Category: Uncategorized

In 2017, French President Macron launched an initiative to create 20 European universities by 2025. This initiative would allow for universities to apply for fundings and create integrated alliances for cooperation in research and study. In June of 2019, 10 out of 13 CLUSTER institutions were awarded the title of “European University.” Among these 10 institutions, 7 are involved in the UNITE! Alliance.

UNITE! (University Network for Innovation, Technology, and Engineering) is an alliance coordinated by TU Darmstadt involving CLUSTER partners KTH Stockholm, Aalto University, INP Grenoble, UPC Barcelona, Politecnico di Torino, and University of Lisbon (IST). The goal of the alliance is to create a trans-European campus, extending from Finland to Portugal, for students and scholars with trans-European courses of study, scientific cooperation in teaching and research, and transnational knowledge transfer.

In addition to UNITE! we would also like to congratulate CLUSTER partners KU Leuven, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, and Trinity College Dublin for their successes in receiving recognition as “European Universities” through their respective alliances UNA Europa, EPICUR, and CHARM European University. All European University alliances with participation of CLUSTER members aim to not only foster transnational research and study but also provide a multidisciplinary and multicultural educational environments and will receive five million euros from the EU for the first three years.

For more information about the initiative please refer to the following website of the European Commission.

On behalf of Aalto University, a strategic partner of the Millennium Technology prize and Technology Academy Finland TAF, we encourage your organization to nominate candidates for the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize.

The Millennium Technology Prize is a prize of one million euros and awarded every two years by the TAF to an individual or to a team from any country, established by the Government of Finland, academic institutions, and high-tech industries in 2004. The patron of the Prize is the President of the Republic of Finland. The Prize will be awarded on 26 May 2020.

The Millennium Technology Prize highlights the impact of scientific innovations for the well-being of humanity and is awarded for groundbreaking technological innovations. To this day, three winners of the prize – Frances Arnold, Shinya Yamanaka and Shuji Nakamura – have gone on to become Nobel Laureates. A list of all former Millennium Technology Prize Winners is available at https://taf.fi/millennium-technology-prize/winners/.

Nominations for the 2020 Millennium Technology Prize will be accepted until 31 July 2019 at www.millenniumprize.fi/cfn, and are invited from organizations around the world and from all fields of technology, excluding military technology. Special emphasis is placed on proposals relating to:

• energy and environment
• life sciences, including health and food
• information and communications technology and smart systems
• new materials, processes and manufacturing

For further information on the Millennium Technology Prize and the nomination process, please visit www.millenniumprize.fi/cfn. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the CEO, Ari Ahonen (ari.ahonen@taf.fi) or COO Eeva Sievi (eeva.sievi@taf.fi) of the Technology Academy Finland TAF.

For information on Aalto University’s partnership with the Millennium Technology Prize:

Annukka Jyrämä
Senior advisor, PhD, Docent
Aalto University, Research Services
Research ethics and Integrity
Technology Academy Finland –relationship

Tel. +358-50373 2-238
annuka.jyrama@aalto.fi

The CLUSTER Consortium hosted students from all member universities at a second CLUSTER student representatives’ meeting in Barcelona from 4th to 5th July. The students in attendance discussed the organizational structure for their meetings and developed projects about future/new CLUSTER initiatives. More specifically, they considered the formation of a student council with a board and the development of an intensive 2-week  ‘CLUSTER course’ to target the student interest and engagement

All in all, this was a great opportunity for students to meet again with like-minded peers and to exchange experiences and ideas about international university education.

Aalto University is excited to share a great opportunity for students to learn entrepreneurship in Finland
this summer!

Experience a unique summer course, where students from around the world come together to learn how
to create immersive, multidimensional experiences. During three weeks of magical Finnish summer,
students will use an iterative process to go from an idea to a prototype, learning by doing, while getting to
know and understand the globally renowned startup culture in Helsinki.
For more information, please see links below.

Course website: https://avp.aalto.fi/avp-summer-school/
Summer school video: https://www.youtube.com/
Aalto Ventures Program FB: https://www.facebook.com/aaltoventuresprogram

Students can apply until 31st May via this registration form . If you are willing to send a group of students of five or more, please request group pricing from Ilja Riekki, Head of International Relations, Aalto Ventures Program : ilja.riekki@aalto.fi. You can also schedule a skype call with Ilja, if Aalto University or Aalto Ventures Program are new entities for you.

The EUCRITE project Consortium (European Center for Refugee Integration in Higher Education, www.eucrite.eu ) is pleased to invite you to the Staff Training Event taking place at the Technische Universität Darmstadt from Monday June 17^th to Wednesday June 19^th 2019.

The Staff Training Week is open to international relations professionals, administrative staff from the EUCRITE – European Centre for Refugee Integration in Higher Education – universities as well as staff members from CLUSTER.

