Charm-EU: 64 European students meet professionals from the Thau Basin
MoxMo (Montpellier Cross-Thematic Mobility) is an Erasmus+ student mobility program organized for students from the five member universities of the European Charm-EU alliance. From April 15 to 26, 64 of them will arrive in Montpellier and the Thau Basin area to tackle six environmental challenges directly related to the region, in partnership with the Syndicat mixte du bassin de Thau (SMBT).
MoxMo at a Glance
Sixty-four students from the international master’s program “Global Challenges for Sustainable Development,” representing five member universities of the European Charm-EU alliance—including the University of Montpellier—will be traveling to Montpellier and the Thaupour Basin to participate in the second edition of MoxMo from April 15 to 26. A key part of their education—which focuses on learning through problem-solving—the MoxMo offers students the opportunity to work in international and interdisciplinary teams. Their goal will be to solve six challenges aligned with the region’s priorities: fishing, sustainable tourism, and biodiversity conservation.
During the first week around the Thau Basin and the second week in Montpellier, they will meet professionals involved in addressing these challenges (start-ups, farmers, fishermen, organizations, etc.), as well as researchers, educators, and specialists. Also this year: a collaboration with Icireward (UNESCO Water Center) that will enable six international doctoral students to join the teams working on the challenges of the 2024 edition.
The themes of the six challenges:
- the installation of oyster farming rafts equipped with solar panels on the Thau Lagoon;
- the installation of AI-powered water quality monitoring stations on the Thau Lagoon;
- the creation of an 80-kilometer walking trail around the Thau Lagoon;
- the development of a project led by the Local Food Plan aimed at coordinating local food producers;
- the adoption of subsidized initiatives (MAEC) by local farmers and livestock producers;
- a large-scale aquaponics industry project in collaboration with the University of Montpellier’s aquaponics training platform.
Highlights of MoxMo 2024:
- Monday, April 15, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Théâtre de la Mer (Sète): Students will meet with local representatives for the six challenges.
- Friday, April 26, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Triolet Campus (Montpellier): Presentation of solutions to challenges before a panel of teachers and local professionals.
About CHARM-EU
The Charm-EU alliance of European universities was launched in 2019 under the leadership of the University of Barcelona, then headed by its rector, Joan Elias Garcia, in response to the first Erasmus+ call for proposals for European Universities. In June 2019, the CHARM-EU project was among the 17 successful applicants, bringing together five partners under the coordination of the University of Barcelona, including the University of Montpellier, Utrecht University (Germany), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), and Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (Hungary). Five European universities have joined the CHARM-EU alliance: Åbo Akademi University (Finland), the University of Würzburg (Germany), Ruhr-West University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and the University of Bergen (Norway).
A jointly developed master’s program was launched by the CHARM-EU alliance in 2021. Titled “Global Challenges for Sustainable Development,” this research-based, transdisciplinary program focuses on addressing real-world challenges aligned with societal issues. The CHARM-EU alliance has numerous projects: a shared catalog of international courses, the establishment of microloans, the development of a team-based PhD program… Today, only 10% of universities in the 27 member states of the European Union participate in an alliance, yet some fifty European university alliances have already been established, involving more than 40 French universities.