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Group: For Academics

Aurora Universities support The Guild’s concerns and recommendations related to European AI Act proposal

Written by rostanetek on . Posted in News.

Aurora Universities support the concerns, statements and recommendations provided by The Guild[1] regarding the proposal of the European Commission for the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act)[2].

The proposal for the AI Act was published in April 2021 and is being discussed by the European Parliament and Council of the EU. The Act describes harmonised rules on the use of AI and may impose a burden on research and researchers. The statement and recommendations by The Guild call upon the European Commission to also meaningfully engage academic researchers and other research actors in future monitoring and amending processes of the Act.

Main concerns deal with 1) the AI approach attempting to regulate AI systems while not banning some practices, 2) defining AI too broadly, thereby encompassing non-AI technologies and not being future-proof, 3) the additional burden to EU research grant applicants as they already have to provide information on potential ethical risks, and 4) the consequences of unharmonised interpretation and harmonisation across EU and EEA member states.

Recommendations include a call to 1) establish a high-level expert group of academic researchers to advise on amending the body text or annexe of the AI Act, 2) setting up regulatory frameworks enabling banning jeopardizing practices, 3) ensure a harmonized implementation of the AI Act across the EU, 4) ensure avoiding an overall prohibition of some AI systems, and 5) ensure that universities can act as ‘regulatory sandboxes’ and can test AI systems in safe environments, e.g. by supporting research projects on the concepts introduced by the AI Act and the compliance to the Act.

Aurora will share and discuss these concerns with relevant stakeholders and policy and decision-makers at national and European levels.

[1] The Guild of European research-intensive universities. The Guild sets recommendations for the AI act. Weblink: https://www.the-guild.eu/news/2021/the-guild-sets-recommendations-for-the-ai-act.html

[2] Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonized rules on artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence act) and amending certain union legislative acts. Com/2021/206 final. Weblink: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?uri=celex%3a52021pc0206

Manifesto to promote the discussion on R&I issues within the Conference on the Future of Europe and beyond

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AURORA has signed and supports the manifesto and call on the Conference on the Future of Europe, European Commission, European Parliament and Council of the European Union to discuss and deepen Research & Innovation issues as a contribution to solving global challenges over the months to come.

Research and Innovation are at the heart of contributing to achieving the green and digital transitions, ensuring a fair, sustainable, competitive and depolarized society and economy, and addressing health and geopolitical challenges. This should be reached in co-creation and co-design with citizens and all actors. Several European and national programmes are supporting this. While the Conference is discussing many themes related to the challenges including education, Research and Innovation risks are being omitted from the discussions. Therefore, we emphasize that Research and Innovation should be even more at the core of the debate on the EU’s future challenges and priorities. For more information, read the full manifesto, being signed by over 65 national and European umbrella organizations representing research and business:

Link 1 and link 2.

Lively discussions with teachers at the Aurora seminar on interdisciplinary learning outcomes

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At the beginning of September, Kees Kouwenaar, former Secretary-General of Aurora and specialist in the Aurora Competence Framework at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, visited the University of Iceland.

The purpose of the visit was to invite teachers and directors of academic development within the University of Iceland to become better acquainted with Aurora and discuss how the Aurora Competence Framework can support teachers in strengthening their students’ interdisciplinary skills in addition to subject-specific skills and knowledge. The seminar generated a lively discussion on how to better enable students to tackle societal challenges and diverse jobs in a dynamic and technological world, in accordance with the goals of HÍ26. Participants shared their suggestions for the continued development of the Aurora Competence Framework, which will be useful in the coming months.

Jón Atli Benediktsson, Rector of the University of Iceland and Aurora President, also met with Kees. During the meeting, the successful collaboration between the University of Iceland and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in recent years was discussed, which has resulted in extensive student and staff exchanges between the universities increased internationalisation of studies and a total of 7 million euros in funding from the European Commission to deepen and strengthen the cooperation between Aurora Universities as part of the European Universities Initiative.

The Rector also congratulated Kees on his recent award from the European Association for International Education (EAIE) for his outstanding contribution to international collaboration in higher education. The EAIE is Europe’s largest forum in this field and provides a robust platform for university staff and experts to exchange new knowledge and ideas that contribute to successful internationalisation.

