Objective

To ensure professional management of this 3-year project and to enable effective, adaptable and transparent implementation of all UNITE! activities.

Tasks

  • Managing the overall implementation of the UNITE! pilot project with clear allocation and coordination of tasks and responsibilities of all key staff involved in UNITE! as well as ensuring continuous communication with all project partners.
  • Constant monitoring and controlling of the progress and success of all WPs of the pilot and enabling fluent and timely communication and reporting between the EACEA and the alliance. With effective risk management, potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective actions can be taken in joint-efforts, coordinated by the UNITE! management.
  • Managing, monitoring and controlling the finances of the UNITE! pilot project ensuring the timely and transparent allocation of funds to the partners and reporting to the EACEA. Furthermore, we will scout potential other resources and additional funds for UNITE!.
  • Management of legal matters of the UNITE! pilot by preparing and controlling the Consortium Agreement of this project. Setting-up a framework that facilitates the partners to initiate and plan new pilot activities within UNITE!.

Coordinator

Technische Universitat Darmstadt (TUDa)

Objective

Governance of UNITE! aims at

  • clear responsibility and efficient decision making in managing UNITE! and implementing the strategy laid down in the Mission Statement
  • strong representation and empowerment of the diverse staff and student communities of UNITE!, leading to a high degree of legitimation of the UNITE! governance in the member universities
  • transparency of the UNITE! governance in the member universities and broad opportunities to contribute to UNITE!, leading to active participation of university members
  • openness of UNITE! to the universities’ ecosystems by involving society and industry in the regions, as well as alumni
  • gender equality and diversity in all activities of UNITE!
  • removal of the legal and regulatory barriers hindering the operation of the European University
  • fast learning from experiences and targeted adaptation of the UNITE! strategy

Thus, UNITE! will

  • establish a governance structure which combines visionary leadership with broad and active participation across all levels (Task 2.1)
  • implement UNITE! governance through inclusive and transparent dialogues with open exchange, efficient decision-making and ecosystem involvement (Task 2.2)
  • ensure fast learning from experiences and targeted adaptation of the UNITE! strategy (Task 2.3)

Coordinator

Technische Universitat Darmstadt (TUDa)

Objective

To integrate, further develop or create new services around the common UNITE! strategy & student driven activities to help shape more inclusive and innovative European universities.

The UNITE! Support Services, as the name refers, aims to support UNITE! in the implementation of its mission. UNITE! Support Services will work as a facilitator to enhance mobility and an enabler to student involvement in a bottom-up approach.

In order to achieve these goals a UNITE! Service Office – UNITE! Center4all – involving all the UNITE! members, will be created. The UNITE! Center4all will play a major role in the promotion of mobility, recognition, integration and student participation.

The Centre4all will tackle all the areas covered by UNITE! and is organised in four different sub units:

  • Joint Mobility Centre (JMC)The mission of this unit is to promote the mobility of the students through the implementation of tools and procedures that will boost, simplify and support student mobility.
  • Student Engagement and Welcome Centre (SEC)The mission of this unit is to support the students integration and university engagement.
  • Global Language Centre (GLC)The mission of GLC is to promote common European values and strengthen a multilingual and multicultural European identity through language learning.
  • Career Liaison Centre (CLC)The mission of CLC is to support the UNITE! with tools to help graduates find their place in the labour market.

Coordinator

Universidade de Lisboa (ULisboa)

Objective

To have, in 2025, a virtual UNITE! campus, offering online tools and virtual spaces/classNamerooms, to share and develop joint teaching, research, embedded mobility, social and cultural interactions.

Accordingly, together we aim to reach for the next level of digitalized learning in order to:

  1. Create a sense of community in online and virtual settings, in line with the Mission of UNITE! for advancement of European values.
  2. To provide graduates with skills and capabilities, in a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguos (VUCA).
  3. Enable the mobility and internationalization of all members of our university communities.
  4. Use digitalization to drive more sustainable means for joint inter-campus activities and mobility and reducing our carbon-footprint.

The WP4 is divided into three Tasks that run parallel. The Tasks have specific goals within this WP, but at the same time they are developed concomitantly as the actions in all the other WPs are taken forward. Thus, WP4 acts also as a service provider to other WPs. Accordingly, the activities in WP4 will focus on piloting of online tools, virtual classNamerooms and spaces, and creating digitalized services for easy access to mobility offers as well as supporting language offers for mobility, student and staff training.

Coordinator

Aalto University (Aalto)

Objective

To implement joint and sound novel pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning at all levels (B.Sc. M.Sc. Ph.D.) in an inter-university campus concept.

The UNITE! Teaching and Learning Academy joins together strong, innovative and unique pedagogical approaches. We have proven, evidence based visibility in engineering and technology education, including also art, architecture, design and business, as well as entrepreneurship in Europe and globally. We will create the Teaching and Learning Academy by combining and building on this expertise. The Teaching and Learning Academy joins the most highly qualified pedagogical experts of our alliance across Europe. This highest level of expertise can guide and support our faculty and teachers to promote genuine engagement and deep learning in co-creation with student.

