EUniverCities is a European network, launched in 2012, in which medium-sized cities and universities work together in tandems in order to give knowledge cities more visibility within Europe. The network aims to exchange and share knowledge, expertise and experience in city-university co-operation across urban Europe.
Network members learn from each other how to shape co-operations in a fruitful way, apply lessons, take next steps on a local level, and spread knowledge and ideas.
The network has been inspired by the EU2020 Strategy on Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive Growth, which attributes great importance to knowledge, innovation and technology.
The network is accompanied by Willem van Winden, Urban IQ as an External Expert. The current ambitions and aims as well as the conditions of cooperation between the partners are defined in the Network Strategy 2023 – 2025. The network partners can create subnetworks and project teams focusing on special issues.
For a quick guide on how to become a member of the Network, click here: JOIN US
Our driving themes
The key themes and areas of interest for the network’s operations can be found in the Flower model, linked with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Cities and universities can together play a major role in meeting these goals and creating positive impacts for local communities.
These topics are:
Urban planning (transport, campus development, housing, smart cities etc.)
Economy (labour market, entrepreneurship, university-business co-creation, marketing/branding etc.)
Culture (heritage, events, sports, leisure, arts & design etc.)
Society (immigration, inclusion/exclusion, gentrification, ageing, health & care, science & society)
Sustainability (energy transition, climate change resilience)
Life-long learning and teaching (learning for adults, primary & secondary education)
We also have a number of cross-cutting topics:
Within each domain, university and city may have a shared or common interest, and there is an opportunity for active collaboration. There may also be specific tensions and challenges.
Network members meet each other once or twice a year in one of the European cities involved in the network to address a specific topic from within one of the priority themes. It is up to each hosting city-university tandem to decide which topic will be addressed during the meeting.
The basic idea is to formulate a problem statement, and let the members share and exchange their experience and knowledge with the hosts via interactive work methods such as peer review. Based on the chosen topic, the members invite their specialists/experts in this specific field to optimize the exchange and learning experience.