EDUC - European Digital UniverCity

The University of Cagliari is partner of the prestigious group of Universities selected by the EU, in the framework of Erasmus + “European Universities” programme, whose aim is to promote new models of physical and virtual mobility (even short term). for students, teachers and staff and to enhance common research projects.

EDUC in numbers:

• Six European universities involved in 5 EU Countries: University of Potsdam as coordinator (Germany), University of Paris Nanterre, University of Rennes 1 (France); University of Masaryks (Czech Republic) and University of Cagliari (Italy);
• 162.000 students;
• 21,700 staff of which 10,100 professors-researchers; 
• 135 courses of study in English;
• 5 million euro from the European Commission (2019-2022) with further national resources;

Objectives:

• promote new models of physical and virtual mobility of students, teachers and staff, encourage common research projects and face the society challenges in an innovative and cross-sectorial way;
• Creation of common structures among partners (included the cooperation on digital infrastructures);
• Development of joint training offers for the development of professional and academic competences;
• Institution of a network of local and international partners (stakeholders);
• Promote the acquisition of transversal skills (European topics, foreign languages, entrepreneurship);
• Bring together teachers, researchers and administrative staff to promote the exchange of good practices and introduce new training and research projects;  

Targets

Students, teachers and researchers, administrative staff; other partners and general public;

Cooperation areas 

Thanks to the coordination of the University of Cagliari, EDUCpartnership, in the framework of the "Education meets Research" activity has selected the priority and strategic themes, on which the researchers of the six universities will strengthen their interdisciplinary cooperation in the coming years.

The selection of these areas was based on the analysis of the strengths of the EDUC universities and on their ability to contribute to European (Horizon Europe) and regional (S3) policies. The seven selected themes, around which ad-hoc seminars will also take place in the coming months, are:

1. Lifelong Health and Wellbeing 
2. Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence 
3. European Union Studies 
4. Sustainable Changes: climate and resources 
5. Justice, inequality and inclusion 
6. Mobility / Smart cities 
7. Culture and heritage 

ACTIVITIES 

Here a summary of the activities that involve the students of the 6 partners universities:

• short-term mobility to develop "intensive programs" on specific topics with students and teachers from the 6 universities;
• short-term mobility to another University of the Alliance;
• online courses to develop “critical thinking” followed by short internships; ad-hoc seminars on the 7 key topics selected by the project;
•  short internships in research laboratories to develop and test the scientific hypothesis developed in virtual classroom;
• "Journal Clubs", interdisciplinary and transnational virtual classes to let students developing critical analysis and discussing scientific articles;
• Online training courses with European focus and online language courses;

For further information, visit the dedicated EDUC students’ web section.

Here a not exhaustive list of opportunities for teachers and researchers:

• Support for the development of courses mixing virtual exchanges and short-term mobility for students;
• Mobility actions for teachers in order to develop new collaborations and new projects;
• offer and prepare online courses on European topics with subtitles / English translation;
• Work on the 7 research themes identified by the project and attend ad-hoc seminars;
• Propose research projects under European or international calls with EDUC partners;
• Participate in a linguistic "tandem" with teachers / researchers of the universities of the network;
• Propose teaching methods on scientific research;
• Propose online teaching methods also accessible to other students from other faculties;

For further information, visit the dedicate EDUC web section.

These are some actions/activities for non-academic staff:

• Possibility to attend languages courses;
• Meet administrative staff of EDUC network with the aim of exchanging experiences;
• Be involved in EDUC local and international seminars and events;
• Support teachers and researchers in EDUC research activity and in their pedagogical projects;
• Be involved in skills recognition for EDUC students;

For further details, visit the dedicated EDUC web section.