Aurora 2030 Project

The Aurora vision of matching academic excellence with societal relevance forges the underlying foundation for Aurora universities. It further guides the activities within the framework of the European Universities Initiative launched by the European Commission. Following its successful initial phase, Aurora universities has now received continued support to launch the Aurora 2030 project and further scale up its research, education and innovation actions for the years ahead.  

The Aurora 2030 project comprises of ten work packages (WP) and 33 task teams (TT), working towards deliverables that encompass four key Aurora strategic priorities: 

    • Teaching and Learning for Societal Impact 
    • Excellent Challenge-based Research and Innovation 
    • Collaboration and Engagement through Inclusive Communities 
    • Sustainability Pioneers 

Aurora’s strength as a consortium of research-intensive institutions ensures a researcher-led approach whereby all activities are inextricably linked to the five main research-driven educational hubs: 

The Aurora 2030 project aims to achieve high-quality education, including the use of challenge-based and interdisciplinary approaches, innovative pedagogical models, digital technologies, blended learning and work-based learning.  

Its ultimate goal is to contribute to developing key skills and competencies that are enabled for future societal impact. 

WP1: Project Management

Work Package 1 (WP1) ensures the sound management and coordination of Aurora’s work plan. It supports the institutional development of Aurora universities in line with the Aurora vision. As such, WP1 is responsible for the running of the Aurora Central Office, the delivery of policy and strategy support, and all professional services. It is also in charge of providing a framework for Quality Assurance. 

Lead: University of Iceland

  • Fanney Karlsdottir
  • Svandis H. Halldorsdottir
  • Halldor Jonsson
  • Fridrika Hardardottir

Co-lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  • Esmee Paques

Co-lead: Aurora Central Office

  • Ramon Puras
  • Sabine Sainte-Rose

Task 1.1 Project Management

This task focuses on the coordination of the implementation of Aurora‘s work and ensures the sound management of resources. It supports and coordinates management of the Aurora universities’ organisational bodies and strengthens internal communication between different governing entities. In addition, the task includes the financial monitoring required for the accountability of this Erasmus+ project.

Lead: University of Iceland

Task 1.2 Quality Assurance 

This task specifies the creation of a core Quality Assurance team and a Quality Council, which will include representatives from all ten Work Packages. It is within this task that Aurora oversees the production of a quality management plan, quality assurance guiding principles and processes, roles and responsibilities in quality assurance and the reporting process. Part of the work in this task is also the timeline of the quality evaluation reports and how they connect to form a comprehensive narrative. 

Lead: University of Iceland

Task 1.3 Sustainability of the Alliance: Aurora 2030+

This task zooms in on the financial sustainability of Aurora. It aims to analyse and secure the various conditions that must be met for Aurora universities to continue beyond 2030. Its goal is to create a synergy between all aspects necessary for a long-term viable cooperation within Aurora, align the financial capabilities and national regulations of the different Aurora partners, and create a structural joint approach for external fundraising for Aurora. The end result will map out Aurora’s sustainability at the institutional level, and further develop an Aurora Joint Strategy of Sustainability. 

Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

WP2: Transdisciplinary European Research-Driven Educational Hubs

The objective of Work Package 2 (WP2) is to influence societal change. This goal is achieved by developing communities of learners, researchers and other stakeholders that together aim to become active change-makers, based on an inclusive, student-centred, quality-assured, fully recognised, and research- and innovation-driven learning and teaching in higher education. 

Using challenge-based approaches, collaborative learning and transdisciplinary co-creation, Aurora aims to generate several European research-driven learner-centred educational “hubs” that respond to major societal challenges: Sustainability & Climate Change, Digital Society & Global Citizenship, Health & Wellbeing, and Culture: Diversities & Identities.  

A fifth hub has also been established: Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Due to the transversal skills and mindsets required to address the challenges and opportunities associated with this theme, this hub can therefore be found under its own dedicated work package (see Work Package 3).  

All hubs are aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Lead: University of Duisburg-Essen

  • Barbara Buchenau
  • Zohra Hassan- Pieper

Co-lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  • Silvester S. Draaijer

Task 2.1 Establishing the Hub for Sustainability & Climate Change

This task expands the four hubs into transdisciplinary European Research-Driven and Learner-Centred Educational Hubs, putting cutting-edge research at the heart of Aurora’s educational developments. It enables the standardisation and dissemination of educational activities from transdisciplinary and SDG-related hubs.  

