EUTOPIA

EUTOPIA 2050

European Universities Transforming to an Open Inclusive Academy for 2050.

Challenge-led, student-centered, place-based & inclusive.

EUTOPIA WEEK

The EUTOPIA alliance is pleased to invite you to our very first EUTOPIA week, taking place virtually from 29 June - 3 July 2020!

Conferences, noon talks, workshops, a student forum, cultural visits, contests,... are all on our virtual agenda!

More information here, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn to stay up to date!

EUTOPIA and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic confronts all our universities with new challenges. It influences our work and our daily life, driving us to find new ways of working and learning remotely from separate locations while remaining together as one network. It certainly pushes us to invent new working flows. We are currently practising virtual communication across borders, which will form a part of EUTOPIA’s international and innovative identity.

We believe that our project of a future European University will grow more valuable from this adversity, because we will have worked with each other differently and because we all are, in EUTOPIA, adaptable inhabitants of a continent old, vigorous and diverse enough, to build the future out of our combined wisdom and connectedness.

We are confident in our ability to ensure by other means the teaching, the pursuit of research, and the administrative stability for our 165,000 students and 30,000 academics and administrators. 

Our six universities took due measures to protect our communities. You can find details in the websites of the members of the EUTOPIA Alliance: 

• Vrije Universiteit Brussel: https://www.vub.be/coronavirus#stand-van-zaken
• CY Cergy Paris Université: https://www.u-cergy.fr/fr/universite/actualites/recommandations-coronavirus.html
• University of Gothenburg: https://www.gu.se/english/about_the_university/news-calendar/coronavirus/switch-to-remote-studies-and-remote-work
• University of Ljubljana: https://www.uni-lj.si/ul_and_coronavirus/
• Universitat Pompeu Fabra : https://www.upf.edu/home/-/asset_publisher/YJZ7PeiKgUZV/content/id/233349640/maximized#.XnYyuy17TOQ
• University of Warwick: https://warwick.ac.uk/insite/coronavirus 

We will be posting regular updates about the impact of the COVID-19 on our project’s timelines.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENTS, VICE-CHANCELLORS AND RECTORS OF THE EUTOPIA EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ALLIANCE

The COVID-19 pandemic has an unprecedented impact on all aspects of society, including higher education. The Eutopia Alliance universities sympathize with the afflicted, regret the loss of family members, friends and colleagues many now experience, and we hope to contribute our combined knowledge and expertise for the good of society. For us, as well for our colleagues from other pilot alliances, this pandemic poses a severe challenge to our work of creating a European University and causes necessarily the need for an amendment in our project timeline and financial aspects. At this moment, though, our primary concern must focus on the health and safety of the staff and students. All six universities are taking due measures to protect our communities, and we are confident in our ability to ensure by other means the teaching, the pursuit of research, and the administrative stability for our 165,000 students and 30,000 academics and administrators.

The Eutopia Alliance hopes to, despite the gravity of the current circumstances, not lose momentum in our shared goal to create a European University. We believe that this crisis demonstrates that only concerted European action will be effective and that European solidarity, in this case, is also much needed.

But there is more. The COVID-19 pandemic urges us to re-think the functioning of our universities. The dramatic measures taken to contain the contagion have resulted in extensive use of digital tools for education, as well as for organizing meetings at a distance. One can already see that staff and students have embraced the digital turn in higher education. This will affect the implementation of the Eutopia project, and the Presidents and rectors of the six partners will, in agreement with the Commission, address this issue when thinking about the future of our alliance. At present, we are largely going digital, and where that is not possible, alternatives will be developed. We are currently practising virtual communication across borders, which will form part of EUTOPIA’s international and innovative identity. But much more is needed, and we will have to find new ways of working and learning remotely from separate locations while remaining together as one network. It certainly pushes us to re-invent new working methods.

The COVID-19 pandemic further illustrates two other aspects that will affect the future of European Universities. First, that the world is incredibly connected and young people, whatever the subject of their study, should be educated with that principle in mind and be prepared to study, work and live in open and networked societies. Second, the current crisis also demonstrates the importance of collaborative research in order to deliver evidence that can be used by policy-makers and practitioners, and that can guide citizens. We need more trust in science and accurate mechanisms to facilitate the dialogue between the scientific communities and the policy-makers. This should be reflected in the research agenda and the curricula of our universities.

