Call for Expressions of Interest for Una Europa Academic Leads

17 Nov 2022

UCD is seeking expressions of interest from UCD academic staff to lead UCD’s participation in Una Europa across six broad interdisciplinary themes.The deadline for applications has been extended to Wednesday, 7th December at 5pm.

Overview of Una Europa & Una Futura

UCD formally joined Una Europa, one of Europe’s leading university alliances on the 1st of June 2022. Aimed at transcending traditional geographical and disciplinary boundaries, this partnership of universities is working together towards a virtual ‘multi-campus’ - a European University of the Future, that will enable student and staff mobility between member universities.

Una Europa has secured €14.4m in EU funding to proceed with Una.Futura, an ambitious four-year project enabling the holistic integration of the alliance’s educational, research and innovation dimensions. UCD will receive €1.5 million in co-funding towards the implementation of the Una.Futura project from the 1st of December 2022 to the 30th of November 2026.        

Una Europa Focus Areas

Una Europa collaboration in the fields of education and research is focused on six interdisciplinary areas. These areas have been set up as interdisciplinary academic groups, designed to bring together experts from across Una Europa partners to jointly design innovative educational formats and find new ways of collaboratively conducting the research of the future.

These Focus Areas have been designed to reflect pressing global and societal challenges and establish stronger links with EU policies and initiatives, such as the five overarching Horizon Europe Missions and the European Partnership on One Health. To learn more about the six Focus Areas and their aims, please click on the links below:

• Cultural Heritage
• Sustainability and Climate Change
• Europe and the World
• Future Materials
• Data Science & Artificial Intelligence
• One Health

Self-Steering Committees (SSCs)

Each of the aforementioned Focus Areas is coordinated by a Self-Steering Committee, which drives Una Europa’s education and research agenda. These core teams consist of up to three academics from each member University, who will be responsible for providing strategic guidance on the development of new, innovative instruments to incentivize academic collaboration. Each Focus Area is led by one Una Europa member, who provides administrative support for the work of that SSC.

Who can join?

• UCD can appoint up to three academics to each SSC, ideally representing different disciplines related to each Focus Area. One of these three academics must be at Professor or Full Professor level, but we also strongly support the involvement of early career academics from all disciplines.
• SSC members can engage colleagues from within their broader Focus Area according to the needs of the SSC. This may include postdoctoral researchers and PhD students subject to their suitability.

What will the SSCs do?

Each year, SSCs will invite, assess, and select project proposals to build annual work plans for delivery. Selected projects are eligible for implementation support (including travel) through the Una.Futura budget, but it is envisaged that in some cases SSCs will also seek external funding as a means of diversifying the range and scope of their activities. These activities will include:

• Preparing and implementing strategies and action plans to support the development of SSCs into hubs for interdisciplinary challenge-based research and education;
• Guiding and chairing project teams working on the implementation of formats for education and research within a specific Focus Area;
• Developing or supporting development of new learning material, courses and programmes in close collaboration with educational support staff.
• Providing general support to the SSC activities.

What is the time commitment?

• As a general rule, SSC members can contribute according to their capacity and alignment between their expertise and project needs.
• SSCs meet virtually once per month and in-person twice a year at Una Europa General Assemblies. The physical meetings usually take place in May/June and November/December.
• Successful applicants will be appointed for an initial term of 2 years, which can be renewed for another 2 year period upon mutual agreement with the Vice-President for Global Engagement.

How to apply?

Applicants should submit a one-page CV, and a one-page motivation letter outlining interest in joining this Self-Steering Committee.

Please submit your materials using this Google form

Deadline: 5pm on Wednesday, 7th December. Late applications will not be considered.

For more information

Email your queries to Eve Brosseau and Shane Lordan at unaeuropa@ucd.ie. The team is happy to arrange a call with potential applicants if desired.