Within this task, the team will work on compiling and publishing guidelines for setting up micro-credentials in Aurora. In addition, this task will see through the development and implementation of flexible learning paths that offer a holistic comprehension of “Sustainability & Climate Change”. This includes the ecological or economic interpretations of the term to understand complex societal problems in various ecosystems.  

Furthermore, this task will roll out collaborative courses, excursions and micro-credentials, as well as joint educational programmes, all of which will be widely integrated across all Aurora universities.

Lead: Universität Innsbruck
Co-Lead: University of Duisburg-Essen

Task 2.2 Establishing the Hub for Digital Society & Global Citizenship

This task has the duty to report on the educational activities developed in the four transdisciplinary hubs. Its goal is to develop and further implement four Master level courses in the field of Digital Society & Global Citizenship. From the first phase of Aurora, participating universities have developed four courses on the following topics: Conceptual Modelling for the Digital Society, Disruptive Ecosystem Design, ICT for Development Countries, and Business Models and Societal Responsibility. These courses will now be built as a series of micro-credentials, in a way that they can be included in existing Master’s degree curricula. They are self-contained courses that can also be offered as a minor in Digital Society and Global Citizenship. 

The ultimate objective of this task is to contribute to the creation of a two-year European Joint Master’s degree on Digital Society. This ambitious endeavour will be covered under Aurora 2030 and an additional project proposal called EURIDICE (EU DIGITAL-2022-SKILLS-03 Call).

Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 

Task 2.3 Establishing the Hub for Health & Well-Being

This task aims to develop a set of educational offerings in the transdisciplinary field of Health & Wellbeing. These offerings include delivering a transdisciplinary seasonal school at PhD level, four (joint) courses and one or two programmes addressing several educational levels (BSc/MSc/PhD). The courses and programmes will be developed using multidisciplinary and SDG-oriented approaches and will focus on the following subjects: Biomedicine, Advanced therapies, Nursing in geriatrics, Mediterranean diet, International and Global Health, and Gender issues.  

Accomplishing this task will result in shared expertise in the effective employment of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), excursions/short term mobilities, challenge-based learning, and digital as well as blended learning.

Lead: University Federico II of Naples
Co-Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil

Task 2.4 Establishing the Hub for Culture: Identities and Diversities

This task will develop a set of educational offerings such as (joint) courses and programmes at all levels (Bachelor, Master, PhD) related to culture and with a special focus on European identities and diversities.

In the first phase of Aurora, the joint degree programme “Understanding Europe” was made available to all Aurora universities. In this phase under Aurora 2030, this joint degree with be expanded to include the introduction of more SDG-oriented tracks and specialisation courses.

This will result in a minor programme offered across Aurora universities as an add-on certificate, an elective or a compulsory module within a study programme.   

Lead: University of Duisburg-Essen
Co-Lead: University of Iceland

Task 2.5 Coordination of joint education and joint accreditation

This task assesses the possible formats for education (national, foreign, transnational or joint programmes) that are most appropriate for the separate and joint educational activities as developed in Tasks 2.1 through Task 2.4. In addition, the task team will work on creating guidelines for ensuring automatic pre- and post-recognition of qualifications and accreditations for these different joint education initiatives. 

Accomplishing this goal will benefit curriculum development in trans- and also interdisciplinary fields and would serve as a reference for the development of further joint European degrees. 

Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil
Co-Lead: Universität Innsbruck

WP3: Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Work Package 3 (WP3) has the objective of preparing students, teachers, and researchers to catalyse positive impact on and within society. To be more precise, it focuses on developing innovative pedagogies and teaching skills related to entrepreneurship and innovative thinking. 

Lead: Copenhagen Business School

  • Kai Hockerts
  • Katharina Roxane Kühr

Co-lead: University Federico II of Naples

  • Ramon Rispoli

Task 3.1 Deliver Courses on Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation

This task is dedicated to deepening the integration of the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation courses within Aurora universities, as well as creating new teaching and learning applications for societal impact. Therefore, each partner institution will offer seizmic Courses, which are courses in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation that will be open to all other Aurora partner universities.  

The seizmic Methodology will be applied using the seizmic App, an application that provides a platform and tool for teaching, where students can collaboratively work on social impact projects. The seizmic App further allows students to identify societal problems and develop solutions and plans for implementation. 