While working hard on the well-being and safety of everyone, we want to stress that there is no other choice than to adapt to what looks like a new organizational reality and to re-invent our universities. The big challenge is how to overcome the disruptive effects of pandemics without cutting back on the networking and mobility necessary for education and research in the European Universities of the future. The answer will be digital and European. We are ready to take up the challenge.

Caroline Pauwels
Rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel

François Germinet
President of CY Cergy Paris Université

Eva Wiberg
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gothenburg

Igor Papič
Rector of the University of Ljubljana

Jaume Casals
Rector of the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

Stuart Croft
Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Warwick

Long-term vision

EUTOPIA’s vision is one of a fully federated inter-university campus alliance that is:

• Geared towards the challenges of the future
  The alliance will be challenge-drive to prepare students and staff as European citizens and lifelong learners who care and act for the future of the planet and humanity.
• Student-centred and student-empowering
  The alliance will provide transformative and open learning opportunities, and extended horizons of expectation and ability, both across Europe and throughout the world.
• Attentive to the plurality, potentiality and international pre-eminence of Europe’s regions
  The alliance will build on its place-making strengths, connecting cultures and contexts in order to enhance European capability and creativity, and support the international pre-eminence of European innovation and influence.
• Committed to the principles of openness and inclusion
  The alliance will foster and support knowledge co-creation, by building open resources and collaborative platforms, endorsing open science agendas, and sponsoring the access, mobility and inclusivity mechanisms that liberate our intellectual and social potential.

Mid-term mission

In order to establish the foundations of a federated university by 2025, EUTOPIA will focus on five core areas:

• Prepare students, staff and learners to be empowered European citizens in today’s disruptive World
• Adjust the university organisation and practices to lead the challenges of the 21st Century
• Increase and intensify the Europeanisation of programmes on offer
• Catalyse place-making by the universities in partnership with their regions, engaging with all agencies to embed and empower the transformative effect of universities
• Serve as an example for other universities, across Europe and in the wider international arena, in order to share and develop the focus on building transformative, challenge-driven and contemporary universities.

Short-term piloting plan

Geared towards its long-term vision and mid-term mission, the EUTOPIA alliance initiated its 3-year pilot plan in Ljubljana on December 2nd 2019.

The EUTOPIA 3-year plan is organised in seven Work Packages, each one with a specific goal. All of them include three different types of activity (strategy development; development and implementation of tools and instruments; implementation of pilot cases).

The Work Packages are as follows:

• Work Package 1
  A governance structure and strategy for managing a European University alliance
• Work Package 2
  A common Learning Community
• Work Package 3
  A common set of Knowledge Creation Communities
• Work Package 4
  A place-making capacity, policy and practice
• Work Package 5
  An inclusion and balanced societies policy and practice
• Work Package 6
  A grounded and global internationalisation
• Work Package 7
  A sustainability and dissemination policy and practice

EUTOPIA Week

Participate in the very first EUTOPIA week, held virtually from 29 June - 3 July 2020.

Packed with conferences, workshops, contests and more, the specific offer for student participation includes:

• PitchMyEUTOPIA contest
• Photo contest
• Student forum

More information on student activities and the EUTOPIA week in general here.

Get involved!

EUTOPIA Student Governance

The EUTOPIA alliance highly values student participation. Contact the VUB student council for an update on EUTOPIA student governance through STUDENTCOUNCIL@VUB.AC.BE , and keep an eye on this page for opportunities to get actively involved!

Become a EUTOPIA Ambassador!

Would you like to:

• participate in a European project with prestigious universities?
• travel around Europe and work with students from all over?
• actively contribute to improving your learning process and that of future generations?
• improve your resume and acquire new skills and competences?

If so, become a EUTOPIA ambassador and help create a new European University model! You will get academic recognition for your participation!

More information here.
 

Erasmus exchange

Check if your programme has Erasmus exchange opportunities on the Exchange pages!

Call for papers: Journal Teorija in praksa (Theory & Practice)

Call for papers: Journal Teorija in praksa (Theory and Practice) – Special COVID-19 crisis issue
 
Teorija in praksa is inviting papers for a thematic issue on the key Societal Challenges of Crisis Response in the Case of Global COVID-19 Crisis.

