European University | Transform4Europe

Together with the employees and students of all cycles from the partner universities, we aim to create one global Transform4Europe European campus located in Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Portugal, Slovenia, France, Estonia, Spain, Italy and Germany.

The members of the Transform4Europe alliance share the common concept of transformation and their goal is to train and educate agents of change towards a more just, sustainable and resilient future, thereby acting as drivers of transformation themselves.

Based on this common understanding and the individual transformation profiles relating to their individual experiences of historical, regional and institutional transformation, Transform4Europe bases the approach on the following four pillars of transformation:

INDIVIDUAL MINDSET:

Individuals as drivers of transformation should be at the centre of the process, as the orientation and mind-set of each individual actor are the starting point for any form of comprehensive transformation. Thus, European transformation needs individuals who can actively contribute to shaping a world in which well-being and sustainability are achievable.

UNIVERSITIES:

In order to empower students, staff and stakeholders to act as agents of transformation, universities are responsible for conveying the values, skills and knowledge needed by all-round citizens with both academic and societal responsibilities, starting from the local regions of the alliance and moving towards global citizenship.

REGIONS:

In collaboration with their universities, the regions have major potential to drive the transformation of Europe and the EEA as knowledge and innovation ecosystems. In order to reach their highest potential, the regions represented in the Transform4Europe alliance must be interlinked in an interregional network so to expand their impact at the continental level.

EUROPE:

The complex societal challenges that Europe and the entire world are facing cannot be solved by individual actors. European transformation concepts need to be as diverse as Europe itself, and require different perspectives, approaches and solutions directly linked with and shared by the local and regional population. Transform4Europe will pursue true European added value by networking complementary regional transformation networks from across Europe that share a joint vision for facing major challenges.

The Transform4Europe members believe that these four pillars are crucial for a successful transformation of university-region cooperation, which will have a major impact on the enhancement of European integration.

Transforming and progressively integrating the Transform4Europe universities into one sustainable single alliance with joint governance and shared support structures and services that is internationally visible and attractive as a European pole of excellence and major driver of change. This European university will pursue student-centred pedagogical approaches and participative, co-creational governance principles.

Making mobility within the alliance accessible for all members of the universities: Improved, flexible and inclusive mobility framework conditions and options, together with improved language-learning options and incentives, will establish mobility as the norm both for the students and for staff of our European university.

Creating a Transform4Europe multi-campus European University with an inclusive campus life where students and staff share a participative understanding of being a member of a European University with a strong European identity. This includes customised transdisciplinary study programmes and further training for staff.

Integrating the transformative knowledge-entrepreneurialism perspective into all study and training programmes and making it a key concept for active European citizenship: The Transform4Europe partners will educate and train future European knowledge-entrepreneurs, providing them with the necessary creative entrepreneurial mind-set, intercultural competencies and language skills.

Becoming the main drivers of regional transformation by establishing structured partnerships with regional stakeholders: The Transform4Europe alliance will contribute to research and innovation with and for the regions, implementing innovative knowledge co-creation models that are replicable elsewhere. This process at the local level and the university partnerships each member has at the regional level will initiate a major, broader process aiming at creating networked European knowledge and innovation ecosystems.

Becoming a major player in the consolidation and success of the EEA and the European project in general.

The purpose of the project Transform 4 European Research and Innovation (T4ERI) is to develop an integrated and long-term joint strategy on research and innovation, in line with the education strategy described in the Erasmus+ pilot project Transform4Europe. The Transform 4 European Research and Innovation project will pursue the objectives already established by Transform4Europe and achieve the following long-term aims:

1. Define a pioneering, comprehensive and long-term joint research and innovation agenda and its strategic action plan with views on aligning and modernising research and innovation at the partner universities.
2. Increase the attractiveness of the Transform4Europe partner universities to excellent researchers.
3. Develop a common strategy ensuring involvement and engagement of citizens, civil society and public/private authorities in research and innovation.

Additionally, a number of specific objectives have been defined which contribute to the achievement of the overall aim and general objectives as described above.

1. Create a joint agenda for research and innovation in the Transform4Europe focus area of digital and environmental transformation for smart, sustainable and inclusive regions.
2. Enable access to research infrastructures and develop virtual collaborative research centers.
3. Develop strategies for strengthening human capital in research and innovation, including promotion of young talents and leadership in science.
4. Increase the attractiveness of the Transform4Europe partner universities to excellent researchers by developing joint innovative standards for scientific careers and improving professional research support.
5. Develop the Science4All joint strategy for public engagement, science communication and open science ensuring involvement and engagement of citizens, civil society and public/private authorities in research and innovation.
6. Reinforce cooperation with non-academic actors, esp. stakeholders from the regional innovation ecosystems.

Shortly, the main aims and objectives of the project Transform 4 European Research and Innovation is presented in the following table.

Grant agreement ID: 101035805