The main objective of the training is to provide administrative staff with a set of tools to improve the work with perspective and returning refugee students and enhance inclusion in HEI across Europe.

For further details about the event and the registration please visit the project website.

We are looking forward to receive your registrations until April 22^nd. A participation is only possible for staff being able to be present all three days. Please keep in mind that Thursday, June 20^th is a national holiday in Germany, therefore we encourage you to make travel arrangements as soon as possible.

The annual General Assembly and the first 2019 Steering Committee of CLUSTER was held at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon from 11th to 12th April.

As part of the General Assembly, addional working group meetings were organized, such as a meeting of Erasmus + coordinators and a meeting of the work group on communication.

Moreover, the Consortium was hosting students from all member universities at an inaugrual CLUSTER student representatives’ meeting, to hear student views and discuss ideas about future/new CLUSTER  initiatives. Certainly, this was also a great opportunity for students to get to know like-minded peers, to exchange experiences/ideas and to create their own CLUSTER student network.

Current and upcoming activities of the Consortium as well as the organization of the symposium for the 30-year anniversary of CLUSTER were intensively discussed during the Steering Committee.

Additionally, INGDIVIS, an EU project of CLUSTER partners, organized its open international conference.

The event will take place in Lisbon on April 8-12 and will be hosted by IST. More information about the INGDIVS project here.

This activity will allow the most active experts involved in the project activities(at least one per country) to train around 20-25 professionals from the partner universities and schools dealing daily with gender issues, communication and recruitment. The activity will aim at training these professionals on how to effectively use the final version of the on line profiling toolbox with the different target groups that will be approached locally right after this training session (which can be therefore seen a ”training the trainers” event). The activity, which will be hosted by IST in Lisbon, will have a duration of 5 days and will also touch all the other aspects and results of the project in order to offer a very comprehensive and broad view on the topic including the different identified tools, state of the art, national differences, best practices and bad experiences, etc. Although the activity might be considered as adult education, the relevant field is without any doubt Higher Education which is the field that will benefit of the outcomes and which will be the field on which the trained professional will focus and operate.

Programme

VENUE: Instituto Superior Técnico, Alameda Campus (Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, Lisboa) Congress Center Auditorium in Civil Engineering Pavilion, floor -1.

You are a Ph.D. student or a postdoc planning your next career step? You would like to apply for external funding to finance your own position but need to financially bridge the time up to the potential funding start? The Career Bridging Grant closes financial gaps between two career steps for candidates currently working at or aiming to work at TU Darmstadt. It provides short-term financial support for highly qualified candidates, who apply for funding with good prospects of success. The Career Bridging Grant secures financial support during the application process and thus facilitates a smooth transition to the next career step. This Career Programme is directed exclusively at international doctoral students and postdocs.

Please see Career Bridging Grants

In addition, the TU Darmstadt ‘Future Talents’ Postdoc Career Days were designed to ensure the best possible conditions to start your career at TU Darmstadt. To attract the best young research talents worldwide and create a vibrant international scientific community, ‘Future Talents’ invites exceptional young researchers from abroad to visit TU Darmstadt and discover our broad range of research and career opportunities.

Please see ‘Future Talents’ Postdoc Career Days

Leuven, 8^th November 2018

View the statement here

The Framework Programme (FP) for Research & Innovation (R&I) aims to “deliver scientific, economic and social impact […] to strengthen the scientific and technological basis of the Union, and foster its competitiveness” . CLUSTER and thirteen European associations representing universities stress that recent developments in the negotiations within the European Parliament are undermining these aims. Building on our prior statement ‘Universities united for the best Horizon Europe’, these universities consortium want to underline in a common statement that:

1. The Framework Programme should continue to set the standard for excellence in Europe.

Excellence should be promoted wherever it occurs. Excellent researchers and innovators from all European countries should be stimulated to participate in the FP. We acknowledge that the current R&I divide is pressing, however it should be addressed through the reinforcement of synergies with regional funds and national measures, rather than be treated as a specific objective of the FP.

2. International collaboration between EU member states and other countries must be stimulated.

Research activities are in essence international. The FP should stimulate and facilitate participation of third countries. Furthermore, all associated countries should be allowed to fully participate in the FP. This will guarantee the attractiveness of the FP for researchers and innovators and ensure the desired impact.

We support the European Parliament’s plea for a considerable increase of the Horizon Europe budget, and want to reiterate that the necessary budget to accomplish its projected objectives is €160 billion. We also urge the European institutions to work towards a smooth start of Horizon Europe on 1 January 2021.

The 9th Workshop of Sino-European Engineering Education Platform was held at China University of Petroleum (East China)—UPC, in Qingdao, Shandong Province, P.R. China from September 25 to 27, 2018.

Topics of the workshop were:

• Engineering education reform & practice
• Entrepreneurship, innovation & industry collaboration
• SEEEP project development experience sharing and education internationalization

Please also see: http://seeep.upc.edu.cn/