainable solutions to major social challenges that we face today and in the future.

The EULiST Members are:

The entire Alliance comprises of more than 200,000 students and 20,000 academic and administrative staff in 10 countries. EULiST Members have actively engaged in facilitating mobility between the universities in the past, in long-standing bilateral relationships as well as through a multilateral Erasmus+ Agreement, in place since 2021.

What is the European Universities Initiative (EUI)?

The European Universities Initiative is of strategic importance for Higher Education in Europe.

In 2018, the European Commission launched the European Universities Initiative aiming to trigger and deepen unprecedented levels of cooperation between higher education institutions, making it systemic, structural and sustainable. Now part of Erasmus+ Programme, the initiative aims to encourage the emergence of bottom-up alliances of universities across Europe, which will enable students to combine studies in several countries.

European Universities are transnational Alliances that intend to develop into universities of the future:

  • promoting common European values and a strengthened European identity by bringing together a new generation of Europeans able to cooperate within different cultures, languages, and across borders, sectors and academic disciplines;
  • reaching a substantial leap in quality, performance, attractiveness and competitiveness of European higher education institutions, and contribute to the European knowledge economy, employment, creativity, culture and welfare by making the best use of innovative pedagogies and striving to make the knowledge square a reality. ‘European Universities’ will be key drivers to boost the quality of higher education and where possible to strengthen its link to the research and innovation landscape in Europe and its outreach towards the society and economy.

Through joint long-term strategies for education & research, the alliances aim to:

  • achieve a new quality of European exchange
  • become models for networking, digitalization, sustainability & social participation
  • educate a new generation of European graduates who study and live in different countries and languages

Following the EUI 2018 and 2019 pilot calls, and the recent 2022 call, 45 European University Alliances were created and funded. The final goal of the EU is to reach 60 European Universities by 2024, involving ca 500 HEIs.

OBJECTIVES

The ten EULiST Members will share and combine their diverse expertise, experiences and problem solving approaches to contribute to solving global challenges such as climate change and social cohesion. They will create linkages and develop methods to connect society and technology in ways that a single institution, sector, or country cannot not do alone. EULiST’s diversity will enrich our respective and collective work in all areas as together we create a unique and sustainable European University. 

Students including non-traditional and life-long learners, will graduate from EULiST courses and programmes with knowledge and skills that enable them to address societal and global challenges by combining scientific and technical knowledge with knowledge from the social sciences and humanities. A challenge-based approach to learning, including projects carried out in collaboration with our respective regional partners, will equip our graduates  with the knowledge they need to make a difference in a rapidly changing world.

EULiST Research & Innovation will address the challenges of climate change and social cohesion, aiming as well to overcome societal distrust in technological advances. Science communication and collaboration with the broader public at local and global levels, via Innovation Hubs as well as open and living labs, will ensure that EULiST activities remain relevant and build and maintain trust in science. EULiST`s Digital Campus will support and center these activities in a digital Knowledge Hub, a new form of library, based on the pooled potential of ten libraries, including the world’s largest technical library. The EULiST Knowledge Hub will store, generate, process and make knowledge available in new ways to various academic and social target groups.

Promising technological advances will undoubtedly provide part of the solution, but trigger social change that must be considered, analysed and accounted for. Even more, societal considerations must drive technological advances from the outset.

Our strategy is based on a bottom-up approach with committed and enthusiastic staff, students and stakeholders ready to embrace new ideas, learn from mistakes and contribute new knowledge: “Our present, your future“.

 

STRUCTURE

The network has elected Prof. Dr. Volker Epping, President of LUH, as senior chairperson of the Presidents’ Board, the most important decision-making body of the new alliance.

Prof. Andreas Boudouvis, Rector of National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), has been elected deputy chairperson.

The chairpersons are in charge of managing the network, as well as the Presidents‘ Board.

WORKGROUPS

The alliance is currently in the development phase. In order to develop joint activities and projects, Work Groups in four fields of action have been established, identifying connecting factors and exchange ideas in order to establish innovative interdisciplinary fields of action.

  • Campus
  • Teaching and Learning
  • Research and Innovation
  • Outreach, Engagement and Transfer

The Work Groups comprise networking members of all partner universities.

Please feel free to contribute your ideas!

Erasmus+ EULiST Multilateral Inter-Institutional Agreement

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