Photograph of the representatives of the Unite! and EELISA alliances during the kick-off meeting.
Photograph of the representatives of the Unite! and EELISA alliances during the kick-off meeting.
30 November 2023
Unite! meets EELISA: Matchmaking event about Green Transition
Photograph of the representatives of the Unite! and EELISA alliances during the kick-off meeting.
Unite! and EELISA, two alliances of a total of 19 European universities, are teaming up for organising a matchmaking workshop focusing on sustainability and related research topics.
The matchmaking event is taking place today and tomorrow, from 30 November to 1 December. The goal is to form new international research consortia to submit proposals for Horizon Europe calls, particularly in the areas of climate, energy, and mobility (cluster 5) and food, bioeconomy, natural resources, agriculture, and environment.  

Researchers and scientists from all nine Unite! partner universities will focus on these six Horizon Europe topics with deadlines in late 2024: 

  • HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02-06: Innovative, Community-Integrated PV systems 
  • HORIZON-CL5-2024-D4-01-01: Low-disruptive renovation processes using integration of prefabricated solutions for energy-efficient buildings 
  • HORIZON-CL5-2024-D4-02-04: Design for adaptability, re-use and deconstruction of buildings, in line with the principles of circular economy (Built4People Partnership) 
  • HORIZON-CL6-2024-BIODIV-02-2-two-stage: Demonstrating the potential of Naturebased Solutions and the New European Bauhaus to contribute to sustainable, inclusive and resilient living spaces and communities 
  • HORIZON-CL6-2024-COMMUNITIES-02-2-two-stage: New sustainable business and production models for farmers and rural communities
  • HORIZON-CL6-2024-ZEROPOLLUTION-01-2: Best available techniques to recover or recycle fertilising products from secondary raw materials 
 
During the in-person matchmaking event at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Barcelona Tech) the final consortia will be formed, and the scientists will decide which proposals they will submit. 

“The event is planned to facilitate the constitution of consortia made of researchers from the two alliances, with the goal to participate in the upcoming calls of Horizon Europe. The event is designed to be a face-to-face meeting to work out details of diverse proposals distilled from a preliminary on-line meeting. The event will also serve to exchange good practices and get feedback from the researchers in cooperative research subjects like sharing research infrastructures or Ph.D. studies”,

 said Professor Juan Jesus Perez from UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. 
 
The matchmaking workshop also includes two sessions on institutional transformations both Unite! and EELISA are working on:  

1) sharing research infrastructures across alliances and  
2) setting up alliance-wide PhD initiatives  

The aim of this institutional session is twofold. Firstly, Unite! and EELISA want to share their knowledge and experience on how they are dealing with the two selected topics. Secondly, both Alliances would like to get first-hand feedback and impressions from their researchers, make them part of the building process of both Alliances, so that the tools and initiatives created truly respond to their needs.