Results of European Universities announced

In the Call 2022, 16 existing and 4 new alliances will be supported.

Today, the European Commission announced the results of the 2022 call within the European Universities initiative. Due to the previously announced record budget of 272 million euros from the Erasmus+ programme, the continuation of 16 already existing alliances will be supported under Topic 1 - Intensification of previous international cooperation between institutions (out of 21 submitted applications), as well as the creation of 4 new alliances under Topic 2 - Development of new international cooperation between institutions (out of 31 submitted applications). The 16 alliances under Topic 1 has been extended by approximately 30 new higher education institutions. Each of the alliances will receive a maximum budget of 14.4 million euros over 4 years, which represents a significant increase compared to previous calls, where the maximum grant amount was 5 million euros over three years.

Following the publication of these results, there are currently a total of 44 European Universities Alliances, involving 340 higher education institutions from 31 countries. In this year's call, it was also possible to involve associated partners from the Bologna Process countries (for example, Ukraine, Switzerland or the United Kingdom). In total, the alliances plan to work with nearly 1,300 associated partners from various regions and countries.

By mid-2024, the European Commission plans to support 60 alliances in total (with the involvement of more than 500 higher education institutions), as stated in its European Strategy for Universities published this January. The announcement of the Call 2023 is expected in the fall of this year (with the application deadline probably in the spring of 2023). Subsequently, the Call 2024 is also planned, which should be announced in the fall of 2023, with the application deadline probably in the spring of 2024.

Participation of the Czech Republic  

Four universities from the Czech Republic are currently involved in the European Universities, with Charles University and Masaryk University being part of the 16 ongoing alliances supported this year. Charles University is involved in the 4EU+ alliance (in this year's challenge called 1CORE) together with higher education institutions from Germany, Denmark, Italy, France and Poland. Masaryk University is then involved in the EDUC alliance together with higher education institutions from Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Germany and Norway. The other two Czech universities involved are the Palacky University in Olomouc (the Aurora alliance) and the Czech Technical University in Prague (the EuroTeQ alliance). The alliances of the two last-mentioned universities were selected under the Call 2020 and should have the opportunity to apply for continuation in the following calls.

Context

The European Universities Initiative is central to achieving the ambitious vision of an innovative, globally competitive and attractive European Education Area by 2025, which would operate in full synergies with the European Research Area and the European Higher Education Area. European universities represent a new form of international partnerships, which should extend transnational cooperation between higher education institutions to the next level. They are expected to lead to more intensive mobility of students, staff and researchers, to the development of excellent science and research, and also to contribute to increasing of the competitiveness of European universities at the global level and to solving societal issues. These alliances are intended to support systemic, structural and sustainable transnational cooperation and connect the four main missions of universities: education, research, innovation and service to society. The initiative was launched in 2017 and three calls took place so far (2019, 2020 and 2022).

More information in the Commission's press release.