European Universities – Community of practice (ERASMUS-EDU-2024-EUR-UNIV-2)

The ‘European Universities’ initiative is part of the ‘Partnerships for Excellence’ support provided in the framework of the new Erasmus+ Programme. This initiative has an ambitious mandate aimed to trigger and deepen unprecedented levels of institutional cooperation between higher education institutions, making it systemic, structural and sustainable. It aims to encourage the emergence of bottom-up alliances of universities across Europe, which will enable students to combine studies in several countries.

In line with the priorities of the European Education Area by 2025, these European Universities intend to:

• Promote common European values and a strengthened European identity by bringing together a new generation of Europeans able to cooperate within different cultures, languages, and across borders, sectors and academic disciplines;

• Reach a substantial leap in quality, performance, attractiveness and competitiveness of European higher education institutions, and contribute to the European knowledge economy, employment, creativity, culture and welfare by making the best use of innovative pedagogies and striving to make the knowledge square a reality. ‘European Universities’ will be key drivers to boost the quality of higher education and where possible to strengthen its link to the research and innovation landscape in Europe and its outreach towards the society and economy.

To achieve this, the present call Topic ERASMUS-EDU-2024-EUR-UNIV-2 (Topic 2) will provide support for applicants to set-up a Community of Practice of European Universities alliances.

The set-up of a Community of Practice of European Universities will help in sharing best practices and experiences within the community of European Universities alliances, as well as for the benefit of the wider higher education sector.

The objective of a community of practice (CoP) for European Universities alliances is to create a collaborative and supportive environment where European Universities alliances can come together to share good practices and experiences within the community of European Universities alliances, as well as for the benefit of the wider higher education sector. More concretely, the Community of Practice is meant to support closer cooperation between the alliances by facilitating learning, collaboration, and dissemination of results among and beyond the European Universities alliances in order to achieve common goals and enhance alliances’ knowledge, skills, and effectiveness, for the benefit of the wider higher education sector. The specific objectives are:

• Support closer cooperation between the alliances by:
  • Knowledge Sharing and Learning: To facilitate the exchange of knowledge, good practices, and experiences among European Universities alliances, promoting continuous learning and improvement within the community.
  • Skill Development: To provide opportunities for alliances to enhance their competencies in areas related to the European Universities focus, fostering professional growth.
  • Networking and Collaboration: To establish connections and foster collaboration among alliances with similar interests, encouraging synergies, hubs, etc.
  • Innovation and problem solving: To promote creativity and innovation by encouraging members to collectively address common challenges, propose solutions, involving the Commission and Member States where relevant, and explore new approaches, based on the experience of the European Universities alliances.
• Promote and support dissemination of results not only between alliances, but also to the wider higher education sector and enhance the transferability of the results and their uptake by relevant end-users.
  • Knowledge Management: to build shared knowledge, resources, and expertise that can be accessed and used by European Universities alliances and the wider higher education sector to bring transnational cooperation in higher education in Europe to the next level.

Applicants can submit a proposal that aims to set-up a Community of Practice for the European Universities alliances that will help in building synergies and sharing best practices and experiences within the community and will also benefit the wider higher education sector. This action will:

a) Ensure closer cooperation between the existing and future European Universities alliances11 and other similar long-standing institutionalised cooperation models. This action will allow for:

• Setting up of a common flexible structure, including thematic working groups, allowing for efficient interaction and knowledge sharing on relevant academic, pedagogical, and administrative matters, for example linked to student and staff mobility, joint educational opportunities, pedagogical innovation, societal outreach, digitalisation, sustainability or governance.
• Identifying gaps and/or areas to be reinforced in view of maximising synergies and impact.
• Addressing common challenges and identifying possible solutions.
• Establishing a sound management structure allowing for a representation of all involved alliances and preserving the regular channels between the Commission services and the coordinators of all European Universities alliances selected under the Erasmus+ Calls for Proposals for European Universities.

Non-exhaustive indicative list of specific activities could consist of:

• Setting up and running an interactive forum and thematic working groups.
• Actively engaging existing and future European Universities alliances to participate in the community of practice.
• Initiating and managing discussions on relevant topics, challenges, or emerging trends.
• Encouraging alliances to share their ideas, experiences, and perspectives.
• Using, moderating and animating a user-friendly collaborative platform for the community to facilitate interactions and knowledge-sharing between the alliances with the possibility for interaction with the Commission services, and possibly also Member States.
• As part of this platform, allow for a knowledge repository where members can contribute and access valuable resources, templates, guides, and other material.
• Organising online and or physical webinars/meetings for the representatives of the European Universities alliances and other similar long-standing institutionalised cooperation models to connect, share updates, and discuss common challenges and opportunities.
• Providing direct input to the Commission services on possible solutions to encountered challenges, based on the experience of the European Universities alliances, without aiming to duplicate the complementary work done by European network/stakeholder associations in the higher education sector.

b) Promote and support dissemination of results between alliances and to the wider higher education sector, and enhance the transferability and uptake of the results by relevant end-users. This action will allow for:

• Scaling up of the communication, promotion and dissemination activities related to the European Universities alliances. This must include a practical and effective approach to amplify the exploitation of the outcomes of the European Universities alliances and to enhance the impact by capturing and exchanging success stories and best practices within the European Universities alliances community and beyond. Non-exhaustive indicative list of specific activities could consist of:
• Encouraging the sharing of good practices, success stories, and lessons learned among alliances and beyond to inspire and guide others in their endeavours. • Organising and participating in public/targeted events to showcase the added value of the European Universities alliances to the wider community, where ideas can be shared for mutual enrichment.
• Setting up a dedicated information portal of the community of practice.
• Sharing input from community of practice with the Commission services12 (e.g. factsheets, testimonials, good practice examples, social media input, etc.).
• Producing a newsletter to share results, events outcomes etc.

The community of practice is expected to trigger the following impact:

• Facilitate and support the European Universities alliances towards deeper transnational institutional cooperation.
• Boost new ways of cooperation to enhance synergies between the European Universities community and beyond.
• Scale up the outcomes of the European Universities alliances by creating and implementing a robust and meaningful approach for dissemination of results between European Universities, but also beyond for the benefit of the wider higher education sector.
• Enhance the transferability of the results and their uptake by relevant end-users.
• Address common challenges and engage directly with the Commission services on possible solutions based on the experience of the European Universities alliances, without aiming to duplicate the complementary work done by European network/stakeholder associations in the higher education sector.

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries not affiliated entities), which complies with the following condition:  Minimum 3 eligible higher education institutions from 3 different eligible countries.