EU funding for Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degrees

Two programmes were awarded Erasmus funds. The Master’s Programme in Security and Cloud Computing (SECCLO), coordinated by the Aalto University School of Science, received continuation funding for a new project period.

‘The SECCLO programme follows on from the NordSecMob Master’s Programme in Security and Mobile Computing, which ran for over 10 years and graduated over 200 students. SECCLO’s first Erasmus Mundus funding was awarded in 2018. The funding now approved extends over the next four years and it will enable scholarships as well as the recruitment of over 80 students. The consortium includes companies and research centres from seven countries and we are actively working to expand and deepen our collaboration with business’, reports Eija Kujanpää of the School of Science’s learning services. Kujanpää serves as coordinator of the programme. The director of the SECCLO programme is Professor Tuomas Aura.

Cooperation with leading universities in the field

The School of Electrical Engineering is part of a consortium that was awarded funding for a programme called the Joint International Master in Smart Systems Integrated Solutions.

‘This programme continues the existing, successful EMJMD Smart Systems Integration master’s programme. Aalto University joined the new programme to replace Heriot-Watt University that had to give up its official programme membership due to withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union’, says Professor Mervi Paulasto-Kröckel from the School of Electrical Engineering. Paulasto-Kröckel is the professor in charge of the programme. ‘The programme brings together education on smart sensors and microsystem technology from three leading universities in the field. Extremely miniaturised smart systems are needed all around us – they integrate sensor networks, data handling and communications, actuation and energy production and storage into independent 3D systems.’

The programme in which the School of Electrical Engineering participates is coordinated by the University of South-Eastern Norway. The other partner is the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Meanwhile, the partner universities in the programme coordinated by the School of Science are KTH, NTNU, DTU, University of Tartu, and EURECOM in France.

The funding granted for each Erasmus Mundus programme is over four million euros, which covers four consecutive student intakes. The programmes are prestigious joint programmes organised by an international university consortium and involve studies in at least two different countries. The best students receive considerable scholarships. Aalto University is now a partner in four Erasmus Mundus joint master’s programmes.