Therefore we also envision that in the longer term, by 2025 these actions will lead to the following outcomes that can also be extended all across Europe:

  1. The Teaching and Learning Academy will provide expert pedagogical training for university teachers all across Europe with focus on design and facilitation of flexible study paths in multidisciplinary, multicultural and multilingual contexts.This increases the pedagogical competencies of university teachers and individuals in the tenure track, who can then more proactively prepare graduates for future working life. It also promotes innovative avenues for Lifelong learning and professional development both for faculty and teachers through actions in the regions.
  2. Creative physical and virtual spaces for teaching and learning become shared among partners.This increases motivation to develop innovative and sound pedagogical approaches for joint teaching. These spaces also facilitate the interaction of teachers and pedagogical experts with students. This in turn helps teachers to take into account multicultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary needs of students in an inter-university context. Mobility of pedagogical experts and teaching staff is also promoted as there will be specific dedicated and creative spaces in which these experts can meet and work
  3. Digitalized and online learning approaches become shared and offer new ways innovative pedagogical and multilingual approaches.This can be achieved, e.g. through blended learning, by combining the expertise of all UNITE! partners in on-line learning, through shared virtual classNamerooms or spaces, and future digitalized platforms (see also WP4). These actions also include developing pedagogical support and instructions for the role of the teacher and the student in virtual realities. Moreover, as an outcome of these actions we will also produce recommendations for the assessment and quality assurance of learning in such environments.

Coordinator

Aalto University (Aalto)

Objective

The backbone of the UNITE! alliance is the creation of a transnational multi-campus in which mobility at all levels, both horizontally and vertically, for all is a reality.

For these reasons and based on this background, UNITE! is confident that through the new tools and activities described below the target of 50% of UNITE! students and staff benefiting in some way of the mobility actions will be met.

In terms of overall goals, UNITE!, through the synergies created by this WP together with all the other ones described in this document:

  • creates a European engineering campus as an open space of interaction and free circulation of ideas, knowledge, students, researchers and solutions
  • enables broad interdisciplinary education and research of engineering with elements of natural and life sciences, social sciences and humanities, business and design
  • empowers its students and staff to co-create highly attractive joint educational and research opportunities
  • realises seamless mobility of students and staff to pursue individual educational and research paths freely across the UNITE! campus
  • blends the diverse cultures, disciplines and languages for engineering education and research that shape the future of an innovative Europe
  • offers a portfolio of online education to enable virtual mobility.

    • The following actions will be carried out during the piloting phase of UNITE! to achieve the goal of seamless mobility with an eye on their development in a long-term perspective. They have been grouped in the following categories:

    1. Short-term programmes
    2. Traditional credit mobility
    3. Degree seeking mobility
    4. Summer/winter schools
    5. Internationalization at home

Coordinator

Kunglia Tekniska Hoegskolan (KTH)

Objective

To launch new collaborative and complementary initiatives for staff training and collaboration, with the aim to include new professional groups in mobility schemes such as e.g. librarians, HR, administrative, and financial department personnel as well as to increase the mobility of faculty and teaching staff.

Continuous mobility flows of all staff is necessity as the world is constantly developing and all staff groups at universities need to adapt to new technologies and digitalization, the changing expectations and needs of students, as well as the needs of society and industry. In addition, as the student and teaching bodies of universities are becoming increasingly international, the competencies of the staff need to reflect this phenomenon. Staff at all levels with mobility experience will be more flexible and it will be easier for them to understand and adapt to the international atmosphere of the universities, as well as to contribute to the overall future development of universities and Higher Education in Europe.

UNITE! is committed to enabling all administrative staff (including HR, librarians, financial etc. staff groups) and technical staff to have full access Lifelong learning mindset. They must be empowered to continuously keep updated with current innovations and changes (management processes, legal requirements, technical tools, software etc.). Peer learning, exchanges of information and experience and sharing best practices by interacting with colleagues performing similar work tasks at universities in other countries is imperative. This will generate joint innovative solutions and create common reference tools for their work. Synergies of cooperation will be develop beyond national borders, which promotes a strong foundation for joint and collaborative European education.

Boosting the international mobility experience of the administrative staff as well as academic staff will provide new knowledge, developing key competences, boosting their CV’s and thus increase international career opportunities.

The targets of the present WP are 1) non-academic staff and technical staff and 2) academic staff (including teachers and faculty). The desired outcomes of this WP are:

  • Professional development, which promotes career advancement both for administrative staff as well as those in the tenure track system
  • Competence building through intercultural skills and multilingualism for European team building
  • Development of peer-to-peer networks which drive the harmonization of processes and structures of our Universities
  • Development of joint actions for advancing the health and wellbeing of all staff and students
  • Dissemination of research activities (academic staff)
  • Sharing of Best Practices across all Work Packages in the UNITE! pilot as outlined in the present proposal.

