We are summing up three years of the T4EU!
About
Seven European universities have joined forces to carry out joint research and educate young people. Employees, PhD students and students have taken up the challenge to take care of the future of their own regions and, consequently, particular countries and the entire Europe.
Three exceptional years
In the initial stage of the project, we faced many challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Due to restricted mobility, meetings had to be held online. However, this did not prevent us from tightening cooperation and planning activities. We were striving to create a common multilanguage campus. Within the last three years, this objective was pursued by seven universities: Saarland University (Germany), the University of Alicante (Spain), the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn (Estonia), the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria), the University of Trieste (Italy) and Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania).
These three years were abundant in meetings, visits to partner universities and joint initiatives such as T4EU Weeks, Festivals of European Culture and Open Dual Lectures. We organised conferences for PhD students, course offers at Bachelor’s level and training sessions for academics and administrative staff within the Professional Development Training series. Thanks to the Horizon 2020 grant, we have been implementing the T4ERI project aimed at collaboration in research and innovation, promotion of young talents and developing a joint strategy called Science4All.
All the members of our Alliance have been symbolically connected by the Anthem of the Transform4Europe. The music was composed by Adrian Robak, PhD, Assoc. Prof. of the USil; the poem and lyrics Spiritus movens were written by Joanna Soćko, PhD. Although the very lyrics are in English, they feature the word ‘question’ in the languages of all countries of the Alliance.
The three years of the T4EU project can be expressed in numbers, too. The most important ones are:
- 780 people who benefited from mobility programmes,
- 9 T4EU Weeks,
- 52 courses within Bachelor Tracks,
- 12 students in the Student Council,
- 66 joined initiatives,
- 12 meetings within Open Dual Lecture,
- 8 documents describing the strategy of the Alliance,
- 15 different gadgets we have prepared.
Something ends, something begins
It is not the end of our project. Quite the contrary, the new four-year perspective lies ahead of us, as the T4EU Alliance was financed by the European Commission. During the second stage of the project, we will be joined by three universities: Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Lisbon, the University of Primorska in Koper (Slovenia), and Jean Monnet University in Saint-Étienne (France). In addition, Mariupol State University in Ukraine will join the network as a strategic associated partner.
The first kick-off meetings are already being organised at partner universities, during which cooperation and further activities within the project are discussed. One of them took place recently at the University of Primorska in Koper.
The new stage of the T4EU will have a new model of collaboration. A complementary element of the presidency was introduced to the project management system. Each partner university will hold this function for a year, and the first university to take over the presidency is the University of Silesia in Katowice.
Four incredible years are ahead of us. We want to thank you all for the so-far cooperation and your participation in many initiatives! Boost the European Spirit!
