#covidWISE Social Business Model Ideation Awards

What can you do with 3000 dollars to address the economic and social after-effects of the Covid crisis? All students enrolled at a university in the Aurora network are welcome to apply.

Supported by Abacus Medicine and the Innovation Foundation, Copenhagen Business School (CBS) is hosting this spring the #covidWISE Ideation Awards. #covidWISE is a project initiated by Copenhagen Business School, funded by the Danish Innovation Foundation. The project develops and supports emerging social entrepreneurs with innovative business models, aimed at addressing the economic, social and health consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.

You can submit your idea using an easy and effective ideation tool. CBS offers in-depth feedback on your idea from their #covidWISE mentors and if the jury of social entrepreneurs likes your submission you can even win 3,000 dollars to develop your idea further. You can pre-register for the competition via this link.

 

Here is what else you need to do:

1) Create a Babele user account: www.babele.co/cbs

2) Start a new project and make sure to ask yourself: Do you clearly state who your beneficiaries are? Is the social problem clearly linked to the Covid crisis? Do you have a convincing solution?

3) If you need feedback and support you can apply for #covidWISE mentorship.

Award nominees and final winners will be announced at the Copenhagen Impact Investing Days on the 10th of June 2021. View the list of speakers here and the programme here.

 

Celebrating Aurora Student Champions

The Aurora Student Schemes come to the end of the inaugural year with a celebration event on Wednesday 16 June and the invitation is open to any Aurora university staff or students looking to find out more.

Whether you were engaged in any way this year, you’d like to know more about how students could support the work of Aurora, or you’re looking to sign up for next year, you’ll learn from some of those involved this year and what the experience has meant to them.

We look forward to sharing a celebration of the first year of the Aurora Student Schemes, from 18:00 CEST (17:00 UK time, 16:00 UTC) and hope you can join us. Click on the link below the schedule to join the event in the evening.

Approximate CEST timings

18:00 Overview of the inaugural year of the schemes  Callum Perry, Aurora Student President and President of the University of East Anglia Students’ Union (5’)

Reflections on the inaugural year of the schemes
Presentations by current Aurora students (30’)

Congratulations on the inaugural year of the schemes
Prof Jon Atli, Aurora Universities President and President of the University of Iceland (5’)

c. 19:00 Closing remarks (Callum)

  • The benefit of seeing schemes come into fruition during the tenancy
  • Encouraging the next generation – recommend a friend draw, register
  • Final thanks and congratulations for this year and wishes for the future

 

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

 

We look forward to seeing you online.

Olivia, Tara, Alex and Callum
Aurora Student Schemes
Contact: aurora.champions@uea.ac.uk

Aurora Spring Biannual ’21

On May 20th and 21st, Aurora will hold its 10th Biannual Meeting. Spread over the entire day of Thursday, May 20th and Friday, May 21st until Mid-afternoon, academics, students, university leaders and administrators will come together to continue ongoing work, meet new colleagues and celebrate existing friendships.

The Aurora Spring 2021 Biannual commences with a plenary session featuring Head of the Cabinet to Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Education, Culture and Youth Adrienn Király and a panel discussion on the future of academic collaboration between British and other European universities Brexit. Prof. Paul Boyle, the vice-chancellor of Swansea University, UK and EUA Vice-President, will discuss this and join a panel discussion with Prof. Yassine Lakhnech (president of the University of Grenoble Alpes, member of Aurora) and Emily Reise, Aurora student representative (UIce). The panel will be moderated by John Style, Vice-Rector International of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili.

The first full day on May 20th will end with a lively and informal virtual reception. Jón Atli Benediktsson will be introducing the incoming Aurora Secretary-General, Anne-May Janssen

In between plenary and reception, the first Biannual day will offer many active Aurora task teams the time to sit and work together in parallel time slots in the morning and early afternoon. Simultaneously, the Aurora presidents will discuss their vision of Aurora’s future and the future benefits of being an Aurora university.

The afternoon will also feature four broad parallel sessions, each covering one of the more overarching themes of Aurora, such as “Education”, “Stakeholders”, “Academic engagement”, and “Sustainability”. Aurora welcomes president Joan Gabel of the University of Minnesota as a guest of honour. President Gabel will take part in the “Sustainability” session and share her views on the topic.

On Friday, May 21st, both the Aurora Universities Network and the Aurora European University Alliance will have a session of their respective supreme governance bodies: the Network General Council and the Alliance Board of Presidents. These formal meetings will be part of the first and second Friday parallel timeslots. The Aurora Network, General Council meeting, will run concurrently with many dissemination sessions. Aurora Biannual participants can find out about tools and services being developed to help Aurora academics, students and administrators. The Aurora Alliance Board of President’s meeting will run simultaneously with more task team working sessions.

Virtual venue & registration

The virtual conference platform will allow us to switch between formal sessions and meeting informally and casually as we see each other passing by the Aurora Biannual lounges.

Registration is through this link. We will liaise on registered participants with the institutional coordinators of your university, and we invite you to also inform your institutional coordinator of your intention to participate. Once your registration is confirmed, you will receive information by May 13th at the latest on how to log on to the virtual conference platform and instructions on how to navigate it.

 Please access the program by clicking the green button below.

 

Critical Perspectives on Governance Conferenc

The Conference on Critical Perspectives on Governance by Sustainable Development Goals is a biannual event organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development Studies (CSDS) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).

The focus of the conference will be SDG4: “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” It aims to mobilize scholars young and old, policymakers, and civil society to share perspectives on the various roles education can play in relation to inclusive development.

During this conference, you will have the opportunity to assess the relevance of the goal, and its related targets and indicators, as well as develop a better understanding of the toolbox that is used to further its achievement.

More information about the program, different forms of participation and registration can be found below.

REGISTER HERE

MORE INFORMATION

Aurora COVID Student Conference

The Aurora COVID Student Conference, which took place on  19th January from 14:00-17:00 (GMT), is an initiative by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Aurora Vice-Rectors Education.

This was a free virtual conference for students from across all Aurora Universities to hear from and with experts working at Aurora partner institutions who have been active in responding to and researching the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The program included:

14:00 GMT Opening Remarks Prof Neil Ward (UEA, Norwich)
14:10 COVID and The Netherlands Dr Xander Koolman (VU, Amsterdam)
14:50 COVID and student well-being – The Caring Universities project Dr Sascha Struijs (VU, Amsterdam)
15:30 Break
15:45 COVID and the UK Prof Paul Hunter (UEA, Norwich)
16:25 Conference Discussion / Questions from attendees Chaired Prof Neil Ward
17:00 Conference Close

 

The conference closed with a discussion of the key themes that emerge during the plenary sessions. This conference was organized with the student in mind. Students who are considering a project or dissertation related to COVID, those studying or preparing to study topics related to COVID-19, such as dissertations or other project work, are more than welcome to watch the conference again.