Unite! news

That’s a wrap! The 7th Unite! Dialogue devoted to “Enhancing collaborations within Unite!” came to an end this past Thursday 2nd of March. It was introduced on February 28th with the usual plenary session, hosted by Franz Bruckert, Grenoble INP – UGA Key Liaison Officer and with several French guests, such as Pierre Benech, President of Grenoble INP – UGA, Yassine Lakhnech, President of Université Grenoble Alpes, Jacques Comby, Project manager for European universities and International Cooperation at the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) and Christophe Ferrari, President of Grenoble Alpes Métropole. 

On top of that, Unite! President Tanja Brühl also delivered a welcome speech to the whole community, stressing the importance of enhancing collaborations, and strengthening Unite!’s identity.

“I am convinced that we, as a community, we shape the future of Unite! and through Unite!, we will shape the future of the higher education system”

This introductive session was pursued by a presentation of the achievements and next big steps of the Alliance (Unite!’s seed fund, digital campus, student engagement) by Andreas Winkler, Unite! Secretary General. Finally, Beatriz de Sousa Rodrigues, Representative of SURE!, concluded the session with a few words on behalf of students. 

“If you need students’ help, we are here for it. Ask us, we are willing to participate in Unite!, not only as counselling, we want to take part in the dissemination, in creating things for students, because they are our peers”

All Communities and Work packages were then scattered in meetings in order to continue the work they had started together since the beginning of the second phase in November 2023. 

The same afternoon the rectors of the different Unite! partner universities gathered at the Unite! Governing Platform. Among other subjects, they discussed the implementation of the upcoming Seed Fund calls by Unite! Secretary General, and about the topics discussed during the meeting with EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel in January in Brussels by Unite! President. 

Regarding Research and Innovation, the Governing Platform presented and discussed the approval of a first outline for the European Excellence Initiative (EEI) call for Horizon Europe. On Wednesday 1st, March, several decision-makers gathered again to discuss the proposal in more detail and started forming working groups. 

The calendar of the event also included new types of meetings: an interactive session hosted by the expert community working on Unite!’s Digital Campus, and transversal meetings on different subjects (data protection, student engagement, working in an intercultural team) in order to find synergies between the different expert communities which are not usually working together.

During the evening, there was a presentation of various student initiatives, among other things Unite!4Future, Student video contest, the Student Festival in Lisbon, European Student Assembly, Unite! against energy poverty… This second phase is putting the highlight on student engagement, and it shows!

The Dialogue ended with a presentation of conclusions, recompiling all the hard work done and planned by the different expert communities throughout the Dialogue.

“Your work will reinforce the sense of belonging to the same European community. […] It is now clear that the Unite! activities will be the base of many common activities in Grenoble and increase further the international dimension of our universities”.

To conclude the session and before letting participants enjoy the city of Grenoble, Wroclaw Tech KLO Piotr Rutkowski announced the future Dialogue, which will take place from 19th to 21st September 2023!