The ENHANCE Diversity Seed Fund was created to turn student-led inclusion ideas into campus reality. This is what that looks like: a Fine Arts student at the Universitat Politècnica de València proposed converting gendered toilets into gender-neutral spaces — and made it happen.
What does it feel like to walk into a room and wonder whether you belong there? For many trans students and people with reduced mobility on university campuses, that moment happens every single day — at the bathroom door.
To Pee in Peace is a project that takes that question seriously. Developed by Ara de Roo, a Fine Arts student at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), the initiative transforms standard gendered toilets into gender-neutral spaces through thoughtful visual design: floor signage using adhesive vinyls and wall murals that signal openness and welcome, without the need for structural renovation.
The result? Three newly gender-neutral toilet locations across the UPV campus (on the ground floor of the School of Architecture, in the library of the Faculty of Business, and in the School of Geodetic, Cartographic and Topographic Engineering), each now an unambiguously inclusive space.
The Power of a Student Idea
This project would not have been possible without the ENHANCE Diversity Seed Fund, which provided co-funding and institutional backing to bring Ara's vision to life.
The Diversity Seed Fund exists for exactly this kind of moment. Open to students across all ten ENHANCE universities, it backs innovative, student-led projects tackling real challenges around inclusion, diversity, and equality in academic communities. Whether through awareness campaigns, human rights initiatives, allyship programmes, or creative arts — the fund is a direct pipeline from student social commitment to campus-wide impact. To Pee in Peace sits squarely within the fund's Gender Equality thematic area, addressing a challenge that is concrete, daily, and deeply felt: the lack of safe, accessible spaces for trans students and people with reduced mobility.
Why It Matters
Inclusive infrastructure is about more than signage. It signals to every member of a university community — particularly those who are most vulnerable to discrimination — that they are seen, respected, and safe. By choosing a design-led, non-structural approach, Ara's project demonstrates something important: meaningful inclusion doesn't always require large budgets or lengthy renovation cycles. Sometimes it requires creativity, empathy, and the courage to act.
This is precisely what the ENHANCE Alliance believes: that students are not just the future of society — they are active agents of change right now.
Rooted in ENHANCE Values
The ENHANCE Alliance brings together ten leading European universities of technology with a shared mission: to empower people with knowledge and competencies in science and technology, and to drive responsible transformation for the benefit of society, rooted in European values of inclusion, equality, and innovation.
That mission is not abstract. It lives in projects like To Pee in Peace, where a student's social commitment, supported by the right funding and community, creates a concrete difference in the daily lives of their peers.
ENHANCE's commitment to inclusion, diversity, and equity is woven into everything it does — from the programmes it designs, to the campuses it helps shape, to the student voices it chooses to amplify and fund.
Have an Idea?
If you're a student at an ENHANCE university with a project that could make your campus safer, more accessible, or more inclusive — the ENHANCE Diversity Seed Fund wants to hear from you.
