Una Europa invests more than 150,000 Euros to incentivize academic collaboration among its partner universities. In the second round of Una Europa's seed funding, 11 out of 23 proposals successfully passed the scrutiny of the jury. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of proposals fall within Una Europa's Focus Areas, though the range of topics covered remains broad and diverse.
The 2020 call for Una Europa seed funding was the second of its kind. Launched in 2019, the aim of the seed funding initiative is to ignite longer-term collaborative activities between the partner universities. Calls are open to all disciplines, with cross-disciplinary approaches being an essential requirement.
A broad range of topics
As in 2019-20, the 2nd call resulted in an eclectic mix of topics, covering cultural heritage topics including the role of museums, linguistics and literature-related themes as well as issues such as recycling and resilient cities. Two proposals address Covid19 from two different perspectives, antimicrobial resistance and behavioral economics. Also lined up for funding is a proposal enigmatically entitled 'virtual slaughterhouse simulators'. This project will work on digital educational tools for meat hygiene training of undergraduates in veterinary medicine.
Seed funding champions
Università di Bologna and Universidad Complutense de Madrid win the title of seed funding champions this time round, with involvement in nine proposals each, either as coordinator or partner. Two projects, CUTE and UnaMuseums will involve academics from all eight Una Europa partners and three projects will feature seven partners, with four partners being the minimum eligibility criterion. Proposals were evaluated against the following criteria:
- Quality
- Contribution to the goals of the call
- Impact, and
- Implementation.
You want to plant a seed in 2021?
" It's the beginning of something that wants to become bigger. "
Maria Latorre, Professor for International Trade and Vice Dean for Research, Postgraduate Studies and International Affairs, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, on her project funded by Una Europa Seed Funding
You are an academic at one of our partner universities and interested in e.g.
- organizing joint workshops or seminars or
- preparing joint formats for education or research?
We have good news for you! The next call for applications for seed funding will open on 19 April. The deadline for submission is 19 July, at 17.00 CET.
All call details can be found on our Seed Funding page.
In the meantime, you might want to tune in to the 3rd episode of the Una Europa Podcast. In this episode, Maria Latorre from Universidad Complutense and Jan Wouters from KU Leuven explain how Una Europa seed funding underpins their collaboration.
By Inga Odenthal, Una Europa
