Coordinated by Paderborn University, seven European universities have joined forces to form the Alliance "COLOURS" (COLlaborative innOvative sUstainable Regional univerSities). Together, they want to strengthen their European network, increase their international visibility and strongly promote mobility within Europe. They also plan to develop a multidisciplinary approach to jointly meet current societal challenges. In addition to Paderborn University, the Alliance includes Le Mans University (France), the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the University of Ferrara (Italy), Kristianstad University (Sweden), Jan Dlugosz University (Poland) and Josip Jurai Strossmayer University of Osijek (Croatia). Together they represent about 120,000 students and almost 12,000 employees.
All COLOURS partners are closely linked to their regional socio-political and economic environments. Therefore, their approach also focuses on strengthening the cooperation between the respective regions and regional stakeholders. Following a "challenge-based approach" in teaching, research as well as knowledge and technology transfer, the partners’ aim is to make use of synergy effects by intensifying their cooperation on all levels. For instance, the Alliance plans to develop new attractive opportunities for virtual and physical mobility and, in the long term, intends to create joint study and teaching activities. Students are strongly involved in the design of these offers.
Further information about the Alliance and its ideas can be found in the COLOURS Mission Statement.
"European universities"
On 22 March, the partners submitted a joint application for funding as a part of of the European Commission's call for proposals "European Universities” to further develop their newly founded Alliance. The selected alliances will receive funding to improve the quality of European higher education and promote cooperation between institutions, their students and employees as well as cross-border mobility throughout Europe.
The idea of "European universities" goes back to the keynote speech "Initiative for Europe" by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017. In this speech, he proposed that around 20 "European universities" should be founded by 2024. The EU Commission took up Macron’s suggestion and launched a funding programme that has been supporting 41 alliances with a total budget of 287 million euros in the first two pilot phases. The “European Universities Initiative” has now become a part of the Erasmus+ programme 2021-2027. The selected "European Universities" will promote a European identity, support a united and strong Europe, and improve the performance and competitiveness of the European higher education system. Alliances that find innovative formats for cooperation in teaching, research and knowledge transfer will be funded for four years. Alliances with seven partners can receive funding of up to 7.56 million Euro.
At the end of July, the European Commission is expected to announce which applications have been successful. The partners of the COLOURS Alliance intend to expand their cooperation in any case. They are currently planning further meetings in April and May.
