4EU+ European University Alliance Common Structures for Promoting Research and Innovation
Press Release No. 61/2020
24 July 2020
4EU+ European University Alliance successfully acquires two million euros in additional funding
The 4EU+ European University Alliance – made up of six strong research universities in Europe, including Heidelberg University – has successfully acquired additional funding for the alliance. In order to combine the research infrastructures of the universities involved and develop a joint strategy to strengthen research and innovation, the European Union is making approximately two million euros in funding available for a period of three years. It comes from the funding line “Science with and for Society” and was approved in the framework of a special call addressed to European university alliances for the TRAIN4EU+ initiative.
With the project “Transforming Research & Innovation Agendas and Support in 4EU+”, the partner universities aim to drive forward the structural expansion of their alliance. The funding now acquired is not meant to promote individual research projects but to support the implementation of long-term institutional and strategic objectives. In a cross-institutional approach, the members of 4EU+ intend to systematically identify the best approaches to boosting research and innovation in order to derive a joint package of measures in this area. The funds will deliberately supplement existing funding, which is allocated primarily to the action field of student affairs and teaching. The project application for TRAIN4EU+ was compiled by a team consisting of members of the six universities with the University of Copenhagen as lead partner.
The 4EU+ alliance comprises the universities of Prague, Heidelberg, Sorbonne/Paris, Warsaw, Copenhagen and Milan. Since June 2019 the network of the six partner universities has been one of the 17 university alliances funded in the context of the Erasmus+ pilot call for European Universities. The alliances receive financial support in order to take initial steps towards long-term, transnational cooperation. By supporting strategic university partnerships and building up an integrated university system, the European Commission pursues the goal of clustering research, teaching and innovation in Europe into new structures, thereby modernising and consolidating the European education area.