Below you can find information about the programme for the XIII Unite! Dialogue taking place at Politecnico on 9-12 February 2026.
THE FUTURE VISION PLENARY SESSIONS
The Future Vision plenary sessions are forward-looking strategic discussions aimed at sharing the ideas and views of the whole Unite! community on the medium- to long-term role of our Alliance (i.e., within the horizon of the next framework program 2028-2034) in the evolving landscape of European and global higher education. It is hoped that these discussions may also help us put the currently in preparation bridge funding short-term/two-year proposal in the proper perspective.
These sessions will focus on how the participation in the Alliance is shaping the institutional strategies of its partner universities across all missions -- education, research, innovation, and service to society, and how this collective transformation can generate a lasting structural impact. Particular attention will be given to the present and possible future contribution of Unite!European University Alliances in general, and Unite! in particular, to the competitiveness of the European Union, identifying the areas in which the Alliances are making/could make a concrete and distinctive contribution at European and international level.
Competitiveness will be seen both from the perspective of the individual partners, through the benefits they are getting from their participation in Unite!, and from the perspective of the Alliance as a whole, through the added value it can bring with respect to the simple sum of its partners.
The first Future Vision plenary session, in the afternoon of Tuesday 10/02feb, will be led by SURE!, the Unite! Students Forum, allowing the students to express their voices on the above-mentioned strategic topics, addressing questions like, e.g., How do you imagine Unite! should be in 10 years from now?
The second Future Vision plenary session, in the afternoon of Wednesday 11/02feb, is conceived in two three parts: part I will provide the teaser for the next two parts and will be organized in the form of a round table with contributions from EC, EP and FOREU4ALL; part II, in the form of a fishbowl discussion as the subsequent part III, moderated and stimulated by selected VP/VRs from Unite! partners, will focus on contributions from the Research&Innovation dimension in Unite!, while part III will focus on contributions from the Education dimension in Unite!.
Financial and institutional sustainability, as well as internationalization within and beyond Europe, will be enabling factors at least for some of the strategic directions identified to maximize the impact of our Alliance.
All members of the Unite! community are strongly encouraged to participate in and contribute to all Future Vision plenary sessions, given the broad scope and relevance of the topics addressed, as well as the opportunity they provide to hear and contribute discuss diverse perspectives, and to collectively reflect on Unite!’s long-term strategy.