EUTOPIA, an established alliance of six European universities that exists to create a connected and inclusive community addressing global and local challenges, has been successful in its bid for a €5m grant from the Erasmus+ ‘European Universities’ programme.
This recognition confirms EUTOPIA as a chosen alliance of institutions working to build a European University of the future, creating a new model for higher education in Europe.
EUTOPIA is comprised of Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the University of Gothenburg, l’Université Paris Seine, the Pompeu Fabra University – Barcelona, the University of Warwick, and is led by the University of Ljubljana.
The award will boost EUTOPIA’s mission of working as a network of European campuses, through collaborative research, increased mobility of students, academics and staff, and shared innovations that serve the wider public in regional communities.
Co-created in partnership with academics, students and non-academic partners, EUTOPIA will test innovative methods of collaboration, going beyond existing models to progressively increase the quality, international competitiveness and attractiveness of European higher education.
Since the alliance’s official launch at the Solvay Library in Brussels, in February 2019, staff and students from the EUTOPIA partners have built a strong foundation of collaborative activities, which include:
- The establishment of co-tutelle PhD Scholarships, which will enable up to eight PhD candidates to be co-supervised by academics at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, l’Université Paris Seine and University of Warwick – benefitting from teaching and academic supervision across two countries. This is been made possible thanks to a £500,000 joint investment from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, l’Université Paris Seine and University of Warwick, the founding members of EUTOPIA. The scholarships will support PhD projects in research areas including Complexity Science, Reproductive Medicine and Arts, Humanities and Cultural Heritage. The first cohort will begin in October 2019.
- The creation of a double Master’s degree between Warwick’s Department of Politics and International studies and Vrije Universiteit Brussel’s Institute for European Studies in ‘International Studies and Integration’, which will launch in 2019. Prior to this, the Department of Political and Social Sciences at Pompeu Fabra – Barcelona and the Department of Politics and International Studies at University of Warwick have offered a double degree since 2014. Other collaborative courses are also under discussion.
- Students from the EUTOPIA partners will spend up to four weeks this summer at the Barcelona International Summer School (Pompeu Fabra University – Barcelona), where they will take courses in Spanish and English.
- Students from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and from Pompeu Fabra Univeristy – Barcelona will be participating in the Warwick-run International Conference of Undergraduate Research in September 2019.
- A number of academic mobility schemes, including the Fernandes Fellowships programme (University of Warwick), and the EUTOPIA International Fellowships programme (l’Université Paris Seine) provide the opportunity for EUTOPIA academics to undertake research visits at partner universities. The EUTOPIA partner institutions are also developing exchange programmes for students and professional administrative staff.
- Numerous academic workshops continue to take place across the EUTOPIA partner institutions, including one recently hosted by University of Ljubljana in the area of Computer and Data Science. Further collaborations continue in the areas of Complexity Science, Theoretical Physics, Political and Social Sciences, and Arts and Cultural Heritage
Caroline Pauwels, Rector of Vrije Universteit Brussel, said:
“I’m proud that the Vrije Universteit Brussel, with five other ambitious European universities in the EUTOPIA alliance, has been chosen by the European Commission as one of the pilot projects for developing a ‘European university’.
“Our shared aim is to create a common European learning and knowledge community that will transform our universities into living labs for education, research and innovation.
“Through open science and open education, with EUTOPIA we are creating a shared ‘multiversity’ with a strong multilingual, multidisciplinary and multicultural research and education agenda.”