From July 2nd to 4th, the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour hosted over 100 participants (faculty, administrative staff, and doctoral students) from the 12-member universities of the UNITA Alliance, marking a new milestone towards the creation of a European university.
Numerous significant events punctuated these three days, attended by high-level institutional representatives, including Mr. Galez, Rector of the Université Savoie Mont Blanc, representatives from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, France Universités, and over 10 vice-rectors dedicated to research.
The first day was marked by the final conference of the Research for UNITA (Re-UNITA) project, which began in September 2021. Rectors and vice-rectors, faculty members, and administrative staff reiterated UNITA’s shared commitment to building a European university, promoting the circulation of knowledge, sharing scientific resources, and developing new research collaborations.
During the following two days, the working groups made significant progress towards new activities aimed at developing rural, mountainous, and cross-border territories through education, research, and innovation.
Various missions were discussed:
- Creating networks with local innovation ecosystems to facilitate the sharing of strategic knowledge
- Promoting cooperative research by strengthening collaboration between alliance partners and inter-territorial research communities
- Sharing our cutting-edge research equipment and associated services
- Developing interconnected master’s and doctoral programs targeting the alliance’s areas of interest through research-based, practice-oriented, and industry-based training.
UNITA thanks all participants for their presence, contributions and enthusiasm.
Concluding these three days of intense work, the teams are already focused on the next steps to be achieved. First, the CHORAL project kick-off will be held on the 17th of October, symbolizing the dynamism of UNITA towards the recruitment of PhD students in co-tutelles within our universities. Then, the years 2024–2025 will be punctuated by 10 matching events.
