Switch Contrast

Erasmus+ Pilot

The Erasmus+ pilot project constituted EUniWell’s first major implementation phase. Selected for Erasmus+ funding under the European Universities Initiative in 2020, the Alliance began as a consortium of seven universities brought together by a common idea: that well-being could provide a serious, research-based and practical focus for European university cooperation.

From November 2020 to October 2023, the pilot gave EUniWell the opportunity to test this idea across different countries, institutional systems and academic cultures. During this period, the Alliance built the foundational structures, relationships and activities through which it could develop as a long-term alliance, connecting education, research, innovation, civic engagement, mobility, communication, and student participation with its wider well-being vision.

Objectives

The pilot phase aimed to turn EUniWell’s mission into practical cooperation. Its objectives included:

  • Creating the governance, communication, quality, and infrastructure needed for effective collaboration;
  • Developing joint education and mobility opportunities;
  • Strengthening research and innovation collaboration on well-being;
  • Creating structures for student, staff, and academic participation;
  • Building links and cooperation with associated partners and local communities;
  • Developing a shared identity for the Alliance; and
  • Laying the foundations for long-term institutional cooperation beyond a single funding period.

Turning ideas into practice

The pilot began with seven universities and started under difficult conditions. Much of its early work was shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited travel and in-person exchange at a time when a new alliance needed people to meet, build trust, and develop shared ways of working. Even so, the pilot phase became the period in which EUniWell moved from an ambitious proposal to a working European Universities alliance: EUniWell built the first structures that allowed the Alliance to co-create across campuses and borders. These included the EUniWell Central Office, the EUniWell Board, the Student Board, Thematic Arenas, and approximately 50 working and steering groups involving colleagues across the member universities – assisted by a quickly developing digital infrastructure with tools for effective online collaboration.

This structure was important because the pilot was not designed as a set of isolated project tasks. It was intended to create practical routes for cooperation between academics, students, administrative staff, university leadership, associated partners, and regional stakeholders. Students were represented in EUniWell decision-making structures and contributed to activities ranging from governance and seed funding project evaluation to FestiWell, student-led projects, and engagement with European debates.

The Alliance also grew during the pilot period. By the end of the first phase, EUniWell had expanded from seven to eleven member institutions, broadening its geographical reach and academic profile. At the same time, the Alliance responded to major external developments, including Russia’s war against Ukraine. Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv joined EUniWell in 2022, and EUniWell created opportunities for Ukrainian students and academics to take part in Alliance activities.

Key results and impact

The Erasmus+ pilot created tangible results across education, research, mobility, institutional development, civic engagement, and dissemination.

In education and training, EUniWell developed new curricula, educational pilots, micro-credential approaches, summer and winter schools, staff training formats, and open education resources. The pilot supported work on programmes and courses linked to sustainability, health inequalities, environmental humanities, migration and diversity, teacher education, entrepreneurship, and well-being skills.

In research and innovation, EUniWell established four Thematic Arenas during the pilot phase: Well-Being and Health, Individual and Social Well-Being, Environment, Urbanity and Well-Being, and Teacher Education. These Arenas helped bring researchers and educators together across disciplines and institutions, supported position papers and academic exchange, and created a basis for the Alliance’s subsequent research and education agenda.

The pilot also strengthened bottom-up collaboration. The EUniWell Seed Funding Programme, financed by the member universities, supported 41 projects in five rounds during the pilot period. These projects brought together students, researchers, teachers, and staff from several Alliance universities and covered areas such as mental health, civic leadership, environmental humanities, intercomprehension, materials science, migration, diversity, and entrepreneurship.

Mobility was strongly affected by the pandemic, but the pilot still generated a wide range of virtual, hybrid, blended, and in-person formats. These included summer schools, staff training weeks, science communication workshops, start-up exchanges, internships, Blended Intensive Programmes, and regular Erasmus+ student mobility between EUniWell partners. FestiWell also became an annual flagship format for community-building, with distributed, hybrid, and in-person editions during the pilot phase.

EUniWell’s civic and policy work also developed during this period. Activities included the Mayors’ Meeting, the Policy Commission on the impact of COVID-19 on young people’s well-being, the Open Lecture Series, the Sustainability Forum, the School Ambassador Programme, several service learning projects, and engagement with European-level debates on higher education, Open Education, research assessment, and the future of European Universities. Responding to current political challenges, EUniWell also published a joint Anti-racism Declaration in 2020.

The pilot phase also helped EUniWell move towards long-term institutional cooperation. The Alliance founded a legal entity under German law in December 2022, developed a platform model drawing on several funding streams, and launched EUniWell 2030: Strategy Framework and Strategy Questions in 2023. These steps showed that EUniWell was developing beyond a single funded project towards a long-term European University.

Completion and next steps

The completion of the Erasmus+ pilot phase marked an important transition for EUniWell. The pilot showed what the Alliance could achieve through shared structures, committed institutional leadership, student involvement, academic collaboration, and a broad understanding of well-being.

In 2023, EUniWell received renewed Erasmus+ funding for the 2023 to 2027 phase. This second phase builds on the structures, relationships and lessons developed during the pilot, with a stronger focus on long-term sustainability, institutional integration, shared infrastructure, wider participation, and impact. Above all, the pilot confirmed the strength of the idea that brought EUniWell together: to build a European University for Well-Being shaped through genuine co-creation.