Una Europa Student Project Incubator 2025

This second edition of the Una Europa Student Project Incubator gives you the opportunity to:

• Work together in international and interdisciplinary teams in a virtual setting.
• Put your skills into practice by developing proposals to research real life issues.
• Learn how to frame research questions to identify new insights to pressing challenges.
• Work with students, staff and researchers from across our alliance.

This year’s edition of the Una Europa Student Project Incubator focuses on conducting research, giving students the opportunity to have insights into research planning and simulating the research group experience. The programme form teams to tackle three themes that align with key Una Europa priorities and some of the themes that the European Commission’s Horizon funding uses for their calls:

• Culture, creativity, and inclusive society.
• Climate, energy, sustainability, and mobility.
• Technology, AI, and human wellbeing.

Bachelor's and master's students and doctoral researchers (PhDs) currently enrolled at an Una Europa university are welcome to participate in the Student Project Incubator.

We are looking for students and researchers who are interested in exploring what participating and conducting research projects could look like and would like to work in international and interdisciplinary teams to explore the research experience.

The Incubator invites you to bring your ideas so that together we can learn, collaborate, meet new people and develop research proposals to make an impact!

We can’t promise that you will get support to implement your research proposal, but we can promise you an experience where you will learn new skills, meet new people and get a taste of how research skills can be applied to research topics you are passionate about.

To participate in the Incubator, you need to have a team. We will be organising three online networking sessions between 20 February and 3 March, and we will provide access to other networking tools for you to find likeminded students to form your research team.

Sign up here to get more information.

Check this Google Drive folder for more information about the group formation process and to find other students.

Apply with your team by 9 March. Remember, you need students from at least two Una Europa universities, two different disciplines (you shouldn’t all be studying European Studies for example), and the group should include 3–5 members.

You will be notified whether your group has been accepted to the programme by 17 March. All applicants will be informed of the outcome of their submission, whether they have been accepted or not.

The Incubator will run from 25 March to 15 May 2025. The programme included workshops every Tuesday and teamwork time every Thursday to help build your skills related to presenting your expertise, interdisciplinary group work, academic writing, peer review techniques, presentation skills and more.

At the conclusion of the programme, you will get to present your final proposals and plans to the broader Una Europa community, where one team will be chosen as the winner. The prize for the winning team includes the opportunity to share more about your research proposal and experience with a broader audience, including an opportunity to travel to one of our partner institutions, which will be defined later on based on your research proposal and scope.

The Student Project Incubator features a programme of online sessions for all participants, including workshops for building your knowledge and learning new skills. The workshops will explore topics such as academic writing, professional biographies, peer review, research proposal writing and how to present your research.

• Who is eligible to participate in the Student Project Incubator?

Bachelor's and master's students or doctoral researchers (PhDs) currently enrolled at an Una Europa university are welcome to apply. You will need a team to apply, so it’s important to participate in one or more of the group formation sessions or online tools if you want to participate. You cannot apply as an individual.

• What if I can’t join a session?

To participate in the Incubator, it is important that you are available for all the sessions. We understand that you might have to miss one due to classes or unexpected changes in your schedule, but if you already know that you can’t make several, probably this year’s Incubator is not a good option for you.

• Do I need to have an idea when I apply?

You don’t need to have a very specific research question when you apply. If you have a team fulfilling the criteria, and can agree on which of the three themes you are most interested in, that is sufficient. We are not expecting you to submit a research proposal at the application stage; that is the goal of the Incubator. There will be a few guiding questions for you to share your initial interests and ideas.

• Is everything online?

Yes, the whole Incubator programme is delivered online. We encourage local meetups where possible, but all parts of the Incubator will be implemented online.

• How to apply?

You must find a team that fulfills the following criteria: includes representation from at least two Una Europa partner universities; includes representation from at least two different disciplines (you shouldn’t all be studying European Studies for example); groups should be 3–5 members.

There will be online networking sessions and opportunities to connect with other students. You can join these sessions with a friend from your own university, but it’s important that the teams have people from different universities.

• What is the outcome of the Incubator?

Each team will work on a research proposal and the final product you will deliver is a research proposal of 3–5 pages. This is what you will present in the final showcase. The Incubator is designed to support you learning all the skills and tools to be able to complete this task.