The objective of the Unite! Seed Fund is to activate students to jointly pursue new activities, e.g., joint projects, exhibitions, events, excursions, competitions, hackathons, in areas such as innovation, sports, career, language, education, communication, outreach or any other promising idea.

The first round of the seed fund for student activity took place in May 2023. The Unite! Seed Fund is a financial boost for innovative, co-creative and collaborative ideas from students, teachers and researchers across the Unite! alliance. In the student category, Unite! decided to fund two projects - a reading club and an academic rocketry and international student exchange programme.  

READING UNITE! - U! Reading Club -  is financed with 13.050€ for 14 months, from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2024. The applicants are UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Overall Coordinator: Martina Massana Massip, Carme Fenoll), Grenoble INP-UGA (Sacha Zimny) and Aalto University (Luísa Cardoso). 

Abstract: Our names are Martina, Sacha, and Luísa and we are students from three UNITE! universities: UPC, Grenoble INP, and Aalto. We are all avid readers passionate about literature and how it can be used to learn more about other experiences and cultures. Martina has even published her first book! So why not take the connection opportunity that UNITE! has provided us and soak in foreign literary worlds first-hand? Through this book club we intend to encourage students to expand their understanding and knowledge of different cultures and perspectives, while also helping them develop their ability to analyse and interpret complex texts.We find literature to be a great connection point for students all around Europe, and also an amazing opportunity to find more about each other, sharing other languages and improving our critical thinking skills. 

If you are interested in joining the Unite! Reading Club, please, be in touch with Luisa Cardoso.  

ARISE-Program: Academic Rocketry and International Student Exchange Programme – is financed with 20.000€ for 5 months, from 1 June to 31 October 2023. The applicants are ÆSIR-Student Rocketry Association, KTH Royale Institute of Technology(Amanda Bergström, Eszter Szabó) and TUDSaT– TU Darmstadt Space Technology student organisation, TU Darmstadt (Jonas Klein, Tyler Kraus-overall coordinator).

Abstract: Without a payload, a rocket serves no use - without a rocket, a payload cannot fulfill its mission. KTH’s ÆSIR and TU Darmstadt’s TUDSaT aim to collaborate on a payload project for the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) 2023 in Portugal. The purpose of this project is to design, manufacture, and launch a rocket (provided by ÆSIR) with a unique payload (provided by TUDSaT) in the form of subsystems of TUDSaT’s upcoming EuRoC rocket. The benefits of this cooperation are very clear: Not only will this flight provide valuable data and experience for both teams, but they will also learn how to design a joint project over long distances while exchanging experience, knowledge and culture along the way. To intensify the latter, the two groups will meet at KTH to integrate the payload and strengthen the connection between the two associations, paving the way for future collaboration.

Next application period in September 2023

The next application round will open in September 2023. Applications must include students from at least two Unite! universities, which are Aalto, KTH (Sweden), Grenoble INP-UGA (France), PoliTO (Italy), TU Darmstad (Germany), TU Graz (Austria), UPC (Spain), ULisboa (Portugal) and Wroclaw Tech (Poland). The maximum amount of funding for an accepted proposal is 20 000 Euros.

More information will be available in September on aalto.fi/unite and on Unite! website.

Who can apply?

• Under- and Postgraduate students (including PhD Students) 
• Student organisations/associations 
• Units and service centres of Unite! universities (such as sports unions, language centres etc.)