Kees says that the purpose of founding Aurora was exactly this, to create a solid network for European research universities with common values ​​and goals to help each other achieve even better results. “I immediately liked the idea of ​​founding Aurora because I have always felt that international collaboration should also help universities, students and teachers to make their core activities even better – not just be a nice additional thing on the side.”

Kees says the support from the European Union has helped to integrate the Aurora partnership even better into the institutional strategies and policies of the member universities. “Part of the benefits that the EU support brings us are the risks and costs associated with not achieving the results we aim for in the coming years within Aurora. The recognition from the EU has made Aurora universities more visible and garnered them great prestige both in their home countries and in Europe, and it is therefore, crucial to ensure continued EU funding for Aurora by demonstrating concrete results and impact, allowing us to maintain this prestige which can open many doors in the future”.

Regarding the development of education, Kees is convinced that Aurora will be useful to the member universities in various ways. Aurora’s motto is ‘to learn from and with each other’. Doing things together is the key vehicle for students, teachers and other university staff to learn from each other, whether through joint modules, by offering students international experiences, for example, through learning or training mobility abroad, or through staff exchanges. “

When asked what his hopes the long-term impact of the Aurora partnership and the Aurora Competency Framework will be, Kees says the answer is simple but very ambitious. “I hope that it will result in our students being equipped with not only subject-specific knowledge, but also possessing the more general skills and mindsets needed to be responsible members of society and who take the initiative in making our societies better places to live in”.

 

17 grants for the María Zambrano international talent recruitment programme

Written by rostanetek on . Posted in Calls.

The Universitat Rovira i Virgili has opened the call for 17 postdoctoral grants on the María Zambrano international talent recruitment programme. The application period is between today and September 15th.

This call is for research staff who have been involved in postdoctoral for at least two years at universities or research centres outside Spain. The 17 contracts offered can have a duration of two years and the successful candidates will be paid a net salary of approximately €36,100 a year as well as a single payment of €3,500 to cover any expenses incurred.

The programme is endowed with a budget of €1,691,500 euros, from a direct subsidy provided by the Spanish Ministry of Universities thanks to the European Union and the “NextGenerationEU” funds, in the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.

This call is for people who have been involved in postdoctoral research for at least two years at universities or research centres outside Spain. Applications can be made till September 15th.

The Year 2020: Vrije Universiteit, at the heart of society

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Managing partner of the Aurora European University Alliance, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam has released their Year in review 2020. In their 2020: Year in review and in their 2020 Annual Report, they reflect on some significant and memorable moments. The year 2020 was exceptional for many reasons. Because of the pandemic, they were forced to work and study primarily online, and to transform into a university that operates at a one-and-a-half-meter distance. It also marked the start of their anniversary year, the Kuyper Year.

The Corona Research Fund, the Athena Institute’s COVID-19 platform, Caring Universities and the free COVID -19 search engine from Findest. These are just a few of the many initiatives that the VU community has introduced, along with partners, during the 2020 corona year. In addition, they had to transform their education into a hybrid format, with an online emphasis. Together, they worked hard in difficult circumstances and showed exceptional resilience, adaptability and commitment.

VU Amsterdam turned 140 in the year 2020. With the Opening Academic Year, they kicked off the Kuyper year with the Kuyper Challenge and with many examples of social entrepreneurship. During the Dies Natalis, Her Majesty Queen Máxima also stressed the importance of entrepreneurship and particularly the role of SMEs. In the year review, Mirjam van Praag, President of the Aurora European University Programme and of the VU Executive Board, also emphasized how Aurora is an opportunity for VU students to gain knowledge and skills to foster social entrepreneurship. VU Amsterdam was also named the most sustainable university in the Netherlands in 2020 and they declared their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2020, VU once again demonstrated its position at the heart of society.

Curious about these stories and more inspiring examples from VU in 2020? Read the Year in review ‘VU Amsterdam: at the heart of society 2020’ in English.

Aurora Spring Biannual 21

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On May 20 – 21st, the tenth Aurora Biannual took place, where Aurora presidents, students and staff met to learn from and with each other.