Submissions     
Open: May 15th, 2020
Close: 17th January, 2021

The purpose of this thematic issue of Theory and Practice journal is to give interested authors an opportunity to analyse the: (1) COVID-19 crisis; (2) crisis response at the national or international levels; and/or (3) associated dilemmas from many different social scientific viewpoints. We are looking for articles on the theme from the perspectives of sociology, political science, international relations, security and defence studies, communication science, law etc. We also seek papers on human rights during this crisis and papers on the post-COVID power relations, world order and Europe.  Multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches entailing a group of authors are very welcome.

The journal is indexed in the following databases.
More Information here.

Ljubljana doctoral programs

The University of Ljubljana has launched its call for enrollment into 21 doctoral degree programs for the academic year 2020/2021. The call and more information about application deadlines and application documentation can be found through this link.

If you need more information, please contact Tomažin, Jelena (Jelena.Tomazin@uni-lj.si).

Fernandes Fellowships at the University of Warwick

Supported by the University of Warwick, the Fernandes Fellowships aim to develop lasting research collaborations between Warwick and Europe, in particularly with EUTOPIA partners.
The Fellowships will allow those in research, tenure-track or early academic positions at European institutions to undertake a three-month visit to Warwick (possibly split over two or three visits) in order to develop long-term research collaborations by participating in a specific program of research and scholarship with their host and other collaborators, and engaging with the wider Warwick research community.

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Warwick has recently released details of projects that have been awarded Fernandes Fellowships. Researchers from the University of Pompeu Fabra, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, CY Cergy Paris Université and the University of Ljubljana have all notably been successful and will visit Warwick as Fellows for research projects.
You can find more information through the link below.

The scheme remains open for new applications but please contact the IAS ahead of applying to discuss the timings of planned visits in light of COVID-19. See below for further information.

More information.

Fernandes Fellowships.

EUTOPIA-SIF COFUND

We are pleased to announce that the EUTOPIA’s Science & Innovation Postdoctoral Fellowships Programme (EUTOPIA-SIF) was selected under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND Action from the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme. With a total of 10.2 Million Euros (5.6 M€ of EU contribution and 4.6 M€ of co-funding by the alliance's members), EUTOPIA-SIF is an ambitious initiative to train 76 young researchers. 

The project is coordinated by CY Cergy Paris Université for the EUTOPIA alliance. The first call for applications will be published in the fall of 2020. Fellows will be offered full freedom to pursue their research project while benefiting 
from expert supervision and state-of-the-art research infrastructure.

Become a EUTOPIA Ambassador!

Would you like to:

participate in a European project with prestigious universities?

travel around Europe and working with students from all over?

actively contribute to improving your learning process and that of future generations?

improve your resume and acquire new skills and competences?

If so, become an EUTOPIA ambassador and help create a new European University model! You will get academic recognition for your participation!
Find through this link all necessary information to candidate!

EUTOPIA Week

Participate in the very first EUTOPIA week, held virtually from 29 June - 3 July 2020.

Packed with conferences, workshops, contests and more, the EUTOPIA alliance warmly invites you to participate in this celebration of our alliance.

More information on all activities and the EUTOPIA week in general here.

Call editorial board 'Exchanges: the Interdisciplinary Research Journal'

The University of Warwick is seeking early career researchers from EUTOPIA to join the editorial board of Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal. It is a scholar-led, peer-reviewed, open access, interdisciplinary, online-only journal dedicated to the publication of high-quality work by researchers in all disciplines. 

This is a career development opportunity for early career researchers 
(defined broadly in this case to include those coming to the end of their PhDs as well as postdocs) to join the editorial team of an international, interdisciplinary journal. The editors would be supported by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief Gareth Johnson and would act as ambassadors for Exchanges within their institution, aiming to drive more submissions to the journal. 

For more information, please contact Gareth.Johnson@warwick.ac.uk 
and we kindly ask you to register your interest before Friday 28th February. 

Underneath some relevant links. 

About the title: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/about 

Author guidelines: https://exchanges.warwick.ac.uk/guidance 

Editors blog: https://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/exchangesias/     

EUTOPIA PhD co-tutelle program 2020 call results

The EUTOPIA alliance and CY Initiative of Excellence are pleased to announce the results of the EUTOPIA PhD co-tutelle program 2020 call, which was launched in January.
 
12 PhD co-tutelle projects have been selected, with 4 partners of the EUTOPIA alliance, out of 21 projects submitted jointly by researchers and laboratories from CY Initiative (CY Cergy Paris University and ESSEC) and partner universities (Warwick, VUB, Ljubljana, Pompeu Fabra). The selected projects will be co-financed by CY Initiative for a total of 1.02M euros.  
 
