Thinking beyond and creating impact: The IX Unite! Dialogue at TU Graz
On February 27-29, PoliTO delegation gathered at Graz University of Technology for the Alliance’s 9th Dialogue: "Think beyond: Unite! for Collective and Sustainable Impact". TU Graz welcomed more than 350 representatives from all partner universities. In line with the University's commitment to promoting shared and low-impact travel, 50% of PoliTO delegates contributed by choosing to travel to Graz without flying.
The event kicked off with the opening session moderated by TESSY, the speaking Tesla coil. Speakers included the President of Unite! President Tanja Brühl, the Rector of TU Graz Horst Bischof, Unite! Deputy Secretary General Anshika Suri and SURE!'s spokesperson Beatriz Rodrigues, they underlined the key role of Unite! in sustainably shaping the European education and research landscape, emphasizing the Alliance's inspiring and visionary spirit.
Transversal and collaborative work meetings provided insights into other communities’ ongoing projects and collaborative needs as well as the various milestones achieved and presented by the different communities during the Dialogue: one of them was the launch of the brand-new staff and faculty training catalogue. The community event "Unite! Unite! What’s in it for me?" provided a comprehensive overview of the benefits Unite! offers to its community: Metacampus, summer school programmes and more offers for students, Unite! Doctoral School, etc.
Unite! students actively involved
The SURE! (Students in Unite! for Representation and Empowerment) community played a vital role throughout the Dialogue.
The community of almost 30 students from all nine Unite! universities, discussed improvements to their internal structure and established new guidelines for effective collaboration. SURE! members contributed with their feedback to improve student activities within Unite!, focusing on the next Seed Fund call.
Beyond the formal sessions, the SURE! representatives enjoyed a lively social programme. Comparing the situation of students at different universities, including their life, studies and extracurricular opportunities, led to valuable discussions and strengthened the team spirit of SURE!
Unite! Widening for excellence in innovation and research
With the project Unite! Widening, financed by the HORIZON-WIDERA-2023 call, the new Unite! institutional project on research was launched, continuing the work carried out over the past three years by the recently concluded UNITE!H2020 project.
The goal of Unite! Widening is to strengthen Unite! as an Alliance, enhancing its scientific and technological research and innovation capacity, with a special focus on the Widening countries Poland and Portugal.
"One of the most interesting moments of the Dialogue was undoubtedly the launch of the Widening project – commented Professor Roberto Zanino, PoliTO Key Liaison Officer (KLO) for Unite! – Unite! was able to secure this competitive project within the Horizon Europe programme, as few other Alliances have been able to do, and it will enable the continuation of several of the lines of activity in the field of research and innovation inaugurated with the recently concluded H2020 project, which was coordinated by our University. Among these lines, of particular interest for the future will be the further development of strategies and policies for sharing research infrastructures within the alliance, for the careers of young researchers, for strengthening relations with other alliances aimed in particular at developing partnerships to participate in competitive calls, and lastly for consolidating the IRIS support network for research and innovation".
Photocredits: Renate Trummer – Fotogenia