Lead: Copenhagen Business School
Co-Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

Task 3.2 Measure the seizmic competency development

Within this task, participating universities will use the seizmic Survey tool to measure competency development. The seizmic Survey will be administered in three fields, such as the seizmic Courses, for active participation in other work packages, and to measure the development of seizmic Competencies in specific study programmes ranging from the start to the end. 

Lead: Copenhagen Business School
Co-Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: University of Duisburg-Essen

Task 3.3 Virtual ecosystem to foster social entrepreneurship

This task focuses on entrepreneurial ecosystems by creating an Aurora virtual community. This community will drive social entrepreneurship and innovation. An annual seizmic Award will be granted to the best ideas developed by both students and staff. These ideas and projects will be presented at the Aurora Biannual meetings. A cross-Aurora jury will select the award projects based on multidisciplinary criteria connecting entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Lead: Copenhagen Business School
Co-Lead: University of Duisburg-Essen

Task 3.4 Aurora Regional Ecosystems and Stakeholders

This task aims to engage the regional ecosystems and various local stakeholders of Aurora universities. Participating universities will work together to create an Aurora–wide strategy on our co-engagement with mayors of the cities, regional industry representatives, business chambers, NGOs and social change incubators, in activities related to the five Aurora hubs: Sustainability & Climate Change, Digital Society & Global Citizenship, Health & Well-Being, Culture: Identities & Identities, and Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation.  

Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc
Co-Lead: Copenhagen Business School

WP4: Teaching and Learning for Societal Impact

Work Package 4 (WP4) aspires to foster teaching and learning for societal impact with special emphasis on transversal skills. WP4 will begin by moving towards embedding service learning and co-creation as core pedagogies for societal impact in Aurora universities. It aims to accomplish this goal through stimulating mutual learning and development of joint frameworks on innovative pedagogies.

Beyond this, WP4 will continue to further develop and implement tools that have been previously created, such as LOUIS (Learning Outcomes in University for Impact in Society). 

Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

  • Marjolein Zweekhorst
  • Sarju Rai

Task 4.1 Challenge-based Cocreation, Service learning and Life long learning

This task focuses on strengthening and embedding innovative pedagogies for societal impact in Aurora universities. Its task team will build an open Aurora learning process and community to foster mutual learning and co-development of joint frameworks on innovative pedagogical approaches. These frameworks and approaches will serve as benchmarks for teaching and learning in Aurora.

Within the learning process and community, Aurora teachers and administrative staff can learn from each other, learn from the process, share experiences, tools and resources, and find the best ways to organize and move forward together.

Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Co-Lead: University of Iceland

Task 4.2 Education for Sustainable Development

Through this task, Aurora will be creating awareness of the uses for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in education. This will be done by inventorising, developing and transferring knowledge on how Aurora teachers and administrative staff can integrate sustainability into its educational provision.

This task also highlights the assessment of SDG–oriented transferable skills through Aurora-developed teaching and learning tools like LOUIS (Learning Outcomes in University for Impact in Society). 

Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

Task 4.3 South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) in research and education

This Task aims to strengthen the research and education capacity of partner universities in the Global South while allowing partner universities in both the Global North (Aurora universities) and South to broaden their perspectives. The ensuing cooperation enables deeper insights into priority areas of global societal and academic relevance, supporting evidence-based education.

This task promotes use of innovative teaching and research methodologies, such as Real-Life Learning Labs (RLLL) and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) developed by Aurora partner universities.

Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Co-Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil 

WP5: Enhancing Quality of Research through an Aurora Research and Innovation Community

The objective of Work Package 5 (WP5) is to foster a solid environment for Research and Innovation within the Aurora community, with a thorough focus on research excellence and collaboration between institutions.  Common values and shared practices on research assessment and Open Science help enhance the quality of research and its potential impact. 

Lead: University of Iceland

  • Freyja Oddsdóttir
  • Halldor Jonsson

Co-Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil

  • Matthias Beekmann

Task 5.1 Towards Reforming Research Assessment

Through the COARA (Coalition on Advancing Research Assessment) initiative, Aurora universities aim to undertake a bottom-up reform of research assessment procedures and criteria within their  institutions. Actions include reviews of Aurora universities’ national research assessment context, assessment criteria by disciplines or groups of disciplines, and assessment practices. This task team will also work on, including the carbon and environmental footprint criteria within research assessment.  

The end result will be to produce a set of best practice guidelines on developing new research assessment practices. These guidelines will be adopted by Aurora universities on a voluntary or contractual basis, in consideration of each institution’s national context, its social, historical and economic specificities, as well as its ethos and practices of research assessment. 

Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil
Co-Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Task 5.2 Academic collaboration and community building

To enhance the quality of research and establish shared values across Aurora universities, this task aims to encourage academic collaboration and further research cooperation by building an Aurora research community. With special attention given to promote early-stage researchers and also bearing in mind research-driven educational hubs, key actions include an annual call for incentive and collaborative research projects, thematic schools and training modules, as well as short-term research mobility.  

The goal is to create research opportunities and incentives for both young and established academics in order to enable and grow the next generation of Aurora academics within the Aurora Research and Innovation community. 

Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil
Co-Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

Task 5.3 Support and Infrastructure for Open Science

This task lays the foundation for monitoring, assessment and evaluation of Open Science practices. Through OpenAIRE, the development of the Aurora Research Information Infrastructure will strengthen research support communities within and between Aurora universities.

Activities of this task team include compiling an inventory of Open Science support staff and contact details, aligning Aurora CRIS systems to OpenAIRE guidelines, developing the Aurora Research Gateway, using the Aurora Monitor to collect and monitor impact data, and to build an Open Science community where support staff has access to services, training and best practices. 

The output of this task team will help nurture a strong Aurora identity that emphasises the quality and impact of research.  

Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

WP6: Green and Digital Campus

Work Package 6 (WP6) supports Aurora universities’ inter-university campus by enhancing the IT and sustainability capabilities in bringing together the varied experiences of the partner universities. Specific objectives include providing digital administrative processes and IT services for seamless participation in curricular activities and fostering cooperation with other European university alliances.

In addition, this work package aspires to implement the Aurora Sustainable Campus Action Plan to reduce carbon footprint and enhance sustainability across Aurora. 

Lead: Universität Innsbruck

  • Lorenzo Rieg

Task 6.1 Aurora IT Development & Services

This task will provide the necessary digital administrative processes and data as well as IT and business services, to enable Aurora universities students and staff to successfully participate in curricular activities spanning all partner universities. It will ensure and expand shared interoperability for digital service among Aurora universities, through the usage of European Union (EU) standards for online identification, authentication, and authorisation.  

The task team will develop a joint central course catalogue, including the processes for automated local enrolment, local course registrations, and access to local learning management systems. IT solutions for the issuance, exchange, and recognition of digital credentials will also be offered. In this task, a collaborative committee involving representatives from all relevant work packages and task teams in Aurora universities will be set up. 

Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: Universität Innsbruck
Co-Lead: University of Duisburg-Essen
Co-Lead: Universität Rovira i Virgili
Co-Lead: University Federico II of Naples

Task 6.2 Aurora Sustainable Campus

This task will ensure the evolution of an Aurora sustainable campus and takes into consideration the efforts to reduce carbon footprint across partner campuses. It expands monitoring based on the Aurora Sustainable Campus Action Plan, leading to a joint sustainability report. It will promote Green Initiatives like student-led Green Offices and joint projects.

One of this task’s principal actions is to organise an Aurora Sustainability Summit, featuring conferences, presentations, meetings, and workshops involving researchers, students, faculty, invited experts, and other external stakeholders. 

Lead: Universität Innsbruck
Co-Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

WP7: Capacity Building and Community Engagement

Work Package 7 (WP7) brings together the Aurora Student Community and further develops the collaboration with Aurora Associate Partner universities in Central and Eastern Europe.

Through its four task teams, it aims to formalise student support, facilitate student engagement, enhance capacity building within Aurora Associate Partner universities, and create a Peace Education Hub at VN Karazin Kharkiv University in Ukraine. 

Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

  • Niels Hexspoor

Task 7.1 Coordination of Student Support Services and Engagement

This task will be dedicated to supporting student engagement and activities within the Aurora Student Council, the Aurora Student Ambassador Programme, and local- and cross-institutional events. Its objective is to raise awareness of Aurora among students in an effort to further the Aurora vision.

Accomplishing this goal ensures comprehensive student engagement opportunities by formalising student participation and support within Aurora. 

Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

Task 7.2 Development of Aurora Student Community

Building on the Aurora Student Schemes created during the first phase of Aurora, this task has the goal to ensure further evolution of an Aurora Student Community, by focusing on the full development and implementation of the Aurora Student Ambassador Programme. This will be achieved in several stages, with a rotation of leadership and coordination between the participating Aurora universities.  

The Aurora Student Ambassador Programme will strive to recruit at least five students per university from the respective university’s general student population. It will offer a platform for students from across Aurora universities to engage with, and participate in various Aurora activities, workshops, events, and trainings on diverse themes relevant to Aurora’s mission and goals. In addition, at least one annual Aurora Student Conference shall be organised, set to take place immediately before or after the in-person Aurora Biannual every year. 

Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

Task 7.3 Implementation of Capacity Development Programme in CEE

This task focuses on upscaling the Aurora Capacity Development Program to a full-fledged and strategic capacity building scheme. This will be achieved through deepened strategic cooperation with four Aurora Associate Partner universities in Central- Eastern Europe (CEE): Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (Slovakia), South-West University Neofit Rilski (Bulgaria), University of Tetovo (North Macedonia) and V.N Karazin Kharkiv University (Ukraine). 

Furthermore, it is the objective of this task to continue assisting Aurora Associate Partner universities to build their institutional capacity for academic excellence and societal relevance. Accomplishing this goal will help reduce the disparities between the research-leading and research- emerging countries in Europe. 

Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc
Co-Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Task 7.4 Creation of Karazin University Peace Education Hub

As part of Aurora universities’ response to the war in Ukraine, this task works towards establishing and facilitating the Karazin University Peace Education Hub at Aurora Associate Partner university V.N. Karazin Kharkiv University (KKNU) in Ukraine. This peace hub will provide institutional support and strengthen KKNU’s capacity for education and training in conflict transformation and peace building in the wider Kharkiv region, as well as in the Ukrainian society.

In addition, the hub will feature lecture series, a course module, as well as an academic conference and training events related to peace education, organized for and with Aurora partners at KKNU. 

Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc
Co-Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

WP8: Enabling Mobility and Exchange

Work Package 8 (WP8) focuses on enhancing mobility and exchange, and the comprehensive internationalisation of Aurora partner institutions. Through initiatives like internationalisation of curricula, blended learning, COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning), BIP (Blended Intensive Programmes), and virtual exchange (VE) experiences, Aurora aims to develop intercultural skills among students, faculty, and staff.

This strengthens Aurora as a community that embraces diversity and promotes global competencies. By implementing COIL/VE and BIP work, WP8 facilitates upskilling in transversal and intercultural abilities. It also builds upon existing Internationalization at Home (IaH) programmes within Aurora, fostering a culture of global engagement and collaboration across the alliance. 

Lead: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

  • Marina Vives Cabré

Co-Lead: University of Iceland

  • Nanna Teitsdottir

Task 8.1 Increase Mobility and Standardise Procedures

This task aims to enhance mobility for university staff and students by offering diverse mobility formats while also considering the needs of underrepresented groups. It will work on easing the path to achieve a greater number of Mobility Exchange, especially short-term. This includes a common definition, simpler and more standardised procedures, and a clear calendar among Aurora partner institutions to share and benefit from Aurora mobility offers. 

Lead: Universität Innsbruck
Co-Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil
Co-Lead: Copenhagen Business School

Task 8.2 Internationalisation at Home

This task focuses on everything Aurora universities can do beyond mobility, to make the benefits of internationalisation wider and more inclusive. This encompasses developing tools for Internationalisation at Home (IaH) programmes, including internationalisation of curricula, blended learning, COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning), BIP (Blended Intensive Programmes), and virtual exchanges.

Within this task, Aurora will also build on learnings from T8.3 (see below) to establish a network of sharing best practices, and to streamline procedures that enhance virtual and blended learning experiences across Aurora universities. 

Lead: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Task 8.3 Internationalisation of Institutional Cultures

This task zooms in on the methodology behind what Aurora does. It has the objective of fostering an international institutional culture within Aurora universities. This will be achieved through training and capacity development opportunities for the implementation of a culture of lifelong learning and an inclusive and comprehensive internationalisation approach. It aims to promote the importance of internationalisation for quality education and research, impacting multiple work packages within the Aurora 2030 project. 

This task is also about intercultural competences for students and staff (both academic and administrative). It creates bridges by making them stronger within, and among, Aurora universities. Furthermore, it is about crossing boundaries and applying innovative approaches to making institutional cultures on internationalisation a part of the Aurora DNA. 

