On 18 and 19 October, Pompeu Fabra University hosted the EUTOPIA MORE KICK-OFF Meeting, the first coordination meeting of the new project of the EUTOPIA European University. The new project, in which UPF is to become general coordinating university, will be officially launched in December after the European Commission, this July, awarded around 14.4 million euros for its deployment.

In his opening speech, Oriol Amat, UPF rector, assured that “we are now embarking on a new stage with UPF as the coordinating entity, and we do so with the certainty of having designed an ambitious project”. And, he added, “we have a budget of 14.4 million euros, 100% of the amount requested from the European Commission, which in itself is already an important milestone and demonstrates the solidity of the project”. Amat stressed that the EUTOPIA alliance “brings together ten different European universities at regional and national levels with a shared vision: to empower future generations with academic knowledge to contribute to a more sustainable, more connected society at local, European and global levels”.

“Now we are embarking on a new phase with UPF as the coordinating entity, and we do so in the certainty that we have designed an ambitious project. We have a budget of 14.4 million euros, 100% of the amount requested from the European Commission, which in itself is already an important milestone and demonstrates the solidity of the project”

In the words of Toni Luna, vice-rector for Internationalization at UPF, “for the University, this project is key in its internationalization strategy as, in the future, it will allow new European qualifications and new models of educational collaboration”. He added that EUTOPIA “is an alliance formed by a family of ten European public universities with the goal of being a driving force in higher education in Europe and in the world”.

The meeting held this week in Barcelona brought together staff from all of the universities to deepen the new organization of the alliance and the new project. As Luna explains: “We have worked on two main lines; on the one hand, a more technical task to organize the different working groups, the documents to be submitted to the European Commission and the schedule of activities to be carried out, as well as their funding. And on the other hand, a more strategic reflection on what the EUTOPIA MORE project should mean in order to consolidate the alliance beyond the completion of this project in 2026, with the goal of becoming an innovative model of higher education both insofar as teaching and research”. And it is in this second phase, after the initial EUTOPIA 2050 pilot project, that the alliance expects soon to become a legal entity that will lay the foundations of an association.

A student-centred model of European University

EUTOPIA has demonstrated its effectiveness in its actions to complete a student-centred model of European University that drives academic excellence and social inclusion. It is based on a collaborative European higher education ecosystem that enhances the transformation of education, research and innovation and at the same time allows inclusion and partnership with our local actors.

The EUTOPIA alliance of European universities EUTOPIA gathers ten European universities that for the year 2025 aspire to become an open, multicultural and confederate setup of connected campuses. EUTOPIA MORE has been joined by a further four institutions that will help strengthen the project:

The member universities of the initial project are:

• Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
• CY Cergy Paris University (France)
• University of Gothenburg (Sweden)
• University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
• Pompeu Fabra University (Spain)
• University of Warwick (UK)

The new additions to the new project are:

• Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy)
• Dresden University of Technology (Germany)
• NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal)
• Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca(Romania)

A firm commitment by the European Commission

The European universities are transnational groups of higher education institutions from throughout Europe. They ensure quality, inclusion and the innovation of European higher education with the financial support of the Erasmus+ Horizon 2020 programmes. This initiative is aimed at deepening institutional cooperation between higher education institutions, making it systemic, structural and sustainable, while promoting the mobility of researchers, staff and students. The European universities include institutions ranging from applied sciences through technical universities and film and multimedia art schools to comprehensive and research universities.