Details of the results can be found through the link below.
 
This call for projects has generated a great interest from CY Initiative’s scientific community. Thank you to all the project leaders for their interest and the energy mobilized.

Results.

Fellowships

• The Paris Seine Institute of Advanced Studies has launched a new scheme, the EUTOPIA Visiting Fellowships, to facilitate the hosting of EUTOPIA researchers wishing to collaborate with Paris Seine faculty. Applications are open and welcome! More information.
• The VUB is actively recruiting experienced researchers for the prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action – Individual Fellowship (MSCA-IF) which is part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 funding scheme. The MSCA-IF funding scheme is geared to promising experienced researchers (ER). Please note: an ER denotes a researcher with a PhD degree, or at least 4 years of full-time equivalent research experience (unrelated to PhD studies). A repository of topics to inspire potential applicants, and to ensure a two-way knowledge transfer between applicant and host institution (a requirement for the proposal) has been created. The topics of the repository are thought to be seen as grounds for discussion and further evolution into a project idea together with the respective VUB supervisor. The applicant will have to write a proposal to further expound his or her idea regarding e.g. innovation, training and stakeholders. More information.

• Supported by the University of Warwick, the Fernandes Fellowships aim to develop lasting research collaborations between Warwick and Europe, in particularly with EUTOPIA partners.
  The Fellowships will allow those in research, tenure-track or early academic positions at European institutions to undertake a three-month visit to Warwick (possibly split over two or three visits) in order to develop long-term research collaborations by participating in a specific program of research and scholarship with their host and other collaborators, and engaging with the wider Warwick research community.

  The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at Warwick has recently released details of projects that have been awarded Fernandes Fellowships. Researchers from the University of Pompeu Fabra, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, CY Cergy Paris Université and the University of Ljubljana have all notably been successful and will visit Warwick as Fellows for research projects.
  You can find more information through the link below.

  The scheme remains open for new applications but please contact the IAS ahead of applying to discuss the timings of planned visits in light of COVID-19. See below for further information.

  More information.

  Fernandes Fellowships.

For PhD scholarships, check the page for PhD students!

Call for papers: Journal Teorija in praksa (Theory & Practice)

Teorija in praksa is inviting papers for a thematic issue on the key Societal Challenges of Crisis Response in the Case of Global COVID-19 Crisis.

Submissions     
Open: May 15th, 2020
Close: 17th January, 2021

The purpose of this thematic issue of Theory and Practice journal is to give interested authors an opportunity to analyse the: (1) COVID-19 crisis; (2) crisis response at the national or international levels; and/or (3) associated dilemmas from many different social scientific viewpoints. We are looking for articles on the theme from the perspectives of sociology, political science, international relations, security and defence studies, communication science, law etc. We also seek papers on human rights during this crisis and papers on the post-COVID power relations, world order and Europe.  Multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches entailing a group of authors are very welcome.
The journal is indexed in the following database. 
More Information here.

Due to the current situation, it will be held virtually through video-conference tools and social networks.

Stay tuned as there are a lot of actions planned.
If you don't want to miss anything, do not hesitate to subscribe or follow all EUTOPIA's social networks.

Programme

The 5 days of the EUTOPIA Week will be quite busy with work meetings, but also other kind of events like cultural visits, conferences on sustainable campuses and digital inclusion, workshops on international mobility and European calls, contests, noon talks, discover CY and video presentations of student's associations.  
You can find through this link the full programme of the EUTOPIA Week with a registration link to the events opened to all, as well as a summary of the two contests to be launched for the Eweek.

Don't hesitate to participate in these events and also follow EUTOPIA's social networks as many events will be shared online.

Contests

Photo contest

A photo contest is organized during the EUTOPIA Week, precisely between Friday, June 29 at 10:00 a.m. and Thursday, July 2 at 4:00 p.m. The theme is: The new university workspaces.
 
Recent events have led academics, students, professors and administrators alike to rethink their homes as workspaces—no more classrooms, amphitheaters, libraries or offices. The theme was chosen to share, within the EUTOPIA community, these newly furnished places, which they had to learn to tame, to continue their daily lives.

All Eutopians are invited to participate and to share their reimagined workspace.
Please do notice that participants are invited, but not compelled, to stage themselves through their photography.
To participate: 
   -   Send your photo by email to killian.courgibet@cyu.fr;
   -   Post it with the hashtag #EUTOPIAweek;
 - Tag EUTOPIA (@eutopiaalliance on Facebook and @EutopiaUni on Instagram).
 
