€2m project to boost European research collaboration
A new EU funded project aims to improve research and innovation collaboration across Europe.
The initiative will explore innovative ways to pool research strengths, infrastructure and resources.
The project – Una.Resin: Towards a common Una Europa Research and Innovation Ecosystem – will be led by the University’s Edinburgh Research Office, in collaboration with Una Europa partners.
The project will develop the collective skills of Una Europa partners to address major global challenges, including climate change and global pandemics.
The initiative will examine how to provide better digital research infrastructure and will work with a wide range of researchers, businesses and members of the public.
The project will also help individual researchers, by creating the Una Europa Researcher Career Development Strategy, ensuring that staff and students can achieve their full potential.
The project enhances Una Europa’s Erasmus+ pilot project, 1Europe, which is taking steps to build a university eco-system by testing innovative formats for education and mobility.
Una.Resin has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Following confirmation that the UK now has ‘associated country’ status of the EU’s flagship €95bn research and innovation fund, the Una Europa alliance will help Edinburgh researchers to benefit from more collaborative research projects with colleagues in mainland Europe.
This three-year project marks the beginning of a long-term commitment to develop a common Una Europa research and innovation strategy.
Emphasis will initially focus on the five Una Europa key research themes: Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, European Studies, Sustainability, Cultural Heritage, and One Health, before expanding to all research areas in the future
The University of Edinburgh is one of the most internationally collaborative research universities in the UK. In the past ten years, 30 per cent of Edinburgh’s research outputs were co-authored with EEA partners.
Una Europa is a group of eight leading universities that seeks to redesign the higher education sector in Europe, developing long-term cooperation and integration between members, focusing on innovative research and teaching and boosting international study and research opportunities for students and staff.
Edinburgh is one of the founding members of the Una Europa alliance, alongside Freie Universität Berlin, Alma Mater Studiorum Universitá di Bologna, Helsingin Yliopisto, Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie, KU Leuven, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Professor James Smith, Vice-Principal International at the University of Edinburgh said ” Una.Resin could not be more timely. It will transcend boundaries by building connections and challenging us to find new, more collaborative ways of working. Together we can extend intellectual boundaries, shape disciplines, build new collaborative ecosystems and transform how we have an impact in our communities, cities and across the continent. It will help Una Europa become the university of the future that bit quicker, and that is crucial.”
