University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering

Unite! is a network of universities in seven countries that will set a new model for a European virtual and physical inter-university campus.

Unite! will connect engineering, science and technology with the grand challenges of society in co-creation by students, faculty and staff – providing skills for a new generation of European and global citizens.

Unite! will transform European higher education through multidisciplinary, multicultural and multilingual education, research and entrepreneurship.

Unite! is a network of universities extended from Finland to Portugal, connecting European regions of economic prospect, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Together the seven partners have 167,000 students and annually 36,700 graduates. They are already cooperating closely on more than 80 EU projects.

Unite! already builds on three decades of close and dedicated cooperation on different aspects of higher education, research, innovation and social responsibility as shared in the CLUSTER network.

The Unite! partners share a common view towards regional embeddedness, technology transfer, and engineering and science education, with complementary multidisciplinary approaches.

Strong European geographical regions are covered by Unite!:

  • Northern Europe: Two major cities or regions, strong in entrepreneurship and innovation: KTH Stockholm/Sweden, and Aalto in Espoo-Helsinki/Finland
  • Western Europe: Two partners from the two largest economies and drivers of the European Union, TU Darmstadt in Germany (Hesse, Rhein-Main Region) and Grenoble INP-UGA in France (Rhone Alpes)
  • Southern Europe: Three major economic and industrial centres ranging from Portugal to Northern Italy: University of Lisbon in Portugal, UPC Barcelona in Spain/Catalonia and Politecnico di Torino in Italy/Piedmont.
Unite! is a network of universities in seven European countries, connecting European regions of economic prospect, entrepreneurship and innovation.

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TU Darmstadt is active as the coordinator of Unite! both throughout the alliance and also internally within the university.

In this role as coordinator, Unite! is officially represented by the Unite! President. TU President Dr. Tanja Brühl was elected as Unite! President for a period of three years by the Unite! Governing Platform at the Kick-off event for Unite! in November 2019. Professor Dr.-Ing Jens Schneider, Vice President for Transfer and International Affairs, is a representative of the Unite! President and represents TU Darmstadt as a partner and coordinator for strategic policy issues.

The Unite! Secretariat based at TU Darmstadt coordinates and leads the alliance of seven partner universities and is headed by the Secretary General Dr. Andreas Winkler. The Secretariat is responsible for managing the Unite! alliance and the pilot project in which concepts for the short and long-term development of Unite! are being developed in Unite!-wide working groups.

The Unite! activities within each of the partner universities are managed by the Unite! Key Liaison Officers. Dr. Jana Freihöfer, Head of the International Relations & Mobility Department, is the Key Liaison Officer at TU Darmstadt.

Unite! will become tangible for the various status groups at TU Darmstadt in projects, initiatives, various programmes and in the development of strategic projects such as collaborative research partnerships or joint programmes. All members of TU Darmstadt should contribute to how TU Darmstadt directly influences Unite! and how Unite! impacts TU Darmstadt. The aim is for Unite! to develop out of the universities – with all of their status groups – and the structure is merely designed to facilitate this process.

The European Universities Initiative

The European Commission proposed the European Universities Initiative in 2019 to push towards establishing a European Education Area by 2025. The European Universities are transnational alliances of higher education institutions from across the EU that share a long-term strategy and promote European values and identity. The initiative is designed to significantly strengthen mobility of students and staff, and foster the quality, inclusiveness and competitiveness of European higher education.

Responding to a call in 2019 under the Erasmus+ Framework Programme, the first 17 alliances were selected for a pilot phase of 3 years to build the foundations of the future European Universities. 24 more alliances followed in the 2nd call in 2020, as well as additional funding by the EU under the Horizon 2020 call “Science with and for Society”, in order to boost the Research and Innovation dimension of the European Universities towards a European Research Area.

  Name Contact
Key Liaison Officer
Dr. Jana Freihöfer, Leiterin Dezernat Internationales
Picture: Lungahmmer/ TU Graz
Dr. Jana Freihöfer
Key Liaison Officer TU Darmstadt
Head of International Relations & Mobility
+49 6151 16-24055
S1|01 308
Unite! Secretariat
Dr. Andreas Winkler
Secretary General
+49 6151 16 24059
S1|01 311
Picture: Lunghammer/ TU Graz
Dipl.-Theol. Christine Marburger
Alliance Manager
+49 6151 16-20041
S1|01 311
S
Dr. Ing. Anshika Suri
Funding and Policy Advisor
+49 6151 16-20147
S1|01 311
Heidi Roßmann
Office Manager and uShare Administrator
+49 6151 16-24056
S1|01 310a
  • Erasmus+ Programme:
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2014/15 – 2020/21: Business and administration (broad programmes) (Department 1), Physics (Department 5), Computer science (Department 20)
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2014/15 – 2020/21: Building Technology (Department 13), Energy Building (Department 13), Geomatics (Department 11), Mechanical Engineering (Department 16)
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2018/19 – 2020/21: Chemical Engineering and Processes (Department 7)
  • Double Degrees:
    • Department 18 – Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Master)
    • Department 4 – Mathematics (Master)
    • Department 11 – Materials and Earth Sciences (only incoming)
    • Department 20 – Computer Science
  • Erasmus+ Programme:
    • Erasmus Mundus 2015-2016 Financial Convention (Functionalized Advanced Materials & Engineering) within the EMMC partnership agreement #2012-0190
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2020/21: Psychology (in the field of cognitive science) (Department 3 – Human Sciences)
  • Double Degrees:
    • Department 1 – Law and Economics (Master)
    • Department 5 – Physics (Master)
    • Department 13 – Civil and Environmental Engineering Sciences (Master)
    • Department 18 – Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (Master)
  • Erasmus+ Programme:
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2019/20-2020/21: Engineering and Engineering Trades (Department 13)
  • Double Degree Appendix A:1, Duration: Academic Year 2018/19-2025/26 – Master of Science in Physics
  • Research cooperation:
    • Compact Ultrafast Laser Sources Based on Novel Quantum Dot Structures: „Fast Dot“
    • Flutter-Free Turbomachinery Blades: „Future“
  • Double Degrees:
    • Department 18 – Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
  • Erasmus+ Programme:
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2014-2021: Computer Science (Department 20), Mechanical Engineering (Department 16), Civil Engineering (Department 13), Electronic, Computer, Information, Telecommunication, Telematics Engineering (Department 18), Management/Logistics and Production Engineering (Department 13)
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2018/19 – 2020/21: Chemistry (Department 7), Mathematics (Department 4), Engineering and engineering trades (Department 13), Manufacturing and Processing (field of Material Sciences) (Department 11)
  • Exchange agreement from 1988 (Department 20 – Computer Science)
  • Erasmus+ Programme:
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2014-20[21]: Architecture (Department 15), Computer Science (Department 20), Mathematics (Department 4), Mechanics, Metal work (Department 16), Electricity and Energy (Department 18), Chemical and Process (Department 7)
  • Double Degrees:
    • Department 18 – Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
    • Department 16 – Mechanical Engineering
  • Erasmus+ Programme:
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2014/15-2020/21: Biology and Biochemistry (Molecular Biology) (Department 10)
    • Erasmus+ Programme 2016-2020/21: Political Sciences (Department 2)
 
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