The first day began with an opening plenary focusing on the future of academic collaboration between British and other European universities following Brexit. Ms Adrienn Kiraly, Head of the Cabinet to Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Education, Culture and Youth, touched upon our collaborations with other universities and said “Your alliance is already well placed to be a role model for other higher education institutions in Europe and beyond: Your association with three other higher education institutions in Bulgaria, Slovakia and North Macedonia as well as your commitment to developing a capacity development support programme for more than 30 Universities from Central Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries testify for this.” She also highlighted our collaborations with our students by saying: “ I am very happy to see that you have put in place the Aurora Student Champions Scheme in order to ensure student representation in each of your activities.”

During the plenary, Paul Boyle (Vice-Chancellor Swansea University and EUA Vice-President) outlined the 7 key points UK universities must address in order to advance in academic collaborations. One of these points is the need for a European wide funding system open to the world. He mentions that universities in the UK feel fortunate to be part of Horizon EU and participate in the vast majority of that scheme. However, there are many other countries from which they could gain value collaborating too. Karine Samuel (Vice President for International Affairs of Université Grenoble Alpes) stressed the importance of international collaboration and how the Aurora collaboration was especially useful in the pandemic by exchanging experiences and best practices with other Aurora universities. Ms Emily Reise from the University of Iceland added a students’ voice and emphasized the accessibility and mobility of students and sees the advantage of short term mobility experiences for students.

After lively parallel session presentations and dynamic conversations, we entered the virtual reception building where Jón Atli Benediktsson (Aurora Network President and Rector of the University of Iceland) welcomed the Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland, Lilja Alfredsdottir. Ms Alfredsdottir believes that the strength of Iceland lies in its international collaborations and that these collaborating networks have ensured that Icelandic research is truly global and ambitious. She says: “No single institution can tackle world challenges on its own but collaboration brings a strength that can be greater than the sum of its parts. With that in mind, the European Commission has focused its recent efforts in higher education on forming strong European University networks capable of producing internationally competent European students, European research, and European solutions”. Jón Atli introduced Ms Anne-May Janssen who will take over from Kees Kouwenaar as Secretary-General of Aurora from July 25th of this year. The reception also welcomed a comedy sketch by comedian Ari Eldjarn. Ari enthused the public with his charismatic interpretations of the many European cultures.

The second day continued with open parallel dissemination sessions and a wrap up of the reports and reflections. President of the Alliance Board Mirjam van Praag shared the accomplishments and challenges of the last 6 months. Among the achievements are the many courses that have been identified to be Aurorarized, a 2-year master program, an international traineeship program, a framework for mobility grant allocation, the 32 students engaged in the Aurora Student Champion Scheme and 15 student ambassadors. Next to accomplishments, Ms van Praag also shared a key concern about the involvement of academics in Aurora and integrating Aurorarized course into existing degree programs.

In total, 25 of Aurora’s active working groups and task teams met during the Biannual, and 7 dissemination sessions informed a wider Aurora audience on aspects of the Aurora programme of activities.

In the wrap-up, it was announced that it is the last term of Callum Perry, initiator of the Aurora student Champions Scheme and that his successor will be elected in the following months. And lastly, Maria José Figueras Salvat, Rector of Universitat Rovira i Virgili, announced that the fall biannual 2021 will physically be organized in Tarragona.

Aurora Ranks in Times Higher Education Impact Rankings

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Aurora universities have appeared in high positions in the Times Higher Education SDG ranking and excelled in numerous SDGs.

Times Higher Education has ranked universities based on their performance against indicators of global social and economic impact and advancement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings consider all 17 SDGs, and each university is scored for its performance in advancing each goal. A university’s overall ranking is then based on its top three SDG scores plus its score for Goal 17, Partnerships for the Goals.

Aurora member university, the University of Aberdeen, has been placed 57th out of 1,115 institutions worldwide in the newly published Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings. Areas in which the university has excelled include Partnership for the Goals (SDG17) and Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11), where Aberdeen has been placed 27th globally for both. The University of Iceland has ranked in the SDGs health and wellbeing (SDG3), industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG9), as well as responsible consumption and production (SDG12). The University of Iceland’s overall position in THE Impact Rankings is 301-400. Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) maintains its position, although 347 more institutions have entered this ranking and have high rankings for Climate Action (SDG13), Gender Equality (SDG5) and Quality Education (SDG4).  UEA ranked between 101-200 out of 1,115 institutions in total, placing it in the top 20% for its sustainable development. UEA participated in six of the 17 SDGs, and achieved some other positive results, including 57th place out of a possible 653 for ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’ (SDG16). Joint 74th out of a possible 871 for ‘Good Health and Wellbeing (SDG3). The four SDGs to which VU Amsterdam connects the most are Climate Action (SDG13), Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (SDG 9), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10). The overarching position of the university in the Impact ranking 2021 is in the range of 101-200. Aurora associate member university, Palacký University Olomouc, has rankings in Good health and wellbeing (SDG3), Decent Work and Economic growth (SDG8), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11), and Partnerships for the Goal (SDG17). Overall the university is ranked in the 401-600 position.

