Charm-EU 2025 annual conference: strengthening European competitiveness

European competitiveness is the major theme of the 2025 edition of the annual Charm-EU conference. Entitled "Strengthening European Competitiveness: European University Alliances as Catalysts for Innovation and Sustainability", the event is organized on November 12 by Utrecht University (Netherlands), one of the nine member universities of the prestigious European University Alliance. On the program: inspiring plenary sessions (also to be followed on the Charm-EU YouTube channel) and impactful workshops.

How can European university alliances support Europe-wide competitiveness? This is the central question of the 2025 edition of the annual Charm-EU conference.

A pioneering model

In the space of just a few years, European university alliances - now numbering 65 (over 560 universities) - have played a key role at the heart of the higher education ecosystem. For the past six years, Charm-EU has been demonstrating their transformative potential in concrete terms, delivering one of the very first joint Master's degrees in Europe, implementing a pioneering model of challenge-based learning, contributing fully to the European Council's reflection through the pilot project European Degree ED-Affiche...

Bringing together staff involved in the alliance, representatives of partner universities, political decision-makers and actors from national and international civil society, this 2025 annual conference "Strengthening European Competitiveness: European University Alliances as Catalysts for Innovation and Sustainability" aims to enrich debates on the subject of competitiveness, and transform them into effective and impactful actions. It's an opportunity to show just how essential alliances are in supporting the European Union's Competitiveness Compass.

Strategic issues

Through inspiring high-level keynotes, the morning plenary sessions will address the strategic stakes for alliances in terms of their contribution to European competitiveness and sustainable transition. But also their driving role in the implementation of a Union of skills in a logic of inclusion, diversity and sustainability. We'll then take a hard look at the practical challenges and opportunities shaping competitiveness in Europe, without forgetting to underline the essential, structuring role of cross-sectoral and transnational alliances in promoting innovation and agility in a constantly changing global environment.

Taking a closer look at professional development, mobility, inclusion, interoperability, internationalization and transdisciplinarity, the afternoon's workshops (in-situ only) will provide an opportunity to extend the debates and reflect together on concrete, sustainable initiatives for the future of European higher education.

Please note: real-time subtitling will be available during the morning's plenary sessions on the Charm-EU YouTube channel.

To find out more, see the article on the 2024 edition of the CHARM-EU annual conference.