Aurora Alliance receives Horizon 2020 – SwafS Grant

Written by Niels Hexspoor on . Posted in Academics, Events.

The Aurora Alliance has been awarded a 2 million EUR grant from the Horizon 2020 – Science with and for Society (SwafS) – programme to strengthen and empower research support and innovation within the alliance. This upcoming project will be managed by our Aurora Alliance partners at the University of Iceland, who were also in charge of the project application in November 2020. 

This grant aims to help the universities in the Aurora Alliance to set up and implement a joint strategy for increasing support for research and innovation. Palacký University will work towards this aim together with our eight partner universities in the Aurora Alliance.  The strategy will, for example, enable the sharing of research infrastructure, strengthen Open Science policies in line with EU frameworks and provide new training and support mechanisms for researchers. The objective of the Aurora research and innovation collaboration is to enhance the societal impact of research activities and support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In line with the overall objective, the Aurora Alliance – Research and Innovation for Societal Impact (Aurora RI) project will develop and achieve seven specific objectives that provide the necessary stepping stones for the Aurora Alliance structural and sustainable change. The seven objectives are:

  1. Objective 1: Development of an Aurora support plan for research and innovation
  2. Objective 2: Develop best practices for pooling research infrastructures, expertise, data and resources
  3. Objective 3: Strengthen cooperation on entrepreneurial activity and creating an Aurora innovation ecosystem
  4. Objective 4: Develop the capacities and capabilities of Aurora researchers and support staff
  5. Objective 5: Sharing best practices on Open Science
  6. Objective 6: Embedding Citizens and societal engagement further into our research activities
  7. Objective 7: Maximise impact through collaboration with other European Universities

The upcoming Aurora RI project will be presented to UP stakeholders on Friday March 12th at 09:00.

A live stream of this event will be available here.  

This future SwafS project will provide Palacký University Olomouc with an excellent opportunity to further develop collaborations in the field of research and innovation. The implementation of a joint research and innovation strategy will grant our UP researchers access to equipment, technology, expertise and support available at other Aurora institutions, as well opportunities to collaborate with international partners to tackle some of society’s most pressing issues, such as climate change, sustainability, health and wellbeing, and further ensure strong foundations for democracy and equality.  

This project will also allow UP to continue and accelerate its effort in the field of Open Science, making the output of our research available to as many people as possible. Sharing the output of our research both with the local and international community will stimulate research development and innovation as well as education, benefitting society. Furthermore, it will deepen and strengthen the connection of Palacký University Olomouc with its community, establishing UP and other Aurora universities as integral centres of knowledge within their local and global communities. 

More in-depth information and updates on the upcoming SwafS-project will be uploaded to the UP Aurora website as the project develops. For more information on how the SwafS-project ties in Aurora, please look here.

For questions, feel free to contact the UP SwafS coordinator, Andrea Nogova. 

Aurora Spring Academic Meeting

Written by Niels Hexspoor on . Posted in Academics, Events, Featured, Students.

Meet peers facing similar challenges in providing students with high-quality education and with international opportunities in a forced online environment.

Learn what support Aurora is organising to assist academic teachers in meeting these challenges.

On March 30th, from 9 am to 1 pm (CET), Aurora is hosting its Spring Academic meeting. It will be a platform to meet with peers and discuss how to provide high-quality learning under the currently restricted conditions.

The Aurora Spring Academic meeting is a follow-up to the Aurora Community building event of January 28th, 2019, focusing on the same domains.

The Spring meeting is an event in the Aurora Alliance European University programme, which aims to strengthen the way in which Aurora students are equipped with the skills and mind-sets to act as social entrepreneurs and innovators in addressing societal problems.

The Event

The Spring Academic meeting aims at academic who feel attached to the following domains:

  1. Sustainability & Climate Change
  2. Digital Society & Global Citizenship
  3. Health & Well-being
  4. Culture: Diversity & Identity
  5. Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

The Spring event is organised mostly in parallel strands for each of the domains to meet. There will be ample time in the programme to freely discuss topics of mutual interest – in education, research, or otherwise. The core of the programme will be sessions on two key challenges in higher education with the current restrictions:

  • How are we as academic teachers finding our way from high-quality analogue (or offline) to digital (or online) education,
  • How can we continue to provide our students with a meaningful international experience, particularly in the pandemic and post-pandemic context,

Topics and tools

The Aurora Spring Academic event is an excellent opportunity to find out how your university’s participation in Aurora can be valuable to you: as a platform to meet with peers, find out how you can learn from and with each other, learn about the tools Aurora is developing to support the member universities in providing academically excellent and societally relevant education.

In the sessions, you will have the opportunity to discuss what you see as the most pressing issues in these two key challenges – and how these can be addressed.

