Unite! Seed Fund 2026: Call opens on 20 January 2026
Gain an early overview of the Unite! Seed Fund Call of Spring 2026. The call includes three funding lines: Student Activities, Teaching and Learning, and Research and PhD.
Two Unite! Seed Fund projects involving Aalto secure top EU funding
Two prestigious EU grants have been awarded to projects that were initially supported with Unite! Seed Funding. Both projects involve Aalto.
Two interesting Unite! Seed Fund projects with Aalto involvement highlight the transformative impact of the Unite! alliance in both education and research.
One project, “The Graduate School for Language, Speech and AI Technologies”, coordinated by TU Graz, and involving Aalto's Paavo Alku and Tom Bäckström, has been selected for funding as an Erasmus Mundus Design Measure (EMDM).
Originally supported by the Unite! Seed Fund for Teaching & Learning, the initiative aims to establish a joint European Master’s programme in Speech, Language and AI technologies across all nine Unite! partner universities.
Paavo Alku, who has been a key driver of the project, explains the motivation behind the programme: “The programme builds on three domains (speech, language and AI) which are jointly not well represented by current MSc programs in Europe. Most (technical) universities today teach AI, but may not have courses on speech and/or language.”
Paavo AlkuWe aim to utilise expertise across these three domains so that each university partner focuses on its own area of expertise strengths, while the network as a whole provides excellent coverage of all domains.
The long-term goal of this joint programme is to prepare students for the rapid developments and competitive demands of international research in speech and language technologies.
Tom Bäckström, who will soon lead the project at Aalto, highlights the value of collaboration within the Unite! alliance: “The topic is currently taught in many universities around Europe, but in all instances, it is a rather small topic within the corresponding universities… There is currently no Master's program that offers comprehensive coverage of all topics in Speech and Language Technology. By joining forces, our aim is to design the leading master's program of unprecedented quality.”
Tom BäckströmAalto has strong research in automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis, medical analysis of speech, and the ethical and privacy-preserving use of speech technology. Through this programme, our students can then access a wider variety of courses, especially in natural language processing (NLP). Conversely, students from universities with a strong background NLP, can join Aalto to study courses related to the strengths mentioned.
The EMDM funding now enables the consortium to develop the detailed curriculum and prepare a full Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s application. Alku adds: “We will begin by launching bilateral double-degree agreements between Unite! partners, which will later be extended into a joint European MSc programme. Preparations are already underway for a double-degree agreement between Aalto and TU Graz.”
Driving sustainable mobility with Unite!
A second success story comes from the research side: the Seed Fund project “Fostering Innovation Ecosystems for a Green Mobility Transition”, led by TU Graz PostDoc Thomas Draschbacher and involving Aalto's Esko Hakanen.
The idea has now secured funding under the “Driving Urban Transitions Partnership Call 2024”. Together with KTH Stockholm and TU Graz, Aalto will work with companies and stakeholders to develop sustainable road transportation ecosystems, supporting the EU’s climate neutrality goals. The project receives almost €1.5 million in funding.
Unite! Seed Fund – from idea to impact
Success stories like these demonstrate how Unite! Seed Fund projects can grow into European flagship initiatives, bridging education and research while strengthening international collaboration.
The next Unite! Seed Fund call will open 20 January 2026 – a chance to develop pioneering projects that shape the future of international education and research.
Unite! Seed Fund 2025 – Aalto involved in 15 projects
From the 2025 Seed Fund call, 30 proposals were selected for funding. Aalto is involved in 15 of these projects and coordinates one.
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