EUniWell 2025: The year in review
18/12/2024 | by Janina Baumann
As 2025 comes to an end, join us in reflecting on the development of EUniWell over the past year and its impact on enhancing well-being across research, education, and society.
This year has demonstrated, both globally and politically, the importance of creating interdisciplinary and co-creative platforms such as EUniWell: in its fifth year, the Alliance plays a vital role in strengthening democratic values and fostering societal and academic research-driven well-being across Europe. Looking back, we celebrate the joint efforts of researchers, educators, students, and university leadership to successful projects and programmes that have improved higher education and created a broader impact on European society.
Let us take this opportunity to highlight the achievements of the past year and their contribution to EUniWell’s mission of promoting well-being at local, regional, and global levels – and chancing a view ahead into our futures.
1. Driving force for collaboration
In 2025, EUniWell once again nurtured impactful ideas from across its university communities through the Seed Funding Programme. With more than 70 successful projects to date and over 300 partners engaged across member institutions and beyond, the Seed Funding Programme remains one of the key drivers of collaboration, innovation, and well-being within EUniWell. Under the 8th Seed Funding Call, eleven outstanding and forward-thinking projects were selected, each aiming to strengthen well-being in research, education, and daily campus life. The 9th Seed Funding Call attracted 70 applications, marking it as the most competitive round so far. In the end, ten projects were selected for funding. Across both recent calls, the projects span all EUniWell Thematic Arenas, a statement to the diversity and strength of our network. The topics range from health, sustainability, and cultural research to multilingualism, social equity, and the future of teacher education. Looking ahead, the 10th Seed Funding Call is set to open at the end of January 2026, continuing EUniWell’s commitment to supporting impactful and community-driven initiatives. Stay tuned!
2. Expanding the Alliance
One of this year’s standout developments at EUniWell has been the Medical University of Warsaw (MUW) joining us as our twelfth member university. By broadening our Alliance with another top-ranking institution, we strengthen our focus on improving health, well-being, and shared European values through cross-border academic cooperation. With MUW’s remarkable reputation in medical education and research, its addition brings valuable expertise to EUniWell’s Thematic Arena “Health and Well-Being”. The university’s focus on improving healthcare, social responsibility, and international partnerships to address major health and societal challenges makes it a natural fit for EUniWell’s vision. We look forward to new research initiatives, developing innovative study opportunities, and fostering mobility for students and staff across Europe.
EUniWell also strengthens its transatlantic engagement through its growing partnership with Teachers College, Columbia University. A key milestone will be the conference “Bridging Well-Being and (Teacher) Education: A Globalised Perspective to Science Diplomacy” in February 2026. The four-day event, hosted at the United Nations Headquarters and Teachers College in New York City, will provide a groundbreaking platform for global dialogue and collective action. Framed by the EUniWell Thematic Arenas and co-organized by EUniWell, Teachers College and UNITAR, it brings together research, policy and practice to advance well-being and education worldwide.
3. Promoting well-being in uncertain times
Throughout 2025, EUniWell reaffirmed its dedication to a strong and democratic (European) Research and Education Area: In May, the Alliance held its 8th Rectors’ Assembly at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela together with the first Alliance-wide Associated Partners’ Meeting. In a time of geopolitical uncertainty, the discussions confirmed a shared view: in a fragmented world, alliances like EUniWell provide a stable, forward-looking foundation for resilient and impactful academic communities.
In this context, the member universities adopted a joint Declaration on Academic Freedom, reaffirming that it is essential to the future of science, democracy, and well-being in Europe. The Declaration underscores that academic freedom is foundational, safeguarding the right of researchers to pursue questions, test ideas, and publish results openly.
4. Enabling and diversifying research
EUniWell underscored its role as a supporter and connector of researchers through its participation in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA PF) matchmaking initiative. It connected early-career researchers with host supervisors within EUniWell to develop competitive proposals and build international collaborations while also contributing to more diverse and accessible research communities.
Complementing this effort, two EUniWell CAS symposia provided a key platform to empower the next generation of researchers. With events on “Innovation in well-being for Sustainable Development Goals achievement” and “Early academic careers – transitioning between systems in a changing world”, early-career researchers not only enhanced projects that impact well-being and sustainable development, but built foundations for collaborations across the Alliance and contributed to the development of EUniWell’s Centre for Advanced Studies.
EUniWell further strengthened its research ecosystem by appointing the first EUniWell Champions: eight senior researchers acting as ambassadors. By promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and disseminating well-being research, the Champions will actively advance EUniWell’s mission and core values. In addition the Alliance launched the EUniWell Open Science Contact Point as a central hub for Open Science support while connecting researchers, staff and students with relevant expertise across the Alliance.
Together, these initiatives reinforced EUniWell’s role as a bridge between research, practice, and skills development, while actively contributing to the broader European research community. In the second project phase of EUniWell, the efforts towards research have already resulted in 28 EUniWell research publications.
5. Celebrating Five Years of EUniWell
This autumn, EUniWell reached a significant milestone celebrating its fifth anniversary at the University of Cologne. The anniversary activities commenced with the 9th EUniWell Rectors’ Assembly, where rectors, students and leadership gathered to review the Alliance’s strategic progress and set course for future impact under the EUniWell 2030 vision, with the shared the ambition to strengthen our capacity as a European University for science and well-being.
Following the Rectors’ Assembly, the conference “Celebrating Five Years of EUniWell: Well-Being for our Futures” and FestiWell brought together over 200 participants from across the Alliance. Through inspiring keynotes, panels, workshops, and interactive activities, we reflected on our achievements in research, education, and civic engagement, and explored how we can further enhance joint academic initiatives, boost research visibility, and align future projects with European priorities.
These events highlighted not only the scientific strength and collaborative spirit that have shaped EUniWell’s first five years but also our collective ambition to build a more sustainable, inclusive, and well-being-centred European University community.As we look back on half a decade of shared commitment from all members of the Alliance, we express our sincere thanks for your dedication to promoting well-being within and beyond EUniWell. Let us celebrate these achievements – while looking forward with excitement to all that lies ahead in 2026!
