Author: Anna Klas

Almost 30 PhD students from Aurora universities attended a course on scientific outreach at the University of Iceland. They learned about the potential benefits of sharing research with the public in different ways and also took part in a competition to design the best research presentation.

The four-day course was entitled “PhD Impact, the Aurora Master Class on Public Outreach for Doctoral Candidates”. It was attended by students from a diverse range of subjects and 8 different Aurora universities. The course was designed to train these future scientists to effectively communicate their research and findings to the public. Academics are increasingly expected not just to conduct research and teach students, but also to share their research findings with the public in an accessible way and use their expertise to contribute to public debate.

This course was made up of a series of workshops in which the PhD students received guidance and advice from public outreach experts at the Aurora universities. Students learned about various outreach strategies, such as podcasts, videos and films, social media, exhibitions and family events, marketing, and engaging narratives.

The course concluded with a competition called the Three Minute Thesis (3MT). Each student had 3 minutes and 1 slide to present their thesis using accessible language. Experts from the University of Minnesota (UMN), where this kind of competition is well established, helped the students prepare their presentations, an example of the increased collaboration between Aurora and UMN described in the declaration of intent signed last year.

The contestants approached the task with imagination, humour and passion for their subjects, and it proved very difficult for the evaluation committee to select a winner. In the end, three winners were selected:

• Dona Geagea, PhD student in water governance at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• Anna Selbmann, PhD student in marine biology at the University of Iceland
• Lucie Kotková, PhD student in forensic genetics and epigenetics at Palacký University Olomouc in the Czech Republic

The competition was live streamed and is available to watch again here

Photo by Kristinn Ingvarsson.

The virtual 2023 Spring Biannual, hosted by the University of East Anglia in early May, provided platform for information sharing and an opportunity for valuable insights and discussions to take place. With inclusivity at the forefront,  the theme of the Spring Biannual focused on the “Possibilities of International Education,” which was also the title of the Biannual’s keynote delivered by Dr. Anne D’Angelo, of the University of Minnesota, based on her book of the same title.

In her inspiring keynote address, Dr D’Angelo emphasized the importance of embracing diverse perspectives and actively engaging students as future leaders. She stressed the role of theory and research in legitimizing and enriching educational practices, encouraging continuous learning and the exploration of different viewpoints. Dr D’Angelo also shared practical strategies for facilitating courageous conversations and creating safe and inclusive learning spaces.

Dr. D’Angelo’s keynote emphasized the critical need to address access and inclusivity within higher education, ensuring that all learners have equal opportunities to engage and participate in the global educational landscape. Actionable steps for educators were provided, including:

• leading with a future-oriented mindset,
• cultivating an environment that welcomes diverse perspectives,
• starting with theory to inform practice, and
• facilitating courageous conversations.

Attendees were encouraged to increase their collaboration across their various disciplines and geographic boundaries in order to continue to support and strive for diverse and inclusive learning environments.

Overall, the virtual Biannual provided an inspirational setting for attendees by highlighting achievements within the Aurora Alliance, emphasizing the importance of internationalization, fostering connections, and promoting inclusive research and learning initiatives.

If you are interested in (re-)watching any of the sessions from the 2023 virtual Spring Biannual, please access the playlist here:

After reflecting upon the past Horizon 2020 programme and the first two years of Horizon Europe, Aurora Universities Network comes up with eleven recommendations to improve the current R&I programme and develop the next framework programme FP10.  The recommendations include:

• A swift association of the UK and Switzerland to Horizon Europe;
• An improved global approach and more possibilities for international collaboration when dealing with global challenges;
• Advanced cohesion and integration between EU programmes including Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, EU4Health, LIFE, and Digital Europe;
• A better embedding of citizen engagement and co-creation (not only in R&I programmes but using the example of missions also in all other EU programmes);
• More cohesion in innovation grant schemes; and
• More cohesion between ESIF and HEU by using the ERDF budget for structural national investments in R&I in Widening countries (where needed) and a focus on a limited number of Widening grant schemes in Horizon Europe to improve scientific excellence.

