The European Commission is about to roll out the European Universities Initiative (EUI) based on the lessons learnt from the 41 alliances supported in the first (2019) and the second (2020) calls for proposals and based on discussions with key stakeholders and national experts. ACA is an active participant of these stakeholder consultations. Over the last months, ACA members have been discussing internally the key principles and modalities of the EUI from the perspective of national funders and supporters, in the framework of ACA’s Thematic Peer Group “European Policies and Programmes”, feeding their input into the co-development process.  

On 14 July, ACA published a statement on the roll-out of the EUI to express its full support to the initiative and to deliver some key recommendations for its successful continuation, paving the way to excellent and inclusive higher education collaboration and transformation across the European Education Area and the European Research Area. With this statement, ACA members encourage the continuation of the initiative in line with the original principles and objectives and call for  

• A balanced and fair approach to participation offering opportunities for diverse types of higher education institutions and strategic partnerships, including already selected and new alliances;  
• Open and fair competition within the two groups of selected and newcomer alliances and not between them;  

• Transparent and timely communication on the key modalities of the 2021 call for proposals, which is crucial for the sector’s trust and commitment to the initiative 
• Flexibility for existing alliances in time, resources and conditions to deliver on their ambitious goals, in line with their bottom-up nature, while avoiding policy and goal overload.  

The full statement can be consulted on ACA’s website. ACA looks forward to further exchanges with the European Commission and other stakeholder organisations for an impactful continuation of the initiative at higher education system level.