The programme in Lausanne involved a packed agenda exploring the topic – Running joint projects involving academics and city practitioners: do’s and don’ts.

The EUniverCities Network’s long track record of exchanging knowledge and practice around city-university collaboration formed the basis of our first publication in 2021 – Handbook for Strategic-University Co-operation. The intention is to use the material generated from this latest meeting to create a complementary follow-up handbook that explores the success factors – and the pitfalls – of collaboration at the project level, involving city practitioners, academics, students and other partners. 

The city council and the university of Lausanne have significant experience in running collaborative research projects that have a direct social benefit, through their Interface programme. The framework of this programme provided an ideal structure for 5 interactive workshops.

Workshop 1: Generate – How do we promote opportunities and generate project ideas between potential academic and non-academic partners? How can we identify practical needs and translate them into research questions?

Workshop 2: Fund – How can we raise the resources needed to fund collaborative projects, how should funding be allocated in line with the objectives of a collaborative research policy, and what happens when the funding runs out?

Workshop 3 : Support and delivery – How can we implement and manage a structured support/monitoring system for collaborative projects throughout their development and delivery?

Workshop 4: Capitalize – How can we avoid continually ‘reinventing the wheel’, capitalize on the learning generated by collaborative research projects, share it effectively, and nurture a collaborative culture between institutions?

Workshop 5: Include students – How can collaborative projects be recognised and incorporated into academic programs, and how can the “student-professor-stakeholder” triad manage pedagogical considerations, academic validation and satisfy stakeholder expectations?

One of the most important sessions of the 3 day meeting was the Failures Forum – an opportunity to share examples of what can go wrong with collaborative projects, and to analyse and share the lessons learned from such experiences.

Another notable session gave delegates an opportunity to see some of Lausanne’s Interact-funded collaborative projects in action across the city. It was a great demonstration of projects that are having a real-world impact as a direct result of the city-university funding programme, established in 2018.

Despite a busy programme across 3 days, there was a huge amount of energy, enthusiasm and camaraderie, all set against the beautiful lakeside and mountain backdrop of Lausanne.

Colleagues from the Network, led by Professor Willem van Winden our expert advisor, will now be working through the large volume of material generated from our time together to develop the brand new handbook, which we expect will be published next year.

All photos are copyright and courtesy of © Fabrice Ducrest – UNIL