The full eleven recommendations can be found in the position paper (link below). In addition, any European R&I programme needs sufficient funding to accomplish our tasks as universities and the broader R&I sector to contribute to achieving global and European challenges. The current geopolitical situation and the war have led to increased costs of living. To fulfil our role in science and society, we emphasise that a budget of 200 billion euros for FP10 is needed. Furthermore, we agree with the European Parliament that Horizon Europe funding for research should not be funnelled or repurposed to other, or new, priorities than those initially set.

In addition, we argue against grant mechanisms that ask for co-financing or matching from academic or RTO organisations as this needs to be charged to the structural public financing of our organisations (and hence the permanent staff, infrastructures, and education). In principle, public universities do not have large budgetary envelopes that can be spent freely.  In fact, universities are facing budget cuts due to increased prices and/or reduced numbers of students. The risk is that the academic sector will withdraw completely from such grants.

Read our full position paper here.

Martin Procházka, the Rector of Palacký University in Olomouc and member of Aurora’s Board of Presidents, represented Aurora in an international meeting in Brussels, organised for the rectors of the 44 current European University Alliances and Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth. The agenda of the two-day working meeting included many discussion topics, in which the leaders of European universities focused mainly on moving forward the transformational potential of European university alliances, the European Strategy for higher education, the legal status of Alliances, European degrees, and micro-credentials.

Rector Procházka used his participation in this event to share Aurora’s state of play and best practices following the excellent mid-term review and Aurora’s priorities moving forward as part of the next bid that has been recently submitted. He also tabled the importance of fostering more cross-alliance cooperation as part of the EUN framework.

The panels and discussions with the Commissioner stressed the long-term importance of European University Alliances in both the eyes of the European Commission and the participating universities, with Commissioner Gabriel expressing the Commission’s commitment to European University Alliances until at least 2030. Looking back at the event, Commissioner Gabriel called European Universities “drivers for change” and sees continued support of these alliances as a strategic investment.[1]

“There are now nearly 44 alliances, with hundreds of universities organised within them. The debate was, of course, about how Europe will approach its in the future and what should be the long-term common strategy of our universities to compete with American or Asian universities. We also talked about whether, for example, in the future, one common diploma should be issued to graduates across the alliance universities, whether fifty percent of students and fifty percent of teachers should go to partner universities as part of mobility, etc.,” rector Martin Procházka described the course of the meeting, adding that another key topic was the possible further support of European university alliances, the financing of which by the European Commission is planned until 2029.

[1] Tweet Mariya Gabriel

Professor Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland, has been re-elected as President of Aurora.  On the occasion of his re-election, he shared a statement in which he expressed his confidence in the growth of the collaboration and the opportunities it creates for students, faculty, and the wider Aurora community. You can read the full statement below:

We are now entering a new phase with the new bid for the Aurora European University Alliance’s continued funding. After seeing the hard work and dedication of the staff and students at our universities, I am confident that the Aurora collaboration will grow and create more opportunities for our students, faculty, and the greater community.
I am honoured to lead this partnership of committed universities and I look forward to working closely with our newest member, Université Paris-Est Créteil. The work ahead creates opportunities for increased research collaboration as well as further development of joint courses and degrees, effective teaching methods and student engagement.

We have learned many things since the founding of the Aurora network in 2016, and even more so with being selected as one of the European University Alliances.  We can use that knowledge to streamline our work, apply lessons learned, identify the major challenges ahead of us, and proactively address them by improving and aligning our strategies across the Aurora universities.

We are now looking ahead. Initially, we were only awarded three years of EU funding, and now we hope for four more years of funding, but our work will undoubtedly extend beyond that. However, it is difficult to address fundamental changes in higher education and the ways our universities operate without the certainty of long-term funding. We will approach this by looking at multiple ways to secure the sustainability of our collaboration.

We will also look into ways to work closely with more partners, both within Europe and globally. There are exciting opportunities for collaboration with universities in the Global South as well as universities in North America, such as the University of Minnesota. At the same time, there are devastating times for our associate member university in Ukraine, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, which we continue our collaboration by any means possible.

With both challenges and opportunities ahead of us, we will stay focused on our mission to enable our students with the skills and mindset needed to drive societal change and address global challenges.