Coordinator

Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble (INP)

Objective

To develop the Ph.D. jointly as interface between learning, research and innovation in our evolving inter-university campus across Europe, and together with our regional innovation ecosystems. We thereby aim to educate a new generation of European graduates in science, technology and engineering who actively contribute to the advancement of knowledge, European competitiveness and the development of solutions for societal challenges.

The Ph.D. is the academic cycle with the greatest potential for close integration of education, research and innovation. For UNITE!, joint action on the Ph.D. level therefore plays a key role for its vision to lead the transformation of European higher education with innovative and multidisciplinary education, research, and entrepreneurship in co-creation by students and staff.

The long-term goal for 2025 in this Working Package is to establish the UNITE! Doctoral School which, without superseding the structures currently managing the Ph.D. programs in the single UNITE! universities, will

  • set the requirements for a UNITE! joint doctoral degree
  • comprise UNITE! Ph.D. programs in highly relevant research areas, such as energy, artificial intelligence (AI), and Industry 4.0,
  • generate new avenues for Ph.D. candidates to pursue their academic and professional objectives across Europe
  • be a driver of joint research in inter-university UNITE! teams,
  • have strong links to society and industry and connect fluid ecosystems of innovation,
  • offer inspiring entrepreneurial education to Ph.D. candidates of UNITE!,
  • put Europe on the map as a top destination for the greatest Ph.D. talents globally.

Coordinator

Politecnico di Torino (PoliTo)

Objective

All UNITE! members are leaders of entrepreneurship education and innovation in their regions. Thus, the interaction and collaboration with regions is ingrained into UNITE! and its actions. Through UNITE! we will establish concerted leadership for regional development by complementing and combining our activities and actions. This leads to the generation of new avenues for regional and social impact.

The environment within UNITE! offers the opportunity to achieve a step further, providing a new horizon for the role HEIs can play in the Regional Innovation Ecosystems. By joining forces, UNITE! will construct an enhanced innovation structure, contribute to Smart Specialication Strategies and to the overall social and economic development of regions. This Work Package pursues the implementation of diverse actions and structures in this direction taking advantage of the new horizons that UNITE! will enable until 2025 as follows:

First, by 2025 we will construct a community of open innovation extended across diverse regions of Europe, built from the present strength of UNITE! members. Second, by 2025 we will have established a strong collaboration among the regions within UNITE! in innovation contributing to construct a smarter Europe. Third, for the regions to be competitive they need to not only attract talent, but also encourage citizens to learn and to engage in Lifelong learning. Citizens who seek new knowledge are motivated to be part of and take responsibility for solving future societal and technological challenges. By 2025 UNITE! will be accompanied by a strong network of Lifelong learning centres working in collaboration, aimed at providing a broad offer to improve citizens’ competencies. Fourth, UNITE! is committed to ethical, safe, and sustainable technology that generates solutions to societal challenges. UNITE! graduates embrace the mindset of social responsible citizens of Europe and the world. We therefore aim to involve students, company representatives, researchers and regional societies and all target groups of WP10 in co-creation through discussion forums on ethical issues and engineering for sustainable development, together with the UNITE! Expert Network for ethical and sustainable engineering, as well as national and European level representatives.

The activities to be developed and tested will lead to the following outcomes:

  1. Building an open innovation community within UNITE!: This will be concomitant with the construction of a repository of good practices of community activities that can be shared by the members of UNITE! in conjunction with WP3.
  2. Use the creation of the open innovation community to identify complementarities among the diverse smart specializations of the regions involved and open up new opportunities of collaboration among the researchers within UNITE!.
  3. Create a network of Lifelong learning for the industrial sector as well as the civil society to acquire new skills on new technologies and for solving societal challenges.Implement a UNITE! Discussion Forum on ethical and sustainable engineering.

Coordinator

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)

Objective

To create a strong and impactful visibility for UNITE! at the European, national and regional levels as well as within the partner universities and their global networks. The actions of this WP will be seamlessly linked to the outcomes of all Work Packages in the pilot and dissemination will be proactive to ensure the broadest possible awareness of all stakeholders of upcoming, ongoing activities and outcomes. Moreover, sustainable and long-term activities will be developed, in order to ensure a continuum of dissemination also beyond 2025. The ambition is, through feedback, iteration and interventions to generate this dissemination platform to answer the needs of all stakeholders.

The work is described under three main thematic areas, which formulate the UNITE! Dissemination plan as follows:

  1. An outline of the targets and the scope is presented,
  2. The communication and marketing strategies are outlined.
  3. The communication and marketing strategies are outlined.

All together these form the UNITE! Dissemination Plan, through which we will disseminate the key outcomes of each of the WPs, to guarantee the sustainable visibility of UNITE! through proactive dissemination of events and meetings, training and collaboration and the establishment of the UNITE! Brand.

Coordinator

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)