The Aurora European Universities Alliance SwafS proposal grant worth 2 million euro has been approved by the European Commission on February 3rd, 2021.
This project is the research and innovation counterpart of the Aurora European Universities Alliance project granted via the Erasmus+ programme. The purpose of the Horizon 2020 support is to contribute to the research and innovation dimension of the European Universities Alliances, in line with their shared, integrated, long-term joint strategy and in synergy with their education dimension, using the alliances as a testbed. This will complement the Aurora Learning for Societal Impact strategy with a long-term Aurora strategy towards research and innovation (R&I) for Societal Impact.
By matching the educational and institutional focus on support with a research and innovation aspect, the Aurora R&I SwafS project will further complement the goals of the Erasmus+ project and intensify and deepen the links between the Aurora universities on several levels.
The support will focus on the following indicative list of modules in the field of research and innovation according to the European Commission: (1) developing a common research and innovation agenda and action plan; (2) strengthening human capital, enabling balanced brain circulation and gender balance; (3) sharing research infrastructures and other resources; (4) reinforcing cooperation with non-academic actors, esp. academia-business cooperation; (5) mainstreaming of comprehensive Open Science practices; (6) involvement of citizens, civil society and public/cities authorities in research and innovation; (7) exploring joint structures across the European Universities on technical activities common to all ‘European Universities’, facilitating collaboration in activities, obstacles, and solutions that could be common to all alliances, as well as clustering activities to share best practices on research and innovation.
The University of Iceland is leading in the Aurora Alliance SWAFS programme and is supported by the Aurora Central Office in Amsterdam. Universität Innsbruck is leading the work package on “Sharing Infrastructure and Resources”.