– The incubator is part of the Higher Education Innovator programme of this alliance of seven universities that promotes the creation of a joint European campus.
– The challenges of the “ENHANCE Challenge” foster diversity and inclusion in higher education students and the use of artificial intelligence in university administration.
The Universitat Politècnica de València, one of the seven universities that make up the ENHANCE Alliance of European campuses, will host the celebration of the final of the ENHANCE Challenge today and tomorrow, which will finance six innovative ideas with a total budget of 210,000 euros. The two challenges launched by this incubator, part of the Alliance\’s Higher Education Innovator programme, focus on promoting diversity and inclusion amongst higher education students, as well as the use of artificial intelligence in university administration.
The main objective of the ENHANCE Challenge is to select the most disruptive ideas resulting from the ten groups made up of members from various universities of the Alliance, that are made up of both academic and administrative staff and students, to advance in the construction of the European Higher Education Area. In addition to funding from the ERASMUS+ programme, the incubator for the Higher Education Innovator programme is sponsored by Sensedia, BRAVE M&T and the Chair of Digital Divide and Functional Diversity of the UPV.
“A LIVING EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY”
The opening ceremony of the ENHANCE Challenge was held this morning at the Faculty of Business Administration and Management of the Vera campus of the UPV. It´s Dean, María del Mar Marín, welcomed the finalist teams from the Alliance\’s different universities, and the UPV professor and coordinator of the ENHANCE Challenge, Elena de la Poza, highlighted \”the importance of participating in these challenges because they imply the maintenance of a living university community, without borders and with the aim of improving the European Education Area”.
In his speech, the Vice-rector for Internationalization and Communication of the UPV, José F. Monserrat del Río, argued: “Europe needed an ideal for higher education and European universities are that ideal. Once we have the ideal, we must get to work to achieve this dream. ENHANCE Challenge is a great example to build the higher education that we want and that our students deserve.”
The two ENHANCE Challenges address two different areas related to the core values of the Alliance. The first challenge aims to find solutions to promote diversity and the inclusion of students with fewer opportunities at university. Meanwhile, the second has the mission of promoting the use of artificial intelligence in university administration to integrate the latest technological advances for the benefit of the university community.
AWARDS
The six projects of the finalist teams of the ENHANCE Challenge will receive funding of up to 35,000 euros each. In addition, their development will have an impact on the European Education Area, since their ideas will be incubated at the UPV and the NTNU of Norway for a year and will then be integrated into the Alliance.
The winning teams will be presented tomorrow at the Faculty of Business Administration and Management. The closing session and awards ceremony will count on the participation of the Secretary General of the ENHANCE Alliance, Naveed Syed, the UPV professor and coordinator of the ENHANCE Challenge, Elena de la Poza, the Vice-rector for Internationalisation and Communication, José F. Monserrat del Río , and the Regional Director of the Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society in Valencia, Silvia Rueda Pascual.
ABOUT
The ENHANCE Alliance was founded in 2019, with the aim to develop one joint European campus, free of physical, administrative, or educational barriers, where students, faculty and staff can move freely to experience the European Education Area. The mission of ENHANCE is to drive responsible societal transformation and to promote the development and utilisation of science and technology – for the benefit of society. ENHANCE is part of the ERASMUS+ programme European University Initiative. The Alliance brings together seven member universities: the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin), as the Coordinator, the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), the RWTH Aachen University (RWTH Aachen), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the Chalmers University of Technology, the Polytechnic University of Milan (Polimi), and the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).