The Leadership Meetings of the ENHANCE Alliance took place in Aachen on 24 and 25 November, in the atmosphere of the end-of-the-year celebrations. The Steering Committee and Board of Directors members were there to participate in the latest ENHANCE governance meetings, to discuss our upcoming grant proposal for the continuation of our European University Alliance and collectively agree on some important next steps for ENHANCE. The main theme of the two days of meetings can be summarised by one concept: the future; and more precisely the future strategic direction of the Alliance for the next Erasmus+ funding period and beyond.

 

Related to this future orientation, the formal announcement of the Alliance’s expansion from seven to ten partners marked the event. TU Delft, ETH Zurich and Gdansk Tech have already been welcomed into the ENHANCE family and we were delighted to be able to officially recognise this moment in the presence of the ENHANCE leadership and sign our new Memorandum of Understanding. With this expansion, the ENHANCE Alliance further enriches its community and its representation of universities of technology from across of Europe. ENHANCE is very proud to welcome our new partners, who will all bring their own expertise and ambition to the development of this project, and further strengthen the diversity of our Alliance.

 

We thank our hosts RWTH Aachen as well as all our partners for the hard work that went into preparing these Steering Committee and Board of Directors meetings. The fruitful discussions focused on our objectives and vision for the future of ENHANCE, in particular with regard to the upcoming grant proposal. The governance bodies agreed on a common vision for the future of ENHANCE, and had the opportunity to look more in depth at our proposed activities and structures going forward. With this vision now approved by the Board of Directors, the partners will be able to finalise the grant application for submission to the European Commission in January 2023.

 

In the scope of the governance meetings, RWTH Aachen also hosted the second edition of the ENHANCE Conversations series, on the topic of diversity, inclusion and gender equality with a focus on “Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence”. This forum gave space to eminent speakers such as Francois Lelord, best-selling author, Gabriella Wiiala, President of the Diversity Charter Sweden and Dr. Natascha Eckert, Global Head of University Relations, Siemens, to discuss global challenges and seek solutions under the banner of the Alliance. Thank you to everyone who joined us in-person and online – if you missed it you can find the full stream of this conversation online (integrated link? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG8kJPj0uAY&t=7s).

 

With these productive days behind us, the ENHANCE Alliance looks forward to many more years of collaboration and is excited to worth together as a newly expanded Alliance of the European Universities Initiative. The holiday period might be busy one for us this time, but 2023 promises to be a good year!