Unite! Seed Fund 2024 awards funding to 13 applications with Aalto's involvement
The Unite! Seed Fund aims to stimulate and support bottom-up proposals by teachers, researchers and students for collaborative activities.
Call for proposals: Unite! Seed Fund to foster collaborative teaching
This call is for setting up joint/collaborative teaching formats in the focus areas of the Unite! university alliance, particularly exchange modules for the Master level. These modules are academic programs that allow students to study at another Unite! university, or several, for a certain period, thereby enhancing sustainable student mobility. These kind of exchange modules, compared to longer exchanges, are more accessible to a wider range of students and are thus expected to attract more participants. The call is open from 15 June to 31 August 2024.
The Unite! university alliance invites teaching staff as well as teaching and learning units to send proposals of collaborative projects, involving as many Unite! universities as possible (the minimum being three).
Unite! universities
- Graz University of Technology, Austria
- Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Sweden
- Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
- Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
- Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
- Politecnico di Torino, Italy
- Institute Polytechnique de Grenoble, France
- Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland
- Aalto University, Finland
What kind of proposals is Unite! looking for?
The funding is open to subjects and topics related to the focus areas mentioned below and is aimed at in-person, hybrid, and/or purely digital formats. This call intends to support the creation of exchange modules – be they entirely new or based on preexisting courses – amongst Unite! members, limited to the Unite! focus areas only.
The exchange modules are expected to:
- target the Master level
- bear ECTS credits (minimum 3 ECTS; recommended 10-30 ECTS)
- be recognised by the departments/faculties of the universities involved (relevant letters of support are mandatory)
- be devised as long-term offers, existing well beyond the duration of the Seed Fund project
Focus areas
- Sustainable Cities and Water (incl. Resilient Cities and Climate Change)
- Engineering Biology (incl. Biotechnology)
- Space
- Cybersecurity
- Artificial Intelligence
- Industry 4.0
- Energy
- Entrepreneurship
Award Information and Timeline: Basic Data
| Seed fund programme line: | Teaching & Learning in Unite! Focus Areas |
| Budget of each proposal in this call: |
Programme Option “Exploring”: up to €10,000 Programme Option “Developing”: up to €40,000 |
| Deadline for proposals: | 31 August 2024 |
| Announcement of results: | By 31 October 2024 |
| Funding period for this call: | 01 December 2024 to 30 June 2026 |
Potential outputs for Programme Option “Exploring”
- Contacts for teaching & learning collaboration/consortia established and explored.
- Well-defined collaboration ideas for the next steps towards the creation of exchange modules.
Potential outputs for Programme Option “Developing”
- Exchange modules developed.
- Blended/ joint/ shared courses developed.
- New formats of collaborative teaching developed.
Read the full Call information and download application documents
The full Call information with application forms can be found on Unite!'s website here
Application Procedure
- Applications can be submitted until 31 August 2024 via email to seedfund@unite-university.eu
- It is strongly recommended to contact your university’s Key Liaison Officer Minna-Kaarina Forssén (contact details below) for application guidance. General inquiries can also be emailed to: seedfund@unite-university.eu
- Teachers (Professors, academic staff) and teaching and learning units are eligible to apply.
- The evaluation of applications will be made by the Unite! Academic Forum (UAF) and selection decisions will be confirmed by the Unite! Steering Committee. Results are expected by 31 October 2024.
Contact
Unite! Key Liaison Officer at Aalto Minna-Kaarina.Forssen@aalto.fi, +358 50 911 5262. Please note that Minna-Kaarina is on holiday during 27 June - 5 August. During this time, please, contact seedfund@unite-university.eu.
See also
Join the Unite! Engineering Biology second online matchmaking event on 25 September
The Unite! Engineering Biology initiative aims to unite researchers from all the nine partner universities in the Unite! alliance to advance key technologies and sustainable processes.
Seed funding available to boost collaboration between Aalto, KU Leuven and University of Helsinki
Aalto University, KU Leuven and the University of Helsinki launch the 2nd exploratory seed funding call to explore research collaboration possibilities. The funding call is open until 10 September 2024.
Unite! University Alliance
Aalto University is a member of Unite! alliance together with eight other European universities.
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