The winner will have her/his photo used in the official communication of the alliance and shared within the 6 universities of EUTOPIA. The results will be announced on Friday the 3rd of July during the Official Closing Ceremony of the EUTOPIA Week, at 10:30.

Do not hesitate to click this link for more information about the contest, we cannot wait to see your contribution!

Pitch MyEUTOPIA

Pitch MyEUTOPIA is a pitch contest organized during the EUTOPIA Week for students of EUTOPIA's universities.

The EUTOPIA 2050 project aims to create a new paradigm of a European university. We invite all EUTOPIAn students to imagine the best model, in their opinion, of the future European university with its reinforced values, components and innovative functioning. Share with the EUTOPIA community the ideas of your future university, tell us what your EUTOPIA is!

You can participate, as a group or alone, and submit your participation by email to armando.uribe-echeverria@cyu.fr till the 26th of June.

The winner will have the opportunity to participate in the next EUTOPIA Week in presential, and to become an active ambassador of the alliance. The results will be announced on Friday the 3rd of July during the Closing Ceremony of the EUTOPIA Week, at 10:30.

Do not hesitate to click this link for more information about the contest, we cannot wait to see your contribution!

What's on the agenda

2 Conferences
A conference on "Sustainable campuses" to share the expertise of all partners on this topic, to discuss the model of strategic and collaborative engagement of universities with their city regions, places and communities and to imagine cooperation actions within EUTOPIA.
A Joint conference on "Digital Inclusion" to share expertise among European Universities Alliances. ARQUS, CHARM-EU and CIVIS European Universities already confirmed their presence.

3 Noon Talks
Those Noon Talks animated by CY students will be available live on YouTube and their recording will be shared on Facebook.
They will give us the opportunity to discuss various topics like "Open Science", "Knowledge Bazaar" and "International Mobility" with speakers from the EUTOPIA partner Universities.

2 Workshops
These workshops on "Good Practices on welcoming students in post-crisis situation" and on "European calls: towards EUTOPIA’s strategy" will give the EUTOPIA community the opportunity to share good practices and experience in those two topics.

A Student Forum
This Forum will be chaired by EUTOPIA's student representatives. It is open to all students and will give everyone the opportunity to launch the Student Think Tank, and also to discuss the following topic: "Building the European Universities: Towards a more sustainable university. How to reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals from the University: what are students supposed to do?" It will be an important moment for a sharing of good practices from the EUTOPIA partners from the student perspective.

Student's associations
The EUTOPIA Alliance would not be what it is without its students and its campus life. To get a better idea of the student life in all EUTOPIA universities, we invite you on our social networks to watch some video-presentations of student’s associations. Let’s discover it together!

4 Cultural Visits
Cergy is rooted in a culturally and artistically rich territory as the country of impressionism, we invite you to discover our region. These cultural visits will be available on EUTOPIA's social networks and will allow you to discover many beautiful sightseeing places within Cergy's territory. Do not hesitate to come back to see it for yourself.

10 Discover CY
Discover CY Cergy Paris Université and innovative working spaces on its territory under a new light through staff, students, stakeholders' short videos presentations. It will give you a good overview of the university even without being on site!

14 Work Meetings

4 Boards Meetings

EUTOPIA Week on social networks

Because of the recent events related to COVID-19, this first EUTOPIA Week will take place entirely online. We have done our best to provide you the most efficient services and to facilitate your participation in the EUTOPIA Week actions.
 
Thus, we will rely on social networks for our actions opened to the public. The Opening and Closing ceremonies, the conference on "Sustainable Campuses, the joint conference on "Digital Inclusion" and the Noon Talks will be broadcasted live on YouTube and their recordings will be posted on Facebook.

Some of the EUTOPIA Week actions likes the conferences, the Student Forum and the workshops are open to a broader community.

You can register to those actions through the links below.
 
Also, do not forget to regularly check the social networks of the Alliance, where all the events will be announced. Pay attention to Facebook and Instagram to avoid missing the contents of the contests organised during the EUTOPIA Week.

Registration link to open events

Registration link to the Joint conference "Digital Inclusion"

For more information, inquiries, or comments, please contact us through eutopia@vub.be , visit www.eutopia-university.eu , like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Instagram