Aurora congratulates its universities with these outstanding results. Aurora is extremely committed to matching academic excellence with societal impact, and these rankings prove that we are well on our way. The Aurora SDG Bibliometrics tool developed is an exceptional tool that maps the research output by all our universities: please view the tool here. More about Aurora here.

New Aurora Secretary-General: Board appoints Anne-May Janssen

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Kees Kouwenaar will retire and step down as Secretary-General on July 25th, 2021. We will give proper attention to the role which Kees has played on September 17th, 2021.

The Board of the Aurora Universities Network is now pleased to announce the appointment of Ms Anne-May Janssen to succeed Mr Kees Kouwenaar as Aurora’s Secretary General; to ensure a smooth and efficient handover, Ms Janssen will start working at the Aurora office on July 1st.

Ms Janssen completed her degree in Public Policy and Human Development at Maastricht School of Governance.  She started her career as a junior lecturer at Maastricht University. In 2011 she made the switch to the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs as a policy officer. In 2014 Ms Janssen moved to Brussels to work at the Netherlands House for Education and Research (Neth-ER) as an account manager for the Netherlands Federation of University Medical Centres (NFU) and Nuffic. Ms Janssen primarily lobbied for the NFU and successfully influenced the European Commission to include the NFU’s research priorities in the 2016 Horizon 2020 Health Work Programme. From 2017 onwards, Ms Janssen is the Head of European Engagement at Universities UK International (UUKi) in London. She leads UUKi’s European policy and engagement activities and works to maximise the sector’s profile, impact and visibility in Brussels and other European capitals and countries.

The Board is convinced that Anne-May Janssen will bring great expertise to Aurora and prove to be a Secretary-General with a great focus on engagement and working together with the Aurora partner universities and their students. It will be a challenge to continue the great work of Kees Kouwenaar, Aurora’s first Secretary-General, but the Board is convinced that Anne-May Janssen has the competence and skills needed to guide Aurora to the next stage.

In an interview, Mr Kouwenaar and Ms Janssen share their views on recent development in Higher Education and the embeddedness of university in society. Please watch the video here:

Aurora Mini-Grants – List of awarded Mini-Grants

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After a very successful first call for applications, in which 27 applications were filed, the Aurora Central Office at Palacky University has finished its evaluation. It is our pleasure to announce the applications that will be awarded a Mini-Grant.

Out of the 27 applications, 18 project applications were chosen to receive funding. In total, more than 1,6 Million Czech Crowns have been awarded in this first round. The funding of these projects paid directly from UP’s Rectorate’s sources will serve to further strengthen the Aurora Alliance, and will directly benefit these projects set up by academics.

This pilot phase of UP Aurora Mini-Grants received a wide range of applications, spanning several different fields, from five faculties and research centres. Below please find the list of funded projects:

