H2020 research and innovation: €2 million to the Arqus European University Alliance

TheArqus alliance, of which the University of Padua is a member, has obtained funding from the European Horizon 2020 programme of EUR 2 million for a period of three years to encourage cooperation between university partners – Padua, Granada, Vilnius, Lyon, Leipzig, Graz and Bergen – in research and innovation. This funding complements the EUR 5 million obtained by the Arqus Alliance as one of the first 17 European university alliances funded by Erasmus+ and will contribute to research and innovation efforts in European universities in synergy with the educational dimension.

Based on shared strategic research interests, through this funding the Alliance will focus on the interdisciplinary fields of Artificial Intelligence/Digital Transformation and Green Deal/Climate Change as cross-cutting priority areas for research collaboration. The Arqus Research & Innovation project is organised around three main challenges, all of which aim to promote an environment that nurtures sustainable collaboration. The first is Joint Science and Innovation, which involves building an Arqus research community and designing a roadmap for ever-changing excellence. The second focuses on New Perspectives on Research, seeking to strengthen human capital through alternative approaches to evaluation and recognition, and to rethink transfer, with particular reference to the social sciences, humanities and arts. The third challenge, Open to Society, focuses on the cultural change brought about by Open and Citizen Science.

The project aims to complement the Alliance’s existing efforts to promote scientific cooperation within the Alliance and to strengthen the synergy between the education, research and innovation dimensions of Arqus.

For further information: www.arqus-alliance.eu/news/2M-h2020