Lead: Universitat Rovira i Virgili

WP9: Aurora Governance

The overall objective of Work Package 9 (WP9) is to assess the progress, results, transformational potential and impact of Aurora universities. This includes the establishment of structures and procedures from an alliance-wide perspective to ensure a deep level of collaboration between institutional partners and to work towards a sustainable alliance beyond Aurora 2030. 

Lead: University Federico II of Naples

  • Mitra Marra

Co-lead: Aurora Central Office

  • Ramon Puras
  • Sabine Sainte-Rose

Task 9.1 Governance Structures

This task focuses on developing an updated governance structure that is future-proof and suitable for both the current years 2023-2027 funding bid, and further beyond the year 2027.

Therefore, it has two objectives: to ensure that the years 2023-2027 funding period has a governance structure that works effectively and is established in full consultation with all Aurora institutional partners (in collaboration with T1.1); and to lay the foundations for a long-term governance structure beyond the year 2027 (in collaboration with T1.3). 

Lead: University of Iceland
Co-Lead: University Federico II of Naples

Task 9.2 Quality Education and Impact

The objective of this task is to develop a monitoring framework system to assess the societal impact of Aurora universities. Achieving this goal will provide a set of Quality Education Assurance (QEA) procedures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will help to measure the progress of Aurora universities towards its strategic goals. In this way, Task 9.2 aims to elicit a shared vision of what quality education means and how to achieve it. 

Lead: University Federico II of Naples
Co-Lead: Copenhagen Business School

Task 9.3 Aurora Values

Aurora has a strong focus on the values of sustainability, change and social transformation. This task aims to put in place the right mechanisms to ensure that these ideals are monitored, promoted and recognised in all Aurora activities and governance.

For this reason, Task 9.3 cuts across all work packages, policies and activities. The ambition of Aurora universities is to become a reference model for sustainability and social transformation. 

Lead: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Co-Lead: Copenhagen Business School

WP10: Impact and Dissemination

Work Package 10 (WP10) aims to ensure effective dissemination, enhance communication management within Aurora’s governance structure, consolidating the Aurora Central Office, promote responsible science, and measure Aurora universities’ impact.

This involves developing a comprehensive communication and dissemination strategy that is aligned with Aurora’s long-term vision. Its transversal approach covers core alliance activities and strategic areas while developing instruments to boost awareness and communicate societal impact.

Specific objectives include coordinating a Communication and Dissemination plan, developing tools and guidelines for a responsible culture of science, establishing an Open Science and Citizen Science community, and implementing monitoring and evaluation structures. 

Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil

  • Aniza Pourtauborde

Co-Lead: University Federico II of Naples

Task 10.1 Aurora Communication and Dissemination

This task aims to further develop Aurora’s communication and dissemination strategies, policies and measures, to solidify the Aurora brand and enhance its recognisability. This will be done by campaigning Aurora opportunities and engaging with diverse stakeholders, maximizing engagement with various target groups, and promoting inclusivity through online and offline channels.  

 Building upon these objectives, this task will assemble communities of experts in communication, identify target groups, create promotion plans for each Aurora 2030 work package, and gather feedback to improve dissemination channels. Qualitative and quantitative indicators will be set to monitor the effectiveness of the dissemination cycle.

Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil
Co-Lead: Palacky University in Olomouc

Task 10.2 Science and Society

The Science and Society task has the goal to involve society in research and innovation activities while sharing best practices in learning new skills. This will be achieved through four subtasks: 

  • Building a comprehensive knowledge base of Open Science and Citizen Science resources, policies, and best practices among Aurora universities’ partners. 
  • Establishing training modules to help researchers and students participate in opening research to society.  
  • Creating an inclusive network of communities to use and improve best practices in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields and humanities.  
  • Raising citizen engagement in disseminating scientific knowledge and solutions.

Lead: University Federico II of Naples
Co-Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil

Task 10.3 Holistic and Strategic Approach for Impact

This task aims to foster, manage, and monitor the impact of Aurora. It focuses on creating a strategic plan encompassing all benefits and implementing this plan through targeted dissemination methods. Moreover, it will develop mechanisms for monitoring and maximising impact within Aurora partner institutions, immediate stakeholders, and the wider ecosystem. Also, fostering strong connections with stakeholders will ensure their long-term commitment.  

Targeted indicators for monitoring impact will include policy, societal, economic, scientific/research impacts, and more. Accomplishing this task will result in activities such as publishing an Aurora economic contribution report, ensuring Aurora representation at public events, and measuring Aurora’s holistic contribution annually. 

Lead: Université Paris-Est Créteil