Securing new funding to implement and develop CHARM-EU's innovative vision
The European University Alliance CHARM-EU, of which the University of Montpellier is a member, has been awarded a €12.8 million grant for the "CHARM-EIGHT" project as part of the Erasmus+ 2022 call for European Universities. By bringing in three new partners to join the alliance, CHARM-EU will continue to deepen, intensify, and extend the effectiveness of existing cooperation to advance the transformation of higher education and increase the impact of "European Universities."
In 2019, the CHARM-EU alliance was among the first 17 selected by the European Commission as part of the European Universities initiative, designed to promote quality, inclusion, and competitiveness in European higher education. Since then, CHARM-EU has established deep and fruitful collaboration between its partners, resulting in the design of several innovative tools, models, programs, and practices. One of these is the first accredited master's program (Master's in Global Challenges for Sustainable Development) according to the criteria of the European Universities Initiative. The alliance has brought together academics from different disciplines and universities in knowledge creation teams, which have engaged external stakeholders and developed a governance model with innovative administrative structures supported by the core values of CHARM-EU: inclusive, student-centered, socially responsible, sustainable, innovative, transparent, intercultural, and transdisciplinary. CHARM-EU has also begun to shape its "research and innovation" dimension through the TORCH (Transforming Open Responsible Research and Innovation through CHARM) project, a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 program, which aims to develop a joint research and innovation (R&I) program for the alliance's partners, based on transdisciplinarity and interculturality in order to solve complex societal challenges.
The new Erasmus+ grant will enable the CHARM-EU alliance to grow, expand its innovative activities, implement its long-term vision, and have a systemic, structural, and lasting impact on society. It will help make the alliance a global example and a game changer for the best of the European tradition in research, innovation, and education, offering citizens around the world an open, pluralistic, inclusive, flexible, and entrepreneurial learning experience.
Focus on expanding and improving CHARM-EU objectives
After creating and testing innovative practices, tools, methods, and approaches during the first years of collaboration, the CHARM-EU alliance will focus on expanding and strengthening its impact while continuing living lab activities within CHARM-EIGHT. Aiming to be an influential "icebreaker" that inspires academic and external stakeholders, the alliance will consolidate and strengthen governance and cooperation, develop its challenge-based learning lab and educational offering with a visible link between research, business, and society, while creating an interinstitutional, intercultural, transdisciplinary, and inclusive campus that will contribute to the European mindset. CHARM-EU will integrate successful innovations and best practices for the direct benefit of its partner institutions, while continuing to develop innovative tools and models and establish new partnerships at all levels.
Initially, the alliance comprising the University of Barcelona (coordinator), Trinity College Dublin, Utrecht University, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, and the University of Montpellier will be expanded to include Åbo Akademi University in Finland, Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, and Hochschule Ruhr West in Germany. The integration of the three new partners will contribute to the achievement of the alliance's ambitious goals while bringing experience from different education systems, particularly in terms of program design, teaching curricula, learning, and digital transformation.
"All the universities that are members of CHARM-EIGHT are very enthusiastic about this new phase. What's more, the new members make us stronger as an alliance," says Joan Guàrdia, Rector of the University of Barcelona (CHARM-EIGHT coordinator).
CHARM-EIGHT's ambitions for the benefit of all stakeholders
With the support of the new Erasmus+ grant, the CHARM-EU alliance will provide an innovative environment for students, university staff, and non-academic stakeholders. By bringing partners together, more than 245,000 students will be able to benefit from an innovative teaching and learning environment, ensuring they are as well prepared as possible for the future through a wide range of activities. More than 34,000 staff members will have access to a transdisciplinary and intercultural working environment offering several professional development activities and internal transformation actions that will enable them to improve their daily work.
Local and regional stakeholders, as well as society as a whole, will benefit from cross-disciplinary cooperation aimed at identifying, proposing, and creating solutions to complex challenges. According to Joan Guàrdia, Rector of the University of Barcelona, "CHARM-EIGHT is a shared commitment to the future that involves universities and stakeholders in society in the structure of a new European university."
As our future depends on society's ability to deliver fair, resilient, and inclusive solutions to global challenges, CHARM-EIGHT will continue to be committed to creating a transformative and sustainable European experience in education and research. It will also contribute positively to shaping Europe's role in the world as it undergoes a profound transformation to reconcile humanity with the planet.