CHARM-EU secures €12.8m funding to expand and implement its innovative vision

Posted on: 27 July 2022

The CHARM-EU Alliance, of which Trinity is a partner, was one of the first European Universities selected by the European Commission in the European Universities Initiative in 2019, designed to foster the quality, inclusiveness and competitiveness of European higher education. Since then, CHARM-EU has built up a successful collaboration between its partners - University of Barcelona (coordinator), Trinity College Dublin, Utrecht University, Eötvös Loránd University, and the University of Montpellier) - that resulted in designing several innovative tools, models, programmes and practices. One example is the first accredited Master’s degree programme (Master’s in Global Challenges for Sustainability) under the criteria of the European Universities initiative.

The Alliance has brought together academic staff of different disciplines and universities within Knowledge Creating Teams, engaged external stakeholders and developed a governance model with innovative administrative structures supported by the CHARM-EU core values: inclusion, student-focused, socially-responsible, sustainable, innovative, transparent and transdisciplinary.

The new Erasmus+ grant announced today will support the CHARM-EU Alliance’s expansion to include Åbo Akademi University, Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg and Hochschule Ruhr West. It will enable it to increase its innovative activities and implement its long-term vision to drive systemic, structural and sustainable societal impact at all levels. It will contribute to the Alliance becoming a world example of the best of the European research, innovation and education tradition, offering both a student-centred learning experience and supporting a collaborative transdisciplinary, mission-oriented research environment.

Professor Emma Stokes, Trinity’s Vice President for Global Engagement said: “Being a globally engaged university means that we are committed to seeking solutions to the challenges of the world through our teaching, learning, scholarship and research. Through CHARM-EIGHT∞ we are  committed to educating the next generation of global citizens and global leaders. Trinity’s participation in this European Alliance is a clear illustration of our vision in action and we are delighted with today’s Erasmus+ funding announcement. We look forward to working with our partners to deliver the next phase of CHARM-EU’s ambitious programme”.

CHARM-EU has also started shaping its Research & Innovation dimension through the TORCH project, (Transforming Open Responsible Research and Innovation through CHARM), a project funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 programme which aims to develop a common Research & Innovation agenda for the Alliance’s partners based on transdisciplinarity and interculturality to solve complex societal challenges.

With the support of the new Erasmus+ grant, the CHARM-EU Alliance will benefit students, university staff members and extra-academic stakeholders:

• More than 245K students can benefit from its innovative teaching and learning environment and will be better prepared for the future through a wide range of activities and mobility.
• More than 34K staff members will have access to a transdisciplinary and intercultural work environment providing several professional development activities and internal transformation actions that will allow them to transform their day-to-day work.
• Local and regional stakeholders and society will benefit from the transdisciplinary cooperation aiming to identify, propose and create solutions to solve complex challenges, synthesise approaches and mobilise to take action.

To find out more about how CHARM-EU will focus on expansion and boost its impact, please see here.

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