The University of Tours is a member of the European university NEOLAIA

In December 2021, the University of Tours officially joined the NEOLAIA alliance, which was awarded the European University label in the call for proposals launched by the European Commission in 2023.

Some background on the European university concept...

In 2017, the European Union affirmed its desire to encourage the emergence of networks of universities located in several European countries, enabling students to study in several countries and in several languages. These networkss are also places conducive to educational innovation and research into excellence.
In practical terms, each alliance of European universities will have a common strategy for education, research and innovation, and will form a genuine European campus where mobility for all (students, teachers, staff) is facilitated.
This initiative has two major objectives: 

• to promote shared values and thus strengthen the European identity;
• to boost the attractiveness and competitiveness of universities in Europe.

Today 65 alliances bring together more than 560 higher education establishments of all types in 35 countries.

NEOLAIA

NEOLAIA was created in May 2019 as a strategic collaboration between universities in Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
Since then, the consortium has grown, incorporating new universities from Italy, France, Lithuania, Romania and Cyprus.

The NEOLAIA alliance now brings together 9 European universities:

• Bielefeld Universität, Germany
• Universidad de Jaén, Spain
• Örebro Universitet, Sweden
• Ostravska Universita, Czech Republic
• Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
• Universitatea Stefan cel Mare Suceava, Romania
• University of Nicosia, Cyprus
• Siauliai Valstybiné Kolegija, Lithania
• Université de Tours, France

What all these universities have in common is that they are relatively young, medium-sized institutions that are strongly integrated into their social and economic environment.  

3 themes are at the heart of the NEOLAIA project:
> diversity and inclusion
> Mobility to strengthen European citizenship;
> digital transformation.

1 disciplinary focus: the challenges of Global Health
 

As the winner of the 2023 call for proposals of the ERASMUS+ programme, the NEOLAiA alliance received €14.4 million in funding from the European Commission, including €1.6 million for the University of Tours, for a period of 4 years. The University of Tours has also obtained additional national funding of €1.15 million from the France 2030 plan.

 

The role of the university of Tours in the project

The University of Tours is involved in all the activities of the project, which will run from 2024 to 2027 and cover every facet of the university: teaching and research, of course, but also the establishment of common governance for the alliance, the construction of a policy of shared diversity and inclusion, the development of student and staff mobility, the development of Plurilingualism, entrepreneurship, open science and digital transformation.

The University of Tours has a more central role in coordinating activities in the fields of teaching (development of joint degrees, organisation of summer schools, dissemination of innovative teaching practices such as NewTeAch), research (creation of a network of research support staff, dissemination of Living Labs), plurilingualism (organisation of a conference on language policy, drafting of a joint charter) and entrepreneurship (organisation of a summer school).

Présence d'un lecteur vidéo