Arqus Annual Conference 2026

The Arqus Annual Conference 2026 was held from 7 to 9 July at Maynooth University, in Ireland, and also involved the University of Padua.

With the theme "Voices of Impact: Weaving Stories Across Europe", the programme, through plenary sessions, panels and moments dedicated to the community, placed lived experiences at its centre. This year’s edition was conceived as a lively forum, built around the sharing of experiences, in which voices from across the Arqus Alliance, and beyond, shared concrete examples of the implementation of the European Universities initiative.

The 6th Arqus Annual Conference brought together lecturers, researchers and students from the Alliance to reflect on the future of European higher education.

During the Arqus Awards 2026 ceremony, initiatives of excellence were recognised in the fields of Open Science, Innovation and Excellence in Teaching, highlighting the creativity, collaboration and commitment that continue to characterise the Arqus community.

A hat-trick of prizes at the Arqus Open Science Award: no fewer than three major recognitions went to researchers from the University of Padua:

• Davide Tedesco (Department of Cultural Heritage): winner in the “Innovative Open Science Approaches” category for his PhD project on the conservation of electroacoustic music.
• Ambra Perugini (Department of Developmental and Socialisation Psychology): winner in the “Open Software, Hardware & Infrastructure” category for the criticalESvalue in R project.
• Gavin Farrell (Department of Biomedical sciences): honourable mention in the “Open Software, Hardware & Infrastructure” category for the web platform Open & Sustainable Artificial Intelligence.

At the close of the working days, the setting of the College Chapel in Maynooth hosted a moving performance featuring members of the Concentus Patavinus choir singing in harmony with colleagues from the Alliance’s other universities.

On 9 July, while the Arqus community was gathered in Maynooth for the Alliance’s Annual Conference, the European Commission published the results of the call for European University Alliances, confirming renewed funding for Arqus. The allocation guarantees the continuity of the Alliance’s activities for the next two years, marking a crucial transition between the conclusion of the second funding period and the start of the new project chapter. On the governance front, the Rectors' Council has already taken a decisive step in this direction by officially mandating the relevant Task Force to proceed with the establishment of the Alliance’s Legal Entity.