Europe has entered an era of radical transition. Seven decades after the launch of its integration project, Europe is facing more complex challenges than ever before, ranging from climate change, a global pandemic, an ageing population and digital transformations to daunting geopolitical tensions. Its universities have a crucial role to play in this context, and they need to undergo far-reaching transformations to answer renewed societal needs and boost their contribution to the public good. This requires unprecedented efforts and creativity within our academic communities.
The EPICUR European university alliance is in a unique position to address these challenges. EPICUR brings together the distinctive and complementary forces of its 9 member universities as well as the experience and creative potential of their regions. Its knowledge-creating teams are joining forces to work on some of the most demanding global challenges of our days, including EPICUR’s initial priority areas Sustainable transformation, European values, Global health and Future intelligence. Such an endeavour requires interdisciplinary approaches and strong connections with regional academic and socio-economic ecosystems. EPICUR therefore must create a polycentric network of mutually empowering regional knowledge hubs future-proofed for tackling these global challenges.
EPICUR has come a long way since its inception in 2019. The alliance has laid the groundworks to establish a common space for training and research among its universities. EPICUR already created an extensive collaborative infrastructure and has a proven track record of developing and running new learning pathways and formats. These developments come to life in the EPICUR Inter-University Campus and EPICUR’s concept of flipped mobilities, providing a unique space for learning, teaching and researching. EPICUR’s Model Language Policy has also led the way in turning Europe’s multilingualism and cultural diversity into a strength, nurturing intercultural skills, enhancing the inclusiveness of our academic programmes and helping to develop bi- or multilingual universities within the European Education Area.
Building on this solid foundation, the alliance is now opening a new chapter in EPICUR’s history. Over the next 10 years, EPICUR will strive to foster and develop ever closer collaborations among its academics, students and administrative staff to become a full-fledged federation of universities offering a European learning and academic training experience to all. Such an ambition requires setting up an efficient and inclusive governance supported by joint services, integrated training offers and shared infrastructures. It also entails developing a thriving community bringing together our faculty, students and staff across national, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries around European values and a shared sense of belonging.