  • Barbora SITTOVÁ – Webinars on German grammar
  • David LIVINGSTONE – Promoting Mental Health among Students with Online Cultural Entertainment
  • Elona KRASNIQI -Evidencing online risks of youth’s mental health of those coming from state care, and foster care.
  • Filip KRAUS – Academic Networking on Researching Migration, Identities, and Sexualities in the Vietnamese Diaspora
  • František KRATOCHVÍL – Wordnets for low-resource languages: Creating a roadmap for using NLP technology to aid language documentation, description, and maintenance
  • Jaroslava KUBÁTOVÁ -Sustainable Social Enterprises
  • Lenka DZUROVÁ – Protein engineering in the collaboration with appropriate Aurora Partner Universities
  • Ľudmila LACKOVÁ – Aurorization of the course Complex Analysis of Text and Communication Process
  • Lukáš ZÁMEČNÍK HADWIGER – Theory of Digital Humanities
  • Michal PEPRNÍK – Sharing expertise in English studies: PhD workshops and international conference
  • Miroslav KOPECKÝ – Active ageing – a healthy lifestyle
  • Pavel ZAHRÁDKA – Remix Culture in the Music Industry
  • Pavlína FLAJŠAROVÁ – Aurora-Shared Interdisciplinary Series of Lectures on Cultural Diversity
  • Peter TAVEL – The starting shot
  • Petra VACULÍKOVÁ- Cradle for Excellence in Social Sciences and Humanities (CROSS)
  • Petra VACULÍKOVÁ – Colonialism in 21st Century
  • Silvie VÁLKOVÁ – Bringing Academic Writing courses in English up-to-date
  • Tereza MOTALOVÁ – Galileo for Open Science: Network of Stewards and Navigation Interface for the World of Open Science (“OS Galileo”)

Ordered alphabetically, based on the first name of the PI.

The applicants were asked to specify whether their project dealt with Education, Research, and/or Professionalization, with most proposals concentrating on either Education or research. The applicants were also asked to disclose the partner and associate partners named and included in the proposal. The University of Innsbruck and our associate partners from Kosice proved to be the most frequent collaborators.

The Sustainable Development Goals also hold an important position in all of Aurora’s endeavours. The applicants were asked to pick at least one of the SDGs and demonstrate how their proposal contributes to that goal. SDG 4: Quality Education and SGD 17: Partnership for the Goals were chosen most often, with SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being proving popular as well.

The UP Aurora Office looks back on a promising, successful pilot phase for its Mini-Grant scheme. They are looking forward to further developing the scheme for future calls, and above all, they look forward to seeing these Mini-Grants contribute to the excellent international projects academics will carry out!

Join Aurora Alliance CDS Network of Universities

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The Capacity Development Support Programme (CDS) of the Aurora European Universities Alliance is looking for universities to collaborate with.

The CDS programme is designed to help reduce the disparities between the research-leading and research-emerging countries in Europe by assisting universities in Central-Eastern Europe and Neighboring Countries to develop their institutional capacity for academic excellence and societal relevance. The expected outcomes are to spread the Aurora Alliance principles, values, skills, working processes and practical learnings to some 30 target universities in Europe and beyond.

To this end, Aurora Capacity Development Support Network of Universities (CDS Network of Universities) is being set up, with the purpose to articulate and strengthen the collaboration in supporting universities that are interested in the same objectives as Aurora Alliance member universities: in equipping diverse student populations with the skills and mind-set to address societal challenges as social entrepreneurs and innovators; in engaging with students and stakeholders at regional, national, European and global level; and in making our universities sustainable organisations.

The Aurora CDS Network of Universities is an inclusive platform for universities that want to work with Aurora’s common objectives. Applicant universities should freely express interest in the Aurora Alliance CDS mission as described in the Introduction section of this document by submitting a Letter of Intent and a University Fact Sheet to Tereza Kalousková via email at

The criteria for joining us is the following:

  • Applicant universities understand the key objectives of the Aurora Alliance programme and are interested in furthering in at least some of these objectives at their institutions.
  • Applicant universities express willingness to invest time and bring their resources and expertise to the collaboration.
  • Applicants are made aware of external funding needed for collaboration activities developing in the Network.

Applicants will be assessed on a rolling basis 2021-2022 by the CDS Task Team, led by Palacky University Olomouc with Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as co-lead. In the assessment, the opinion of the Associate Partners will be sought.

What We Offer – Network Programme

During the 2021-2023 period of collaboration, we focus our exchanges on awareness-raising training events and projects developed together, focusing:

  • Virtual Mobility/Internationalization at home
  • Co-creation and Service Learning
  • Inclusive, Equal and Diverse Education
  • Academic Competence Skill in Social Entrepreneurship.

The continued programme and activates of the Network will be a subject of evolving collaboration and co-sharing of interests in the internationalisation of higher education.

Cooperation Arrangement

There will be no legally binding duties between the members as a result of entering into the Network collaboration. Any bilateral agreements between the Network universities are subject to the inter-institutional arrangements and internal institutional regulations and policy in international cooperation.

For more information, please access the information sheet .