ENLIGHT Regional Academies bringing European cities and communities closer together
As of April 30 all partners in ENLIGHT have established their Regional Academies. The Regional Academies connects ENLIGHT to local and regional actors within each partner university’s communities. It is through regular dialogue in partnership with cities and regions, civil society organizations, industry and commerce that ENLIGHT will be able to identify the local interpretations of ENLIGHT’s flagship challenges.
Spotlight: Comenius University, Bratislava
The structure of each Regional Academy looks different within each university reflecting the various circumstances each partner finds themselves in. Comenius University, Bratislava, describes the launch of their Regional Academy:
The ENLIGHT project has inspired Comenius University in Bratislava to create a new functional body – the Regional Academy of Comenius University. The Regional Academy is a flexible institutionalized platform for professional dialogue between academia and external actors, which will enable an innovative model of partnership with the local community, entities and other partners. Cooperation with regional partners will embody in the form of regular dialogues, consisting of the organization of joint activities such as panel discussions, webinars, smaller meetings of interested parties, practice-oriented lectures, expert consultations, etc. The involvement of any student, researcher or administrative staff member of the university is possible, as well as open opportunities are presented for all the external partners willing to cooperate with our university. As of now, over 30 organizations were invited to participate and the first Memorandums of Cooperation are to be signed in the near future.
The first inventory of community challenges will be launched shortly and by the end of June 2021 the Regional Academies are expected to present a minimum of 15 challenges to the ENLIGHT project. These challenges will then be developed into engaging educational modules that creates opportunities for real case studies for students and researchers within the entire ENLIGHT-network to involve themselves in international teams drawing from expertise from nine universities in order to offer sustainable solutions. The challenges will also be used as foundation for future European conferences connecting representatives from all nine cities and communities.
Save-the-date: Upcoming Communities and Universities event on June 18th!
In connection to the ENLIGHT mid-year meeting there will be another public 'Communities and Universities' session. Through the Regional Academies ENLIGHT offers an opportunity for representatives from the nine cities and regions to meet and discuss central topics of interest. The digital meeting will take place on June 18th between 10.00 to 12.00 CET, taking off where the last 'Communities and Universities' meeting concluded during the ENLIGHT-kick off week of March 2021.