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.
To that purpose, the Future Vision plenary sessions will be organized with short teaser speeches followed by fishbowl discussions for each of the addressed topics.
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! to the competitiveness of the European Union, identifying the areas in which the Alliance is 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.
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.
The first Future Vision plenary session, in the afternoon of Tuesday 10/02, 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 11/02, is conceived in two parts: part I will focus on the Research&Innovation dimension, while part II will focus on the Education dimension.
We look forward to contributions to these sessions both from Unite! and from a number of other stakeholders, including but not limited to: other Alliances and networks, FOREU4ALL, EC and EP, industry, Ministries, etc.
All members of the Unite! community are strongly encouraged to participate in 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 diverse perspectives, and to collectively reflect on Unite!’s long-term strategy.