Expanding Bridges – EDUC European University Alliance Receives Renewed European Funding
The European Digital UniverCity (EDUC) – the alliance of eight universities led by the University of Potsdam - will receive funding from the European Commission for another four years, the Commission announced today. EDUC is one of 17 pilot European University Alliances funded by the EU since 2019. The funding amount for all eight partners is 12.8 million euros over four years.
The University of Potsdam, as consortium lead, and its seven European partners, the University of Cagliari (Italy), Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic), University of Pécs (Hungary), as well as University Paris Nanterre and the University of Rennes 1 (France), and the two new members, Jaume I University (Spain) and the University of South-Eastern Norway, have today received confirmation of further funding from the EU for the University Alliance. They will thus build on the successes of the pilot phase and deepen their cooperation in the area of innovative mobility scenarios and the internationalization of curricula. Over the next four years, they intend to develop their joint virtual campus further, link research and innovation with teaching using problem-based projects, promote exchange and further training of their scientific and administrative staff, and strengthen dialogue with society.
The University of Potsdam is very much looking forward to further cooperation with its European university partners. "We are excited to kick-off the next phase of EDUC. During the pilot phase, we have established a strong partnership and learnt many valuable lessons together. With the extension phase, we are happy to welcome new partners on board of our alliance, to deepen our relationships, and to extend the activities for our students, scholars, staff and stakeholders. We are eager to live up to the trust the European Commission is putting in us," says Prof. Oliver Günther, Ph.D., President of the University of Potsdam. Over the next ten years, the current collaborative activities of Alliance members are expected to evolve into coherent structures that fundamentally change the way partners fulfil their individual missions of education, research, innovation and service to society. The goal of the European Digital UniverCity is to develop into a highly integrated European University.
Together, the alliance has about 200,000 students and 31,000 faculty, researchers, technical and administrative staff. By 2027, EDUC will be a new kind of transnational university community, based on the priorities of multilingualism, inclusion, interdisciplinarity, knowledge transfer and digital technologies, which will optimally prepare its students for the societal challenges of the future.