Resources

This session explored how Universities alliances can foster competitiveness through flexible and inclusive learning pathways. Within CIVIS, it focused on micro-programmes and micro-credentials as tools to provide diverse learners with relevant skills.

This session showcased research projects developed as part of the CIVIS seed-funding call with the aim tto reflect on the benefits and limitations of this type of initiative in implementing long-term research collaborations across the Alliance.

This public CIVIS session explored how joint learning can grow from early cooperation into new educational pathways across institutions, disciplines, and borders. Through the stories of TRACEE, NAT4DD, and POLYCIVIS, the conversation highlighted innovation in programme development, student experience, and alliance-based educational design.

Seven years into the European Universities alliances, a fundamental question remains unresolved: what do we actually mean by “mobility”? As alliances strive to reach the ambitious target of 50% mobility among staff and students, the concept is being stretched to encompass an expanding range of formats. Yet this broadening raises critical questions about coherence, comparability, and value.

While Open Lab projects usually start from local challenges, they can grow stronger when they connect across borders. This round table illustrated this through three concrete project experiences and will discuss the benefits, the hurdles, and the lessons learned.

The CIVIS Days Keynote by Professor François Heinderyckx (Université libre de Bruxelles) explored the internal and external narratives and retention strategies for European Universities alliances.

A forward-looking debate, positioning European Universities alliances as platforms for dialogue between academia, policymakers and society. Moderated by Associate Professor Sorin Costreie, PhD, Presidential Adviser for Education and Research and CIVIS Coordinator at the University of Bucharest.

A reflection of the role of the European Universities alliances, and CIVIS in particular, in promoting democratic values.

Since the launch of the European Universities initiative in 2019, alliances such as CIVIS have moved well beyond experimentation and are already transforming higher education. That was the clear message from the keynote panel held on 28 April, 2026 in Brussels as part of the CIVIS Units Summit, which brought together representatives from EU institutions, researchers and alliance leaders to take stock of achievements and challenges ahead and discuss with over 70 CIVIS Staff members about the future of alliances.

This e-book consists of a total of 60 artistic works created by forcibly displaced people over the age of eighteen, who settled in Glasgow, Johannesburg, and Madrid, and from a diverse range of nationalities including Morocco, Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Palestine, Mali, and Guinea Conakry. The e-book is the final outcome of the CIVIS Open Lab project “Migrant Storytelling on Home and Belonging as Transformative Tools” (2024-2025), developed by an interdisciplinary and international team made up of researchers from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, the University of Glasgow, and the University of the Witwatersrand, in partnership with organizations that provide protection and support to forcibly displaced individuals: CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado)  in Madrid, Migrant Voice in the UK, and the Windybrow Arts Centre in Johannesburg.

CIVIS Blended Intensive Programmes 2024-2025: quality, impact, and strategic development. An evidence-based evaluation of learning, mobility, administration, and institutional integration. This report presents a comprehensive evaluation of the CIVIS Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) implemented during the 2024-2025 academic year. Its purpose is to assess the quality, effectiveness, and added value of BIPs from both student and coordinator perspectives, with a particular focus on administrative processes, mobility arrangements, teaching and learning experiences, digital environments, and the integration of CIVIS educational values.

The workshop “Sensing Our Environment Together: Citizen Sciences for Climate and Air Quality” (30 September–1 October 2025) brought together academics, associations, and local stakeholders committed to addressing climate and air‑quality challenges through participatory research. Designed as a prototype for future CIVIS Open Labs, the event fostered dialogue between diverse actors, encouraged the exchange of methodologies, and highlighted the value of inclusive, science-based action. By convening experts and communities across different territories, the workshop aimed to enhance transnational collaboration and strengthen the collective capacity to address environmental issues.

Service Learning was also at the centre of CIVIS Days 2025, with a plenary session titled “Learning Experience in Service Learning at Institutional and National Levels” bringing together leading voices in civic education to explore how Service Learning (SL) can become a catalyst for civic engagement in higher education across Europe and beyond.

The CIVIS Days 2025, hosted by Sapienza Università di Roma from June 11 to 13, opened with a keynote by Professor Romiță Iucu of the University of Bucharest, who introduced a bold concept poised to reshape the work of the European Universities initiative: transclusivity.

The session focused on the sharing of experiences and insights from students leading the Student Council, emphasizing the critical role of student leadership within a University Alliance.

The discussion explored the role of educators in connecting with the external context while contributing to the improvement of museum services, particularly through student involvement and the outcomes of educational activities.

The CIVIS Expert Group Service-Learning has created and made available the CIVIS Service-Learning Guide for Lecturers at all CIVIS universities and associate member Universities in Africa in 2024. The guide aims to offer lecturers at all CIVIS universities a tool for better combining academic knowledge with civic engagement in their educational activities, by applying the pedagogical approach of service-learning.

This hybrid panel discussion focused on the pressing topic of polycrisis. Held during the CIVIS Days in Salzburg (2024), this event is linked to the PolyCIVIS network, a collaboration between the CIVIS Alliance members and 4 additional African universities.

The CIVIS Days 2024 Dissemination session on the European Degree offered a strategic exploration of key insights from the SMARTT project and the European Degree blueprint. Speakers examined how these initiatives could shape the future of European higher education, particularly within the context of CIVIS and other European alliances. Central to the discussion was how the lessons learned from these projects could inform and enhance educational strategies across alliances like CIVIS, intertwining with practical approaches and transnational cooperation.

The flexibility of Blended Intensive Programmes can be used to internationalise the curriculum and develop a global mindset among staff and students. BIPs can widen access to international experiences to a more diverse cohort of students, and they can help to develop mutually beneficial collaboration with international partners.

After around five years of development of the European Universities alliances, the roundtable discussed what experiences had been made so far, what opportunities, but also what challenges had been presented to the participating universities under the respective national and European framework conditions. The aim was to identify topics of relevance to the work of all alliances and to discuss examples of best practice. Finally, the discussants attempted to provide an outlook on the future development of the alliances.

The concept of “new frontiers” could be explored in relation to the polyvalence and new challenges of the academic field. This concept invites us to rethink the structures, processes, and interactions within and beyond higher education institutions.

Diferent versions of the CIVIS logo

Please find here different versions of the official the Co-funded by the EU logos that need to be used in all communication and dissemination materials related to CIVIS activities that benefit from this co-funding.

Find here branded CIVIS document and presentation templates

Guidelines for the use of the CIVIS logo and other graphic elements (font, colours)

CIVIS, Europe’s Civic University Alliance, brings together 11 research universities to advance a strong challenge‑based educational model that equips students to address real societal and environmental issues. By combining civic engagement, inter‑ and transdisciplinary collaboration and partnerships with local stakeholders through Open Labs, CIVIS ensures that learning is grounded in authentic, complex challenges linked to the SDGs. This digital guidebook is based on our best practices.

During a conference on a blueprint for a European degree on 29 April 2024, in Brussels, which brought together more than 1000 participants – both in person and online -, higher education institutions from all across the EU have called on the European Commission, Member States and the wider higher education sector to take the next steps to make the blueprint for a European degree a reality.

This report reflects the main results of the Screening, Mapping, Analyzing, Recommending, Transferring and Transforming Higher Education international programmes (SMARTT) Project, together with specific recommendations for the development and implementation of the European Degree Label (EDL) and the Joint European Degree (JED). SMARTT was a CIVIS Alliance project.

RIS4CIVIS was a CIVIS Alliance project that supported the research and innovation dimension of the CIVIS Alliance, in line with its shared, integrated, long-term strategy and in synergy with its education objectives. Here is a summary of the project’s results: