Wishes & plans for 2022 from the UNICA Working Groups
31 January 2022 | From UNICA
In January 2022 UNICA celebrated its 32nd anniversary!
In over three decades, the Network grew from a group of 15 universities, with the need for networking and cooperating at the heart of Europe, to a community of 54 universities from 38 European capitals with the vision of becoming a driving force in the development of the European Higher Education and Research Areas!
While we celebrate the achievements of the past, we also look into the future.
Check out the wishes & plans of the UNICA Working Groups for this year:
International Relations Officers (IROs)
Coordinator: Minna Koutaniemi, University of Helsinki
- Face to face meetings in Brussels in spring and at the EAIE conference, Barcelona, in autumn;
- Erasmus+ exchange agreements successfully and finally signed in IIA manager;
- First BIP courses coordinated in cooperation among UNICA universities;
- Implementations of the green mobility to be shared as best practices;
- Successful workshops and joint events with other UNICA working groups.
EduLAB
Coordinator: Romiță Iucu, University of Bucharest
- EduLAB annual conference (on site, if possible / or hybrid) – focused on the topic of Design of European degree in search of building flexible pathways beyond academic cycles, an event-like meeting meant to internationally place EduLAB on a broad public level, becoming a European reference event, with this priority topics coming from the European Alliances side;
- UNICA Policy paper – drafted and approved during the Conference, proposing improvements for policies and effective work practices in the field of learning design and flexible learning pathways in the European higher education curricula, suitable for situations which are requiring visionary policy propositions with a major impact at academic, systemic, and institutional level from the perspective;
- EduLAB Glossary subgroup – to continue the activity of the subgroup on the UNICA Glossary dedicated to the New European Higher Education Context, to promote a series of work and interaction active principles inside the working group, for designing a semantic readiness for the post pandemic concept understanding;
- Ensure a trustful and wellbeing supportive environment for our colleagues, through encouraging an active participation among EduLAB members, also by valorising their personal academic and professional expertise to contribute to the specific activities listed above or in others presented and agreed on at the beginning of the mandate;
- EduLAB webinar (online) – “An all-welcome space for education. New perspectives for creating an inclusive higher education space in Europe” – focusing on the current and future educational environment and what it brings for all types of students, enhancing inclusiveness and openness towards learning and supporting non-traditional students that engage in the education and training processes;
- EduLAB workshop (online) – “Innovative pedagogies: From theory to practice in a European educational context” – offering the opportunity for academics to reshape teaching and learning at a methodological level, through innovative pedagogical models of success in higher education
UNICA Research
Coordinator: Maryam Hansson Edalat, Stockholm University
- UNICA-Eutopia panel on Research Ethics;
- UNICA-Eutopia Train webinar & workshop: “How to engage citizens in your research?” (in collaboration with UNICA & the City WG);
- Research Impact Webinar;
- Explore the topics of transdisciplinary research and gender dimension & innovation;
- Further participation in the ERA governance meetings.
UNICA Green & SDGs
Coordinator: Matthew Lawson, University of Edinburgh
- More Climate Action Roundtables;
- Webinar on Sustainability and academic research networks (promoted by the University of Vienna and the University of Edinburgh);
- Webinar on the MSCA Green Charter – sustainability & funding institutions, promoted by FU Berlin and University of Oslo;
- 2nd webinar of the series “The response of capital city universities in Europe and Asia-Pacific to the UN SDGs”;
- Explore the topic of “sustainable travel”.
UNICA Scholarly Communication
Coordinators: Andreas Degkwitz, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Raul Aguilera, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Our wish for 2022 is to continue strengthening the Scholarly Communication WG as a space where university libraries can share experiences in research support services. This way we can help positioning the role of libraries within our institutions with regards to a variety of topics, such as open science, agreements with publishers or data management. In an increasingly changing environment, benchmarking on research processes will allow libraries to discover areas of common interest as well as ideas for further collaboration. Another key driver of our actions will be to explore potential synergies with other UNICA workgroups, since universities share cross-cutting goals that can be tackled from a diversity of perspectives.
- Webinar on transformative agreements (July)
- Explore the topics of research data management and Citizen Science.
UNICA PR & Communication
Coordinator: Ophélie Boffa, Universitè libre de Bruxelles
- Explore the topic of Alumni Relations at UNICA universities
- Explore the topics of universities & cities, student generated content, and digitalisation in the communication of universities;
- Collaborate with other UNICA Working Groups.
UNICA & the City
Coordinators: Tobias Reckling, University of Vienna | Katarzyna Zofia Wojnar, University of Warsaw
- Second webinar of the series « UniverCities and Culture », in collaboration with UNeECC;
- Webinar on “How European University Alliances address the question of wellbeing”, promoted by Semmelweis University;
- UNICA-Eutopia Train webinar & workshop: “How to engage citizens in your research?”, in collaboration with Research WG);
- Exploring funding opportunities.