New ENGAGE.EU Funding Period
For three years the University of Mannheim has been forming the alliance ENGAGE.EU with six European partner universities. Today, the European Commission has communicated continued funding until 2027. Altogether the funds amount to 14.4 million euros.
Credit: Laurenz Stammberger
In 2020, seven European universities leading in business administration, economics and social sciences formed the university alliance ENGAGE.EU. The European Union has been funding 44 of these kinds of networks with the initiative European Universities. The overall goal is to build an innovative, competitive and attractive environment for research and education in Europe. As the coordinating university Mannheim has been particularly involved in building ENGAGE.EU. With the beginning of the second funding period on 1 November 2023, ENGAGE.EU will get two new partners and then be made up of nine universities who will research and teach together and will foster knowledge transfer to society.
“I am pleased, and I am proud that the proposal for the second funding period of ENGAGE.EU has been approved”, says Thomas Puhl, President of the University of Mannheim. “This is a huge success which acknowledges the efforts of all those involved and reflects the quality of the projects that have been implemented to date.” In the past three years, numerous projects in research and teaching have been developed within ENGAGE.EU. Those are for example inter-university online courses, a master’s program on digital transformation, expedition weeks, workshops for doctoral students and research visits. Moreover, a research platform has been implemented where 250 researchers exchange ideas, get inspired and start collaborating. “We have built a great network of students, researchers, teachers and employees from nine different countries. We can now take this European collaboration into the future. I am looking forward to shaping the European educational landscape together with our partner universities”, Thomas Puhl continues.
The proposal for continued funding from the European Commission also included a realignment of the goals of the alliance. The three pillars research, teaching and knowledge transfer regarding society and economy remain the core activity of ENGAGE.EU, however, there will be new emphases. The focus will be on joint master’s programs, doctoral programs for early-stage researchers, establishing research communities and cooperating with partners from outside the university.
“For the past few months, we have worked continuously on the realignement of ENGAGE.EU and we are looking forward to tackling our new tasks”, says Thomas Fetzer, ENGAGE.EU coordinator and vice president for strategic planning, internationalization and equal opportunity at the University of Mannheim. “Our mission is strong, transnational and interdisciplinary collaboration in business, economics and social sciences as well as the extended exchange of ideas between the business world, politics, society and science. I am very much looking forward to creating the future of ENGAGE.EU with all colleagues here in Mannheim and at our partner universities.
Text: Dr. Maartje Koschorreck/
About ENGAGE.EU
ENGAGE.EU is an alliance of leading European higher education institutions from the fields of economics and business administration and social sciences in Bergen, Mannheim, Rom, Tilburg, Toulouse, Sofia and Vienna. As of 1 November 2023 universities from Barcelona and Helsinki will join. ENGAGE.EU is committed to societal change by addressing existing and emerging challenges such as digitalization, climate change, migration, energy crisis, and security in Europe. The alliance strives to empower students to show social responsibility, act as European citizens engaged in social issues, and make an impact on society at large.