The European University of Post-Industrial Cities; Towards a collaborative approach and structure towards engaged research

The European University of Post-Industrial Cities (UNIC) is an alliance of eight universities in post-industrial cities which all face similar challenges and opportunities in terms of mobility, inclusion and impact.

Our UNIC ambition is to develop innovative and sustainable means of university collaboration that boost student and staff mobility while fostering social inclusion and furthering societal impact.

With UNIC4ER we are now expanding our ambition with a focus on European research collaboration around the concept of Engaged Research.

Our ultimate aim is to develop places in our cities where people meet to co-create the future they want and to change their everyday world for the better, based on research, science and the need to generate inclusive communities, development strategies, policy making and citizen engagement.

We will develop a common Alliance wide framework and supportive systems for involving and engaging citizens, civil society and public/cities authorities in research and innovation.

The concept Engaged Research provides an overarching guiding principle to UNIC4ER as an umbrella term that captures research approaches characterized by a common interest in collaborative inquiry with society. This proposal offers a joint strategy, excellence, structure and platform for engaged research.

We believe that developing a research and innovation dimension within UNIC around the notion of engaged research will help achieve our UNIC ambition of shaping universities that can lead post-industrial cities into a future of inclusive and resilient cities, and training the leaders that are to guide our cities into this future.