With the maintenance of quality in virtual education, there will be specific attention to higher education’s value beyond the subject-related knowledge and skills.

With continued international dimensions with less physical mobility, there will be specific attention on tools and platforms for virtual mobility and online joint courses. Please take a look at the table below for the full proposed schedule:

Spring Academic Meeting Programme
Proposed Programme

The Aurora Spring Academic event will be hosted on the Gatherly platform, which allows you to freely move and chat with participants in groups of two’s or three’s or more.

Info-desks

Before and after the sessions, you may visit info desks on the various tools and platforms developed in the Aurora European University Alliance programme; see below under the programme description.

You can stop by the info desks of your interest and get in touch with the colleagues involved.

Take-aways

So what can you expect as takeaways from this event?

  1. Meet, discuss and arrange follow-up contact with peers on your issues and concerns in the transit from analogue to high-quality digital education and/or students’ international opportunities
  2. Find out about existing good practices in high-quality digital education and virtual international experience
  3. Learn about useful Aurora tools and platforms for these challenges and meet the experts who can help you use them.

To register for the Aurora Spring Academic Meeting, please sign up here. 

Follow this page for more updates on the event. A pdf containing the full program for the event can be found using the following link: Aurora Spring Academic Meeting – Moving from Analogue to Digital with Quality- How Do We Do That

 

Aurora Alliance Mini-Grant Programme

Written by R N on . Posted in Academics, Featured, Students.

The International Division of Palacky University Olomouc (UP) is launching Aurora Alliance Mini-Grant Programme to further support the development of the European Universities strategic partnership goals of the Aurora Alliance. This scheme aims to strengthen the cooperation of Palacky University Olomouc with other eight Aurora Alliance university partners beyond the current project activity scope. 

It primarily offers an opportunity to UP Faculties, Education and Research Centres to engage in academic and professional cooperation across the disciplines within the Aurora Alliance. The scheme supports the bottom-up approach and invites academicians and professional staff to build the working teams with Aurora partners by prioritizing their own international academic collaboration ambitions.

If you are interested in applying for a Mini-Grant,  please click on our application form.

For more information on the Aurora Alliance project, you can take a look at the UP Aurora website, and the Central Aurora Alliance website.

To connect with a partner working in your field interest, or if you have any questions regarding the Mini-Grant Programme, please contact Martina Balekova (martina.balekova@upol.cz) at the Aurora Office.

For more inspiration on putting together your application, take a look at some of our suggested topics for Mini-grant funding: 

  • Aurorisation of courses for course leaders, especially in the 4 Pilot domains (using the grants for the full cycle of making your courses more aurora-relevant as per internationalizing your syllabus, adding SDG perspective, online pedagogy tools, administration support)
  • Preparing a specific joint-degree programmes with Departments from Aurora partner institutions (using the mini-grants for the full cycle of programme degree preparations)
  • Research collaboration on SDG-related topics focusing on environmental sustainability, inclusive education and more (e.g.preparing Horizon Europe calls)
  • Preparing joint Erasmus+ collaborations from the level of Study Departments(e.g. upcoming KA 2 107 call openings)
  • Working on social engagement with local actors through your educational programmes (e.g service-learning projects in the community, collaboration with governmental and non-governmental organisations)
  • Specific PhD level research collaboration with Aurora scholars ( e.g initiating collaboration and/or engaging relevant PhD fellows and supervisors from the Aurora Alliance universities and the associate partner universities)
  • Student Initiatives tying into the 4 pilot domains of Health & Wellbeing, Culture: Diversity & Inclusion, Sustainability, and Digitalization & Global Citizenship

Aurora Mini-Grants – Frequently Asked Questions

Mini-Grants – Alliance Members and Associate Partners Contact List

Aurorisation of courses and programmes – ONGOING SURVEY

Written by R N on . Posted in Academics, Events, Students.

Dear Colleagues,

Working towards aligning our teaching programmes is an important aim of building the inter-university campus through Aurora Alliance activities in the field of education – Work package 3.

To this end, there are two ongoing surveys regarding the data collection on the possibility to move forward with the ‘Aurorisation of courses and programmes’ across the Aurora Alliance.

Survey 1:

Designed for Degree Programme level (for Deans of Studies, Programme Coordinators)

https://hj3khc5i55g.typeform.com/to/tstgITdu

Part 2:

Designed for Course Level (Lecturers and Course holders/Guarantors)

https://hj3khc5i55g.typeform.com/to/xdvLN9WC

 

We invite all colleagues across the UP to allocate few minutes of their time and participate in the surveys according to their positions as described above.

Should you have additional questions prior to the participation feel free to contact us at UP Aurora Office.