Arqus for lecturers and researchers

Arqus Communities of Practice are groups of professionals who come together for comparative learning and peer learning across all areas of institutional activity, as well as to offer staff development opportunities for the staff of all partners.

Arqus is working on the creation of interconnected networks made up of academics from all partner universities in order to build a sense of identity within the Arqus community. The Alliance believes that existing formal and informal working groups, committees, etc. constitute the foundations of our transformative approach to shared institutional learning, leading to the creation of a true 'European University'.

Arqus offers each 'Community' a collaborative space based on 3 main objectives: strengthening the sense of community, comparative and peer learning and, finally, staff development.

Communities of Practice are the natural breeding ground for peer learning to take place, which can then be disseminated beyond the circle of the online Community that generated it. To this end, Arqus believes that each Community of Practice should include a continuous staff training programme, certified by the Arqus Academy and recognised by each university in the Alliance.

For further information, please visit the webpage and direct any questions to:

University of Padua

Gabriele Nicoli gabriele.nicoli@unipd.it

Marco Carraro arqus@unipd.it 

The Arqus Innovation Fund is an Alliance initiative that offers seed funding to encourage innovative bottom-up initiatives proposed by Arqus staff and students. Through the Arqus Innovation Fund, Arqus aims to establish a series of calls of various kinds open both within the Alliance and to its partners, as well as externally, in order to broaden the Alliance’s visibility at a global level.

At the end of the first Call of the Arqus Innovation Fund, it had received funding requests amounting to €2,106,058.00, and subsequently allocated €828,430, exceeding the initially planned amount of €600,000. This clearly demonstrates the very strong interest generated by the call, as well as the quality of the projects submitted.

For more information, please consult the Alliance website

Call for the Arqus Talent & Innovation Fund “Ad hoc bottom-up initiatives 2023” now open

The call supporting innovation and entrepreneurship is open from 10 October to 30 November to all Arqus staff and all students enrolled at each of the Alliance’s universities.

The funding, for a total of €100,000, provides seed funding for shared initiatives between working groups involving at least 3 Arqus partners. The Arqus Talent & Innovation Fund is seeking macro-activities linked to the core values of Arqus and its Action Lines: Education, Research & Innovation, and Social Engagement. Pure research initiatives will not be funded.

The following activities are eligible for funding:

• Challenge-based-learning programmes

• Collaboration project labs

• Cross-disciplinary seminars

• Dissemination events for the general public

• Joint short-term study projects (except Twinnings)

• Research training

• Twin/triplet transition initiatives

• Joint workshops

The selection criteria will be:

 Relevance (0-30) (a maximum of 10 points for each criterion)

- Level of ambition of the proposal

- Cooperation 

- Relevance to Arqus values and Action Lines

Quality (0-30) (a maximum of 10 points for each criterion)

- Feasibility

- Innovation

- Number of participating partner universities

Impact (0-30) (a maximum of 10 points for each criterion)

- Members of the university community (students/staff) directly concerned

- Potential impact on the Alliance

- Sustainability and replicability

N.B.

1. Successful projects will be required to take part in regular coordination meetings with the co-coordinators of the Arqus Talent and Innovation Fund. 

2. An application must be submitted for each initiative.

For any questions, please contact innovation-fund@arqus-alliance.eu

The deadline for submitting applications is 30/11/2023

To read all the details of the call and to apply, visit the Alliance website

The Arqus R&I project aimed to develop the research and innovation activities of the Alliance and to address the challenges of today’s global society through intensive collaborative, excellent, open, transparent research that engages society.

The project, which was awarded funding of 2 million euros under the H2020 call supporting research and innovation within the framework of the European Universities initiative, introduced 3 new challenges for the Alliance:

- Shared science and innovation

- New perspectives on research

- Openness towards society

Arqus R&I is now drawing to a close; please refer to the Alliance website to consult the project conclusions.