A Competitive Future with European Universities: A closer look at ECIU University’s high-level conference
On March 25th, a high-level conference ‘A Competitive Future with European Universities’ took place in Brussels, with ECIU University community members, representatives from European Universities alliances, policymakers and societal stakeholders across Europe attending.
The event aimed to reflect on how European Universities alliances contribute to European competitiveness through collaboration and engagement of societal actors in learning, research, innovation and knowledge valorisation.
It kicked off with a welcome from ECIU president Jan-Ingvar Jönsson and the keynote speech from Magda de Carli (Deputy Director and Head of Unit ERA) on the European competitiveness agenda. She highlighted the importance of European Universities alliances for accelerating Europe’s innovation potential, as well as ECIU University’s role in the European policy developments.
The alliance's achievements include developing a framework for collaborative doctorates, implementing CoARA objectives in research assessment, and introducing the unique research infrastructure to colleagues across Europe. So far, over 200 societal stakeholders and 7,000 students have been engaged, and more than 300 societal challenges have been addressed.
During the panel discussion that followed attendants were also asked several essential questions:
- What is the most important contribution universities can make to society in the upcoming decade?
- What should Europe prioritise to strengthen competitiveness?
- What limits cooperation between universities and societal stakeholders?
‘One message stood out clearly,’ says head of ECIU’s Brussels office, Olga Wessels. ‘University partnerships are accelerators of Europe's innovation potential, and European Universities alliances are a convincing example of much-needed systemic partnerships to work towards better framework conditions for researchers and to implement the EU's education, research and competitiveness ambitions effectively.’
‘Europe does not have an alternative but to invest in such partnerships. The time is now.’
ECIU
The European Consortium of Innovative Universities is a network of universities who are united by a common profile, by shared beliefs and interests and mutual trust.All ECIU universities have strengths in engineering and social sciences.
