The ENHANCE Alliance launches two challenges to foster diversity and inclusion among higher education students and encourage innovation using AI in university administration. This initiative, which forms part of the ENHANCE Higher Education Innovator programme, will provide total funding of 210,000 for the top six selected projects submitted by teams integrated by members from Alliance member universities.
The main objective of the ENHANCE Challenge is to select the most disruptive ideas resulting from the joint efforts of the ENHANCE community to really make a difference in the European Higher Education Area while addressing issues that are at the core of the ENHANCE Alliance. In addition to Erasmus + funding, ENHANCE Challenge has the sponsorship of Sensedia, BRAVE M&T and la cátedra de Brecha Digital y Diversidad Funcional.
The challenges themselves address two different areas related to the values of the ENHANCE Alliance. The challenge one aims to find solutions to encourage diversity and inclusion of students with fewer opportunities at the university whereas the challenge two aims to foster the use of artificial intelligence in university administration to integrate the latest technological advances for the benefit of the university community.
Students and academic and administrative staff from the seven-member universities with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise are encouraged to participate.
There are a total of 210 seats available. Participants can register individually from the 1st until the 28th of April, where they will have the opportunity to join the Team Up session and create their teams. Phase 1 of the challenge will give teams the chance to interact, learn, and develop innovative ideas online, and the top 5 ideas for each challenge (10 teams) will be selected on the 5th and 6th of May.
Finally, the 10 teams selected for phase 2 will have the unique opportunity to travel to Valencia, with travel and accommodation funded, to pitch their ideas in front of an international judging panel on the 24th and 25th of May.
The challenge offers many benefits, and participants from stages 1 and 2 will all receive specific training and be awarded a certificate for 3.4 ETCS. Then the 6 winning teams’ proposals will be included in an incubator programme at the NTNU and the UPV and receive a total of 210,000 euros to develop their projects.
The 6 finalist team projects of the ENHANCE Challenge will not only receive funding of up to 35,000 euros each, but they will also make an impact on the European Education Area. As stated by Professor Elena de la Poza from UPV and Project Coordinator of the ENHANCE Challenge, “after being incubated for one year at UPV and NTNU, the awarded ideas will be integrated into the ENHANCE Alliance to improve the European education system”.
The ENHANCE Alliance encourages participation in this international and innovative challenge, with contributors from the whole university community within the seven-member universities working together to find solutions to these key areas for improvement within the EEA.
We remind you that registration for the competition opens on the 1st of April and is open until the 28th of April. For further details, consult the following:
